toffee apple biscuits (take 2)

Fabric from Frangipani Fabrics

While looking particularly for biscuits that were very specifically orangey, and either jaw-breakingly hard or short-as-short can be, I came across these. The name 'toffee apple biscuits' was enough to stop me in my tracks, even though I had a very, very precise baking goal in mind. Toffee apple? How?

However, reading the recipe, I decided I didn't want to put lollies in a biscuit - which is where the toffee part of the bikkie comes from - as I'm actually not a sweeties kind of person. I had plump, jewel-like raisins in the pantry instead, which would be naturally sweet and rich, not tooth-achingly so like store-bought caramels.

And then to make further changes (well why not? I was on a roll), I thought a dash of spice would warm up the flavours and complement the apple and rasins. It does in a crumble or pie, so why not in a biscuit?

So here are my toffee apple biscuits - I'm sticking with the name, because it's just so gorgeous. The apples and raisins are chewy and just the right amount of sweet; the mixed spice makes me think of Christmas flavours and works well. And these did end up ticking one of my baking boxes - short, please - because, I think, of the almond meal.

Toffee apple biscuits

Adapted from the BBC Good Food website. I think I made about 18 (I say 'I think', because I ate some before I remembered to count them).

• Cream 85 gms soft butter with 60 gms white sugar and 60 gms light brown sugar until creamy.
• Fold thru 25 gms almond meal, 1/4 tspn mixed spice about 112 gms SR flour (a strange number, I know, but I was halving the original recipe and if you too have digital scales you can get obsessive about it). Add 1 egg yolk.
• Add 45 gms plump juicy raisins and 45 gms dried apple (that should really be 'semi-dried', as they are pillowy, plump and chewy) that you have chopped or snipped into roughly the same size as the raisins. Get your hands in and squeeze everything together.
• Now preheat your oven to 190 and prep some baking trays.
• Place walnut-sized balls on the trays with some space around them as they will spread a little. Flatten slightly (just give them a gentle pat). Bake for about 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove and stand for a few minutes before cooling on wire racks.