Christmas biscuits

On Friday, the Italian winter has come back, burdening - with wet snow - the branches of the shrubs.  It's not the right weather to build snow men or play with the dog in the garden, but the right one to light up the candles on the artificial Christmas tree  that's still placed in our living room.

Maybe next week-end I will remove its decoration and store the empty tree in the carton ... !   

So, we have some snow in the garden, the romantic lights on the tree, and the candles.  The only things that are missing are the 2014 Christmas biscuits and a nice cup of good Kenyan or Assam black tea for today's tea-time. 

 

The cookies are easy to make, so I will prepare only few ones for one baking sheet.

You need :

• 150 gr. of mixed nut kernels (hazelnut, almonds,  walnut), toasted in a pan for few minutes and the cut in pieces with the knife like in the photo.  (1)
• 50 gr. margarine (2)
• 50 gr. brown sugar (2)
• 1 tablespoon of maple syrup (2)
• 50 ml. of fresh orange juice (2)
• 100 gr. of wholemeal flour (1)
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder (1)
• baking powder and potato starch

1. Preheat the oven at 180 ° C.
2. Cream  the (2) ingredients adding a spoon tip of baking powder and 1/2 a teaspoon of potato starch.
3. Mix the (1) ingredients.
4. Add the (2) cream and then mix it all together with a hand whisk.
5. Using two teaspoons, scoop 35 walnut-ball shaped cookies onto the baking paper.
6. Bake for  about 15 minutes and  then leave the cookies to cool on a cooling rack.