Petit fours to love and share this Christmas.

Tiny biscuits made with almond or hazelnut flour.

Make these as simple or as fancy as you like; they are unfailingly delicious. And a pretty box turns them into a delightful last minute gift.

Dough ingredients

• 200g ground almonds or freshly ground hazelnuts (coffee grinder works fine for this)
• 100g caster sugar
• 100g icing sugar (sifted)
• 1 large egg (beaten)

Method

• Mix the sugars with the ground nuts, then add the beaten egg.
• It will look impossibly dry at first, but keep mixing with a spatula, then you will find it becomes a ball you can knead slightly.  
• Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for an hour, ideally. This will help firm it up and make it easier to handle. (The dough keeps in the fridge for several days.)
• Using your digital scales, divide the dough into 20 g portions. Roll these into balls and flatten slightly on a parchment lined baking tray.
• Now decorate with nuts and candied fruits.

Almond petit fours ready for the oven

Decorating ingredients

• Pistachios
• Pine kernels
• Slivered almonds
• Whole hazelnuts
• Glace cherries
• Crystallised ginger
• Candied peel

Bake at 190° for 9 to 11 minutes – keep an eye on them. You want the almonds and pine kernels just golden, not brown.  Allow them to ‘set’on the baking tray for a few minutes, then remove and cool on a wire rack.  You can use melted chocolate to cover them, if you wish.

Hazelnut petit fours ready for the oven

Petit four is French for 'low oven', from the days when chefs cooked everything in a wood fired oven. Tiny biscuits like these were baked as the oven was cooling down. They are good served with after dinner coffee, liqueurs and / or ice cream. These happen to be both dairy free and gluten free, but they do require egg. If you get the baking right, they should be crisp on the outside and slightly chewy/gooey on the inside.