Day 13: Bake with herbs from the garden

Day 13 and a quiet day in, other than a brief visit to the supermarket. 

On the way there I spotted a group of house martins swooping over the lake and gathering in the mud on the edge of the water. I presume they're gathering the mud to make nests.

Back home I decided to do some baking with rosemary from the garden. Rosemary is probably more closely associated with savoury cooking. However, I'd kept a recipe for sweet biscuits by Cynthia Noble and thought the 30 Days Wild challenge would be a good time to use it.

I've copied out the recipe here and included my own notes.

225g plain flour
110g caster sugar
55g ground almonds
1 tbsp finely chopped rosemary leaves (you'll need about 2x5" sprigs for this amount)
200g soft butter
Chopped or flaked almonds for sprinkling

1. Heat the oven to 190C/Gas 5.
2. Mix the flour, sugar, ground almonds and rosemary together.
3. Mix in the butter. I used a pastry cutter for this which made it a lot easier.
4. Bring the mixture into a dough and put small balls onto a greased baking sheet. They will spread so don't put them too close. Flatten each ball slightly.
5. Sprinkle over the chopped/flaked almonds.
6. Bake for 10-15 minutes until lightly golden.
7. Leave for a couple of minutes to cool before transferring to a wire rack.

The biscuits themselves are crisp and crumbly. I'd definitely make them again but I'd add more rosemary next time as the flavour is very subtle.

Hope you're enjoying your weekend. x