Spiced almond biscuits

One of the most captivating Christmas cookbooks is Anja Dunk’s Advent a book of ‘festival German bakes to celebrate the coming of Christmas’. It’s full of the most amazing recipes and beautifully illustrated with lovely photographs and linocuts.

Anja writes: “These biscuits are traditional Advent sweet treats in both the Netherlands, where they are usually eaten around the 6th December (St Nikolaus day), and in Germany, where they are eaten throughout the whole run-up to Christmas.

Usually they’re decorated with images relating to Nikolaus, and more often than not have windmills depicted on them. You can also buy special wooden rolling pins with pictured squares carved into them specifically for rolling this dough out at home. I don’t have one of these and I certainly don’t have the patience to create the intricate decoration it would involve without using one. Instead I use pretty cutters (I think snowflakes work best) to cut out festive shapes.

Usually almond Spekulatius have a flaked almond base, but I’ve switched things up and adorned mine with them on top instead. These snappy (by this I mean crunchy and good to snap) biscuits are best eaten alongside a black coffee and are also brilliant crushed into a powder and mixed with melted butter to create a Christmas cheesecake or chocolate torte base.”

Spiced almond biscuits (Spekulatius)

Makes about 30

150g (1 cup plus

2 tbsp) plain (allpurpose) flour, plus extra for dusting

50g (½ cup minus 1 tbsp) rye flour

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)

1½ tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp ground cloves

¼ tsp grated nutmeg

120g (²⁄‚ƒ cup) caster (superfine) sugar

Pinch of fine sea salt

125g (½ cup plus 1 tbsp) unsalted butter, at room temp

1 egg

To finish

Milk, for brushing

50g (1¾oz) flaked (slivered) almonds

Put all the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl and stir with a wooden spoon. Add the butter and mix it into the flour using your fingertips until it has the consistency of fine breadcrumbs. Add the egg and bring everything together into a dough with your hands. (Alternatively, simply put all the ingredients into the bowl of an electric free-standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix until an even dough is formed.)

Heat the oven to 190°C/170°C fan/375°F and line two large baking sheets with non-stick baking parchment.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to a 3mm/1/8in thickness. Cut out shapes with your cookie cutter and gently transfer them onto the prepared baking sheets, leaving 1cm/3/8in between each to allow for spreading. Re-roll the dough offcuts into more biscuits. Brush the tops with milk then sprinkle some flaked almonds onto each one, pressing them down gently to ensure they stick.

Bake in the oven for 10–12 minutes until golden all over. Allow to cool on the sheets for a minute before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Store in an airtight container, where they will keep well for up to 4 weeks.

Advent is published by Hardie Grant at £25. Photograph and recipe © Anja Dunk.

See also Ren Behan’s Polish spiced cookies

Côte de Boeuf with Dauphinoise Potatoes

Here’s a fantastic treat for a romantic night in from the Pipers Farm Sustainable Meat Cookbook by Abby Allen and Rachel Lovell.

Pipers Farm is a Devon-based farmer and meat supplier and this book is a great guide as to what to do with different cuts.

Côte de Boeuf with Dauphinoise Potatoes

Serves 2

1 Côte de Boeuf

A drizzle of olive oil

50g (1 3/4 oz) salted grass fed butter

2 garlic gloves, bashed

1 small bunch of thyme

For the dauphinoise potatoes

200ml (7fl oz) double cream

2 garlic cloves, grated

1 tablespoon finely chopped thyme

¼ bulb of nutmeg, grated

375g (13oz) waxy potatoes, peeled and finely sliced

Grass-fed butter, for greasing

Pure sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4.

Remove the cote de boeuf from the fridge at least an hour before you plan to cook, to bring it to room temperature. Season well with salt and pepper.

To make the dauphinoise, warm the cream in a small saucepan with the thyme, garlic and nutmeg. Season the cream really well with salt and pepper. It’s important to get it almost ‘overseasoned’ as it will have the job of seasoning the potatoes to do as well. Place the potatoes in a bowl, pour over the cream and mix together thoroughly.

