Apricot and Cardamom Biscuits

I can't remember when it was I had the desire to make biscuits but it was less than a year ago, before that the singular attempt at shortbread had left me with a baking tray full of sloppy, sugary, buttery mess and quite frankly put me off biscuits for some time. Thankfully I overcame the fear and discovered a great basic biscuit dough recipe which had suggestions to add lemon or chocolate, but I didn't want that. I opened the spice cupboard in search of something tasty to flavour them with when I set my eyes on the bag of cardamom pods, the aromatic scent mixed with some sweetness from apricots would be the choice. Ever since then even when I attempt another flavour I always keep half the dough aside to throw in some chopped dried apricots and ground cardamom.

 

Ingredients:

• 125g butter
• 70g caster sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 1tsp vanilla essence
• 160g plain flour (plus extra for dusting)
• A handful of dried apricots
• 6-10 cardamom pods

Method:

Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl with a wooden spoon then add the egg yolk and vanilla essence until well mixed.

Next, sift in the flour and mix once more until the flour is combined. You will probably need to get your hands in there and get pressing the ingredients together.

This should leave you with a perfect biscuit dough, it should be a little sticky, but not stretchy. If you think it is too stretchy or sticky just add a little more sifted flour and keep kneading until it feels firmer.

 

 Next, take the seeds from the cardamom pods and grind in a pestle and mortar (just wait until the scent is released - delicious!) and chop the dried apricots into small chunks. Add these to the dough and mix with your hands until evenly incorporated.
Flour a worksurface and rolling pin and roll the dough into a rough rectangle about 1/2 an inch thick. Using a sharp knife cut into long, fat, finger shapes and tranfer the fingers to a lined or greased baking tray about 2cm apart (they dont tend to spread too much when baking) then put them in the oven for 8-12 mins or until nice and golden.

Leave to cool on a wire rack (let them cool in the tray a little first as then tend to be very soft when they just come out of the oven!) and serve with a cup of your favourite tea. I suggest a nice cup of Chai tea or even a cup of Cinnamon, Vanilla and Honeybush.