Orange and Cardamon Biscuits

Over the years I have found a love for the spice Cardamon, I'm sure it's in many things that I have eaten but never spotted. For me it's marriage to the fruit orange is a match made in heaven. 

From a simple salad dressing, 1 tsp of freshly ground Cardamon seed, Juice of 1 large orange, tsp of smooth mustard, salt & pepper, and the best rapeseed oil you can get (cold pressed is the best). Mix them together and then serve them with any green salad to add a kick to you meal time.

Any ways I hadn't started this post to write about my salad dressing, good though it is, I started this to give you my new recipe for Orange and Cardamon Biscuits (Please note these are not soft cookies, so will be crisp when cooled)

Ingredients

125g soya margarine (Pure)

100g vegetable shortening (Trex)

120g fine sugar

2 tbsp orange zest (approximately the zest of a large orange) 

2 tsp fresh ground cardamon seeds

250g plain flour

100g ground almonds

1 pinch kosher salt

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 170c/gas mark 5 and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. This recipe will yield about 1 1/2 to 2 dozen biscuits.

Method

In a mixer cream together the margarine, shortening and sugar along with the zest of the orange and the ground cardamon seeds. This mixture should be mixed until the ingredients are combined and become lighter in colour and fluffy.

In a bowl mix the flour, salt and ground almonds together, then add this to the mixer. On a low speed combine all of the ingredients to for a dough. 

Now you are ready to make your biscuits, pull of a walnut size chunk of dough and roll it into a ball with your palms and lay it out on the baking tray spacing them out so you can press them down before baking as well as giving them room to spread once in the oven.

Once you have layer out all the dough balls it's time to press them down, I used a floured base of a glass for this but if you want to use something else feel free. You want the biscuits to be about as thick as two £1 coins stacked on top of each other. Remember that you will still get some spreading in the oven so leave a little room between them.

Place the biscuits in the oven and set your timer for 12 minuets, the biscuits should be cooked then but with all ovens you will be the best judge of that. These biscuits tend to catch a little on the bottom so you may wish to bake them in two batches just in case. 

Once you are happy that your biscuits are a light golden colour on top then remove them from the oven and set aside on the baking tray for 5 minutes to firm up before moving them to a cooling rack to cool down more. It is important to let them cool as this is where the crispy texture come from.

Now it's time to put the kettle on or pour yourself a nice glass of fresh orange and enjoy your biscuits. If you wish to keep your biscuits for another day place them in an airtight container and they should last for up to 7 days.