Grease a small baking tin with butter. Layer up the potatoes in the dish until it is full. Place a sheet of baking parchment over the potatoes and bake for 25 minutes. Remove the baking parchment from the surface and return the potatoes to the oven for a further 15 minutes, until the top has taken on some colour.

Heat a wide, heavy-based frying pan until hot. Add a drizzle of oil to the outside of the cote de boeuf and place in the pan, fat side down. Use a pair of tongs to hold the piece of beef in place and carefully render down the fat, creating a lovely golden crust.

Remove the beef from the pan and drain off any excess fat. Increase the heat until the pan is very hot, then add the beef, cut-side down, and fiercely sear for 2 minutes on each side.

Once again, remove the beef from the pan and leave the pan to cool a little. Now add the butter, bashed garlic and sprigs of thyme to create an aromatic butter. Return the beef to the pan and continue to cook on each side. It is useful at this stage to have a digital thermometer probe to keep track of how the beef is cooking. For rare aim for a core temperature of 48-52C (118-126F); for medium aim for 55-58C (131-136F) and 60C+ (140F+) for well done. If you don’t have a temperature probe, cooking the beef in butter for 4 minutes on each side should work well.

Transfer the beef to a tray, pour over the butter and leave to rest for 10 minutes. Carve into thick slices and serve with the rich dauphinoise potatoes and a sharp salad.

What to drink: It’s definitely an occasion to splash out on the wine which could be any medium to full-bodied red you enjoy - Bordeaux or other cabernet-merlot blends, Northern Rhone syrah, a Tuscan red, an Argentnian malbec ....

From Pipers Farm The Sustainable Meat Cookbook: Recipes and Wisdom for Considered Carnivores by Abby Allen and Rachel Lovell, published by Kyle Books at £30

Manhattan creams with citrus caramel

Of all the magical chapters that make up Diana Henry’s wonderful book How to Eat a Peach - a combined food memoir, travelogue and cookery book, ‘Missing New York’ is the most evocative, making you immediately want to jump on a plane and spend a few days following in her footsteps.

But the subsequent menu is wonderful too, not least the ‘Manhattan creams with citrus caramel’ which she describes as ‘possibly the best pudding in the book’. (I like her use of that word rather than dessert)

Over to Diana . . .

“Oh, there are so many puddings that say ‘New York’! I struggled over the choice, juggling brownies, roast apple and bourbon ice cream, upside down pear and cranberry tarts… but in the end I settled on this. It has the flavours of a Manhattan – bourbon, sweet vermouth and a dash of Angostura bitters – captured in a pannacotta. You can use oranges or blood oranges instead of grapefruit, if you prefer.

This is possibly the best pudding in the book… not counting ice creams, of course. Make it often: it’s classic, useful and able to take all sorts of different adornments. It works well with roast peaches, apricots and pears, poached plums, or caramelized slices of apples, though use orange rather than grapefruit juice for the caramel if you want to serve it with any of these fruits.

serves 4

for the cream

3 gelatine leaves (about 6g/¼oz)

150ml (5fl oz) whole milk

300ml (½ pint) double cream

80g (2¾oz) caster sugar

squeeze of lemon juice

2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon

bourbon

1 tablespoon sweet white

vermouth

good dash of Angostura bitters

1 large red grapefruit

for the citrus caramel

200ml (7fl oz) pink grapefruit

juice

3 tablespoons lemon juice

100g (3½oz) caster sugar

You will need 4 metal moulds, each with a capacity of 125ml (4fl oz).

Soak the gelatine leaves in cold water for about 10 minutes; they will soften. Pour the milk and cream into a heavy-based saucepan with the sugar and place over a low heat, stirring a little to help the sugar dissolve. Remove from the heat and leave to cool until hand-warm.

Lift the gelatine leaves from the water and squeeze out excess liquid. Stir into the milk and cream mixture. The mixture should not be hot: if it’s too hot it will affect the gelatine ’s setting properties; if it is too cold, on the other hand, the gelatine won’t dissolve. Add the lemon juice, bourbon, vermouth and bitters. Pour into the metal moulds and leave to cool, then set in a small roasting tin (this just makes things easier), cover with cling film and chill to set for about 4–6 hours.

