Cakes & Bakes: Honey almond brittle biscuits

As with many of you out there, there’s been severe lurgy in the H is for Home household this week. Well to be honest, we’ve contracted a succession of bugs stretching back 2 months at least – one after another, sometimes overlapping. And that’s after not having had a sniff of a cold for the previous 5 years. It’s certainly been quite a grim winter. When you’re feeling under the weather, any baking has to be quick and easy. These honey almond brittle biscuits seemed like the perfect answer today.

The preparation was literally a ten minute job – and they then less than ten minutes to bake. A small price to pay for some delicious home-baked biscuits.

And they were indeed delicious. The almonds and honey were a very good combination. There are lots of other potential ingredients to experiment with – peanuts, hazelnuts, pecans and coconut to name but a few. The biscuits were a lovely blend of soft gooey centres and crisp, crunchy edges. A little treat is always nice when your feeling sorry for yourself !

Click here to save the recipe to Pinterest!

Honey almond brittle biscuits

2018-01-24 14:40:50

Ingredients

15g/½oz butter
15g/½oz double cream
75g/2⅔oz honey
35g/1oz caster sugar
⅛ tsp salt
½tsp lemon juice
25g/⅗oz plain flour
100g/3½oz flaked almonds

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Instructions

Melt the butter in a small saucepan on a low heat
Stir in the cream, honey, sugar, salt, lemon juice and flour, until combined
Add the almonds and stir to combine
Spoon teaspoonfuls of the mix on to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Give each one lots of room as they spread out quite a bit while cooking
Flatten slightly with the back of a wet spoon
Bake at 180ºC/350ºF/Gas mark 4 for seven minutes
Cool on a wire rack before eating

By Tamal Ray

Adapted from The Guardian Food & Drink

H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/

Cakes & Bakes: Hazelnut fig frangipane cake

When this image of Domestic Sluttery’s delicious looking Hazelnut fig frangipane cake appeared on Facebook, I immediately pinned it to our Cake! Pinterest board.

Justin loves frangipane and I’ve never used it in a recipe before. The idea of frangipane, figs and runny honey… in a cake… IRRESISTABLE!

We happened to already have all the ingredients in the store cupboard. We used soft dried figs instead of fresh or tinned as the original recipe calls for – they worked a treat!

Hazelnut and fig frangipane cake

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Ingredients

for the cake
100 g hazelnuts
140 g butter softened
140 g golden caster sugar
3 large eggs
60 g ground almonds
½ tsp vanilla extract
¼ nutmeg finely grated
60 g self raising flour
6 soft dried figs
for the syrup
2 tbsp honey
1 tsp hot water
Icing sugar and a few rough chopped hazelnuts to decorate (optional)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 160ºC /325ºF/Gas mark 3
Grease a 23cm/9inch round, loose-bottom cake tin
Put the hazelnuts in a dry, heavy-bottomed saucepan and set over a medium heat to toast for around 5 minutes, shaking every so often to make sure they don't burn
Tip out onto a clean tea towel and rub vigorously to remove the skins
Using a mini food processor or similar, finely grind the hazelnuts and set aside
Cream together the butter and caster sugar until pale and fluffy
In a small measuring jug, gently whisk the eggs before adding them to the butter & sugar in three stages, mixing after each addition
Add the ground hazelnuts, almonds, vanilla and grated nutmeg
Gently fold in the flour until just combined
Spoon the mixture into the greased cake tin and level out with a spatula
With a pair of scissors, remove the hard stalk from the figs and press each gently into the mixture
Sprinkle the top of the cake with a little caster sugar
Bake for 40 minutes until a skewer inserted comes away clean
Cool in the tin on a wire rack for a few minutes
Dilute the honey with the teaspoon of hot water
Poke a few holes in the cake whilst it's still warm and spoon over the syrup evenly over the top
Remove from the tin, dust with icing sugar and a few chopped, toasted hazelnuts and serve warm with mascarpone or Greek yoghurt and a nice cup of tea!

Etsy List: To Bee or not to Bee

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I saw my first bumble-bee of spring today!

Bees are so essential to life on earth. Apparently they are responsible for a whopping third of human food supply is pollinated by them. Also, did you know that honey is the only foodstuff that doesn’t go off – even after centuries?! Bees are one of nature’s greatest heroes!

To Bee or not to Bee
curated by H is for Home

Wednesday Wish: Helt honey

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selection of different Helt honey jars

We use jar upon jar of honey chez H is for Home. We use it a lot for making flapjacks and it’s delicious at breakfast on hot buttered toast, swirled into plain Greek yoghurt or in a cockle-warming bowl of porridge in the winter. The first thing that caught my eye about this Helt honey was it’s multi-award winning labelling & packaging – isn’t it great?

Helt honey is produced in Denmark by Englishman, Anthony Lee and there are currently 13 ‘flavours’ from which to choose:

City – apricot, herbal, malt, raisin, caramel, molasses
Heather – earthy, hop, oak, smoky and whiskey aromas finishing off with a lilac, and a clear caramel and walnut aroma
Spring – strong vanilla aroma, then a fig aroma finishing off with a perfumed rose aroma
Summer – berry and elderflower aroma, then a dominating vanilla aroma and a floral note at the very end
Late summer – citrus aroma, taken over by a caramel aroma which lingers, with a slight strawberry and cherry aroma at the end
Honey with ginger – very aromatic; dominated by ginger, woody, menthol and citrus notes supported by a molasses and vanilla note
Honey with liquorice – first you’re hit by caramel, molasses and malt; then you taste the more toasted, liquorice, herbal and vanilla aromas
Honey with cinnamon – dominating fruity aroma with a great citrus note complimented by a slight vanilla aroma
Honey with raspberry – perfumed, raspberry, rose and vanilla
Honey with cocoa nibs – fruity, chocolatey, vanilla, freshness, slightly alcoholic
Honey with chilli – Orange comes first, then toasted, smoked, bell-pepper and tomato flavour, finishing off with black pepper and peach flavour
Honey with cranberry – vanilla aroma with a berry note and a slight rose aroma
Honey with sea buckthorn – dominating fruity aroma, with a great citrus note complimented by a slight vanilla aroma

I’ll have a jar of each please! 😉