Iced Almond Slices Food

ALMOND SLICE

Steps:

• In a large bowl, rub the butter and flour with your fingers. Once it resembles bread crumbs, add the sugar and mix until combined.
• Gradually add the cold water a spoonful at a time, continuing to mix with your hands, bringing together to form a dough. You may not need all the water, or you may need a little extra - this can even vary from batch-to-batch.
• Continue to mix the dough in your hands until well formed. Turn out onto work surface, lightly dusted with flour. Gently knead until your dough is smooth.
• Wrap the dough in cling film and pop in the fridge for at least and hour to firm-up before use.
• Pre-heat your oven to 190°c (or 170°c for a fan assisted oven or Gas Mark 5) and grease a 11x7 inch baking tin generously with some margarine/butter. Set aside.
• Remove your pre-made pastry from the fridge and roll on a floured surface to around 5mm thick. Transfer to your pre-greased tin, pushing the pastry into the edges. Trim the excess and line the pastry with some greaseproof paper before filling with baking beans. Blind bake the pastry for 10 minutes to give the bottom a head start and avoid a soggy pastry.
• Following the blind bake - and once cool enough to do so - remove the baking beans and top the pastry with the Raspberry Jam, evenly spreading over the pastry.
• In a large bowl, cream the margarine and sugar until light and fluffy.
• Add the ground almonds and self-raising flour, mixing together before adding the eggs one at a time, continuing to mix to make a smooth batter.
• Spoon the batter on top of your jam-topped pastry and spread. evenly, ensuring to get right to the edges and corners. Top with a generous handful of flaked almonds.
• Bake in your pre-heated oven for 20-25 minutes until golden and spongy in appearance.
• Once completely cool, using a sharp knife, cut into individual slices.

SPICED ALMONDS

Steps:

• Toast the almonds in a dry skillet over a medium heat, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Transfer the almonds to a bowl.
• In a small bowl, stir together the cumin, garlic, cayenne pepper and salt. Heat the oil in the skillet over medium heat. Stir the spices into the oil and cook, stirring until warm, about 30 seconds. Add the almonds and cook, stirring frequently, until the nuts are warm and the spices are evenly distributed. Add the hot pepper sauce and stir to distribute. Remove the almonds from the pan and allow them to cool before serving.

EASY ALMOND SLICE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 200/220 fan/425/gas 7. Grease a baking tin that measures roughly 8" or 20cm squared.
• Cream the butter and sugar together.
• Stir in half the beaten eggs and half the flour. Mix well.
• Add the remaining egg, flour and the baking powder. Lastly, add the ground almonds and a splash of milk to make the mixture soft.
• Spread out evenly in the greased tin and top with the flaked almonds.Press them down gently with the back of a fork.
• Pop in the oven and bake for 15 minutes.

ITALIAN ALMOND-ICED COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter 2 baking pans. In a bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and salt together. In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or using a hand mixer), mix the eggs and sugar until pale yellow and fluffy. With the mixer running, drizzle in the oil, vanilla, almond extract and mix. Add the dry ingredients and mix just until combined. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Using your hands, form into logs 1-inch in diameter. Working in batches if necessary, cut into 3/4-inch-thick slices and arrange the cookies on the sheet pans. Bake until light golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool on wire racks.
• Icing: In a medium bowl, whisk the milk, egg white, confectioners' sugar and almond extract until smooth. Divide the icing into one large and two smaller batches. Leave the large batch of icing white; color the other 2 to your liking.
• When the cookies are cool, dip the tops into the white icing. Use a fork or a squeeze bottle to drizzle the cookies with the other colors. Let set in a cool place 1 hour.

ALMOND ICE CREAM

Steps:

• In a medium saucepan, cook ½ cup sliced almonds with the sugar and the salt over medium heat until deeply golden and caramelized, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a plate. Reserve.
• In the same pot, toast 1 cup sliced almonds until deeply golden, about 5 minutes. Add cream, milk, sugar and salt to the pot and simmer until sugar completely dissolves, about 5 minutes. Remove pot from heat. In a separate bowl, whisk yolks. Whisking constantly, slowly whisk about a third of the hot cream into the yolks, then whisk the yolk mixture back into the pot with the cream.
• Return pot to medium-low heat and gently cook until mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon (about 170 degrees on an instant-read thermometer). Remove from heat and let steep 1 hour.
• Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl, pressing down hard on the solids. Add almond extract to base and cool mixture to room temperature. Cover and chill at least 4 hours or overnight.
• Churn in an ice cream machine according to manufacturer's instructions. Break reserved caramelized nuts into pieces and add to base during the last 2 minutes of churning. Serve directly from the machine for soft serve, or store in freezer until needed.

PEACH & ALMOND SLICES

Steps:

• Heat oven to 220C/200C fan/gas 7. Unroll the pastry on a lightly floured surface and cut in half horizontally. Slice each half into 3.
• Lay the pastry sheets on a baking sheet. Use a knife to mark a 1cm border on each - be careful not to go all the way through. Prick inside the border with a fork, then brush all over with beaten egg.
• Bake for 10 mins until golden and slightly risen. Divide the marzipan equally between the pastry squares and fan out the peach slices on top, followed by a sprinkling of almonds.
• Put the slices back into the oven for 10 mins until they have puffed up and are golden. Serve with a dollop of crème fraîche.