CookEat Recipe
Tender Almond and Candied-Fruit Biscuit Slices
Soft sliced sponge biscuits with almond halves, candied citrus and small cubes of firm fruit preserve.
Method
Steps
Step 1
Gather the ingredients: 40 g plain wheat flour, plus 5 g for the tin; 30 g potato starch, not potato flour; 90 g caster sugar; 40 g blanched sweet almonds; 20 g candied orange peel; 20 g firm sliceable fruit preserve, such as set quince paste, not runny jam; 3 eggs, separated; 5 g butter for the tin.
Step 2
Cut the blanched almonds in half across their width. Dry them in a low oven at 120°C for about 10 minutes without browning, then cool. Cut the candied orange and the firm fruit preserve into small cubes, about 4–5 mm. Grease a narrow rectangular metal tin about 10 cm wide, 20–22 cm long and 6 cm deep with the butter and dust with the extra 5 g flour.
Step 3
Beat the yolks with the sugar and 1 teaspoon taken from the measured wheat flour until very thick, pale and ribbon-forming. Allow about 30–35 minutes with a wooden spoon, or approximately 8–10 minutes with an electric whisk. Sift the remaining wheat flour with the potato starch separately.
Step 4
Whisk the whites to firm peaks. Fold them gently into the yolk mixture first, then sift in the flour mixture in small additions, folding without deflating the foam. Scatter in the almonds, candied orange and fruit-preserve cubes and fold just enough to distribute them.
Step 5
Pour into the prepared tin and bake immediately at 170°C for about 25–35 minutes, until set and a wooden skewer comes out without wet batter. Cool in the tin for about 10–15 minutes, then turn onto a rack. Once the first heat has escaped, refrigerate within two hours and keep covered overnight at 4°C or colder.
Step 6
The next day, use a serrated knife to cut across the loaf into slices about 1½ cm thick. Each slice should have the loaf crust at its two short ends. Serve soft, allowing refrigerated slices to lose their chill shortly before serving. The yield is about 14 individual slices and the listed time includes an overnight rest.
Step 7
If toasted slices are preferred, lay them flat on a tray after cutting and toast at 150°C for about 8–12 minutes on each side, until lightly coloured and dry. Cool completely before storing airtight. Candied citron may replace the 20 g candied orange, and another firm sliceable fruit preserve may replace the quince paste, gram for gram, with the same method.
Cooked it? Rate it.
Cooked 0 times