For the citrus caramel, mix the grapefruit and lemon juices together. Put the sugar in a heavy-based saucepan with 5 tablespoons of water. Set over a medium heat and cook, gently tipping the pan every so often, until the sugar has dissolved. Increase the heat to high and cook until caramelized: you will know by the smell and colour, but be careful not to take it too far (it goes from caramelized to burnt very quickly). You need to tip the pan as the sugar caramelizes around the edges, to spread the caramelization. Quickly add the citrus juices, standing well back (the caramel will bubble and spit). Stir and boil for about 2 minutes, then remove from the heat. Leave to cool completely.

Trim the top and bottom of the grapefruit (it will now have a base on which to sit). Working from top to bottom and turning the grapefruit round as you go, remove the peel and pith (use a small sharp knife) in broad strips. Slide a small knife with a fine blade between the flesh and membrane and ease each segment out. Keep the segments as neat as possible. You should end up with 12 neat segments, 3 for each person.

To serve, dip the base of each mould into just-boiled water for a few seconds, then invert on to a plate, give the cream a shake and allow it to slip out. Spoon some of the citrus caramel around each cream and add the grapefruit segments.

What to drink: I’m honestly not sure you need a wine with this given the booze in the cream. Added to that the sweetness of the accompanying caramel will strip the flavour out of most dessert wines. A Canadian ice wine or very sweet young Trockenbeerenauslese riesling served very cold might possibly do it.

Book credit: How to Eat a Peach by Diana Henry is published by Mitchell Beazley, £25 (www.octopusbooks.co.uk)

Imagery credit: Laura Edwards

Sausage, Cep and Chestnut Galette

This recipe was created by my friend cookery writer Claire Thomson of 5 o’clock apron to celebrate the release of this year’s Beaujolais Nouveau about which we’ve just made a reel which you can find on my instagram feed @food_writer.

I’ve generally gone down the easy (and typically French) route of recommending it with charcuterie and cheese but she’s come up with a delicious galette (open-topped pie) that would make a great main course for a Beaujolais nouveau supper. It’s super-easy to rustle up too.

We tried it with the 2024 Chateau de Vaux Beaujolais Villages which I was sent to try by Christopher Piper Wines which is brimming with cherry flavours and great value at £10.94.

Serves 4

Pastry 
125g 00 plain flour
125g wholemeal flour 
150g cold butter, diced 
1 egg beaten with pinch of salt

Galette filling 
Handful of dried cep or porcini, soaked for 15 mins in boiling water, drained (keep the water for another recipe)
150g button mushrooms, sliced 
2 red onions, thinly sliced
4 cloves garlic
3 sprigs of thyme 
3 best quality sausages 
Big knob of extra butter
Salt and pepper
1 egg, beaten with a pinch of salt (egg wash) 
4 - 6 chestnuts, coarsely grated (you can buy them in a vac pack) 
Parmesan 

Claire served this with a salad of watercress, russet apple, hazelnut and parsley dressed with red wine vinaigrette (and I served it rather less healthily, as you can see, with new potatoes and Brussel tops!)

Claire writes: Make the pastry, I used a food processor to pulse, then added the egg and splash of very cold water to bring the mix together. I refrigerated it overnight. Roll the pastry out approx 1/2 cm thick & 38cm round and refrigerate again on a baking sheet. 

Cook the onions, garlic and thyme for 10 mins over medium heat till softened. Add both mushrooms and cook for 5 mins to soften. Add thyme, salt and pepper. Off the heat, add sausages (removed from casings). Arrange this in the centre of the pastry, leaving a border. Pull the sides over to create a border of approx 5cm. (See Claire’s reel) 

Egg wash the pastry and cook in at 190°C/160°fan/375°F/Gas 5 for around 40 - 45 mins. Remove from the oven and grate over the chestnuts and parmesan to serve.

What else to drink: Other light juicy reds such as a pinot noir or cinsault would work too.

For pairings with other Beaujolais wines see this post.