My Almond Biscuit Plasters were created for the Great Ormond Street Childrens Hospital Bake it Better fund-raising campaign. Starting today and running until the 25th October the campaign is to encourage everyone to hold a bake sale and help raise dough and cakes for the Hospital. Whether you show your support by baking, selling or buying the bakes on sale, any involvement will be appreciated. My biscuits are just one of the many recipes featured on the website, to inspire you to bake it better. The inspiration behind my biscuits came from the campaign itself and the central ingredient in the recipe. Ground Almonds can be found in both the biscuit base and pad of marzipan placed and stuck down on top. Just like real plasters, feel free to cut out the dough and marzipan in a variety of sizes and shapes. Finally like with most things these biscuits taste even better with a good cup of TLC tea
Ingredients
Biscuits
100g Slightly Salted Butter, softened
100g Icing Sugar
1 Egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp Almond Extract
100g Ground Almonds
200g Plain Flour
Extras
100g White Marzipan
Runny Honey-used as glue!
Method
Pre-heat the oven to 180C, fan 160C, Gas Mark 4.
Cream together the butter and icing sugar, then gradually beat in the egg and almond extract.
Sift and stir in the flour and ground almonds and mix to a fairly soft dough.
Cover or wrap the dough in cling film and chill for at least 2 hours or preferably overnight.
Once the biscuit dough has chilled, roll out on a lightly floured surface or between two sheets of non-stick parchment paper to around 2mm thick. Cut into 8cm x 3cm rectangles with an appropriate shaped cookie cutter or template, or use a pizza cutter or knife to cut your rectangles. Transfer on to a baking tray lined with baking parchment and bake the biscuits for approx 5/10 minutes until the edges have turned lightly golden in colour. Once out of the oven leave the biscuits on the baking tray to cool.
While cooling roll out the marzipan out on to a surface lightly dusted with icing sugar or between two sheets of non-stick parchment paper. Cut into small rectangles approx 4cm x 2cm in size and prick with a fork to create the authentic look and finish. Once the biscuits have fully cooled, place and stick the marzipan on to their centre with some honey, using a paintbrush.