Almond custard creams

Almond custard creams

Ground almonds often comes to the rescue when plain flour is hard to find. On my travels around the world, I am not always fortunate to be able to find gluten-free flour. On my recent trip to Mauritius and Rodrigues for example, proved very difficult although I brought my own thanks to Emirates Airlines generous 30k luggage allowance. I did find in one supermarket though the first gluten-free flour so I will not need to bring my own in future.

This recipe incorporates almonds into my favourite childhood biscuit – custard creams. I was not sure whether it would work well so I will let you decide for yourself if you so wish! The results were very satisfying. I have made Nigella Lawson’s recipe for custard creams before but whilst enjoying them have never been absolutely satisfied since they are too crumbly to dunk. My own personal preference for custard cream consumption. I once almost made myself sick, working my way through 2 packets of custard creams!

These biscuits though are sturdy enough though to dunk which is such a joy! They can also be enjoyed on their own for those wanting to cut down on sugar intake. They reminded Mrs NMFS and myself of rusks although Mrs NMFS did not want to say anything to me initially for fear of upsetting me! Little did she know that I loved rusks as a baby so thought of it as a compliment! 

They are very light whilst not breaking up like other gluten-free biscuits can do. That is one of the challenges of a gluten-free diet – without the gluten things tend to crumble. Even Genius bread tends to break up in the middle which can be annoying when making poached eggs with hollandaise sauce on toast. The presentation suffers if the bread has broken off at the top.

Ingredients:

170g dairy-free margarine

60g caster sugar

1 egg

160g plain gluten-free flour

130g ground almonds

2 tsp vanilla essence

3 tbsp custard powder

Custard cream filling

1 tbsp custard powder

90g icing sugar

50g dairy-free margarine

1 tsp boiling water

In a large mixing bowl, mix the margarine and sugar together until creamy. Then add the egg and mix together.

Add the flour, almonds, vanilla essence and custard powder and mix together. Put the mix in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Put the oven on at 180C and place a sheet of baking paper on a baking sheet. Take the mix from the fridge and using two spoons, form quenelles and place on the baking sheet.

Place in the oven for 45 minutes. Remove and place the biscuits on a cooling rack.

Prepare the custard icing filing by mixing the custard powder and icing sugar in a processor. Add the margarine and mix together. Add the boiling water and mix again.

Sandwich the biscuits together and enjoy these light almond custard creams!

So, what is your favourite biscuit from childhood?