Almond and Cranberry biscuits (cookies)

This is almost my own recipe, it's adapted from a recipe for macadamia cookies from book called 500 Cookies by Philippa Vanstone. I keep meaning to try a variation with macadamia, orange and chocolate (or pecan and maple syrup!) but the almond and cranberry one is so good that there is just no motivation to try any others.I'm making these biscuits today to take to my inlaws for our Diwali celebration tomorrow. The biscuits come out chewy and nutty, not unlike some Indian sweets, so my father-in-law really appreciates them.

I do this recipe in two parts - I make the dough and roll it into biscuit sized balls first and put them in the fridge (or freezer!) and cook them later, usually when the oven is on for something else.

Ingredients

• 150g almonds (blanched, and they can be slivered or whatever, because they are going to be blitzed)
• 2-3 tablespoons milk
• 100g raw sugar
• 50g brown sugar (coz I like mine chewy rather than crunchy)
• 1 egg
• 75g dried cranberries
• 150g plain flour
• 1/4 tsp bicarb of soda
• 75g granulated sugar (for rolling the biscuits in)
• 1tsp vanilla essence (I sometimes use almond instead)

Method

Blitz the nuts and milk together till they form a type of paste. You can do this with the food processor attachment of the stick blender but if I'm doing double quantities (like today) I use the food processor itself.

Add the sugar, egg and essence and beat well (I just tip these ingredients into the food processor), then I add the cranberries and give a few pulses to cut them a bit and mix them through the dough.

Sifted flour and bicarb come next. Ideally you will transfer the mixture to a bowl and gently fold the sifted ingredients in but if you are lazy or short of time you can tip them down the funnel as well, just make sure to only pulse the machine until the ingredients are combined.

Roll the mixture into balls (mine are usually about the size of a superball, slightly smaller then a walnut) and give them a little roll in the granulated sugar.

When you are ready to cook them preheat the oven to around 175C and bake for 8-10 minutes.