Christmas Almond Stars

Christmas Almond Stars

When it comes to food, Christmas should be all about sharing. These scrummy macaron-like star biscuits can be a fantastic gift for your loved ones. Made with only four ingredients: ground almonds, egg whites, icing sugar and almond extract, they’re easy and not too time-consuming. I must have made literally hundreds of them over the years and they always go down a storm!

The good news for anyone suffering from a gluten or dairy allergy, is that they have no butter and can be gluten-free as well. Just use gluten-free flour for dusting instead of plain.
If like me, you love anything citrus, try adding grated zest of one lemon or orange instead of almond extract. To make my biscuits even more Christmassy I decorated them with pretty sugar snowflakes which, unlike many widely available sprinkles, don’t melt or fade in high temperature. Without further ado, here is what you’ll need:

Ingredients

Makes about 35 biscuits

• 185g ground almonds plus 3-4 tablespoons if required
• 250g icing sugar
• 2 large egg whites
• 1 ½ teaspoon almond extract
• A couple of tablespoons of plain flour or gluten-free flour or dusting

Method

• Line a baking sheet with baking paper. Sift the icing sugar into a bowl. Pour the egg whites into another medium bowl.
• Using an electric mixer set to low speed, whisk the egg whites for about half a minute, then gradually increase the speed to medium and mix for another minute. Add half of the icing sugar and carefully stir it around a few times; this will prevent it from going everywhere when you start mixing again. Mix for another minute or so and then fold in the remaining icing sugar and the almond extract. Whisk until the mixture is thick and glossy and you can turn the bowl upside down without it falling out. Take out about one third of the mixture and put to one side for decorating later.

• Add the ground almonds to the remaining meringue and mix gently with a spoon. Once all the ingredients are combined, shape the dough into a ball. If it seems too sticky, add the reserved almonds one tablespoon at a time while kneading the dough gently for about a minute. Don’t be tempted to do it for longer as it may turn sticky again.

• Dust your work surface and a rolling pin with the flour (use gluten-free if required) and roll the dough out to the thickness of about 5 mm. Stamp out star shapes with a medium-sized biscuit cutter. (About 7cm.) Transfer them onto the baking sheets.
• Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/gas mark 4. Now, let’s decorate! In my experience, the easiest way of spreading this particular icing on the biscuits is doing it with your fingers. Take about half a teaspoon of the reserved meringue and spread it on each biscuit. If you’re doing this with children, good luck stopping them from licking their fingers!

• Bake for about 8-9 minutes until the underneath turns light golden brown and the meringue icing sets. Allow to cool on the sheets. Don’t worry if the biscuits feel a bit soft at first, they will soon firm up. Pack them in cute bags or boxes, eat, eat, eat and share, share, share! Happy baking.

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