• Chocolate almond bars are devilishly rich and buttery. These lovely pastries are perfect for a tea party – their elegant shapes and toppings are too pretty not to share. Just as delicious without the ganache and almonds. 

    Chocolate almond bars

    Serves: Makes 30
    Cooking Time: 2 hours 15 mins including standing time

    Ingredients

    • Beat the butter, icing sugar, egg, milk, vanilla extract and rind together.
    • Mix the flour and almonds into the butter mixture and knead to a workable dough.
    • Roll the dough with your hands to make a long thin roll, about 2,5cm in width, and then press flat. Wrap in foil or plastic wrap and leave for 2 hours in the fridge. Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
    • Cut the strips of dough into 3cm-long pieces. Place them on greased baking trays and bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes.
    • Allow to cool slightly before transferring to a wire rack with a palette knife.
    • For the ganache, place the chocolate in a bowl. Bring the cream to scalding point then pour it over the chocolate, stirring to blend until the chocolate is melted.
    • Drizzle the nuts with the Frangelico and sprinkle with the icing sugar. Toast the nuts until golden brown.
    • Place the nuts on the biscuits and drizzle over the ganache. Allow the chocolate to set before storing the biscuits in an airtight container.

    Instructions

    1

    125g butter

    2

    80g icing sugar, sifted

    3

    1 egg

    4

    15ml milk

    5

    1ml vanilla extract

    6

    rind of 1 lemon, grated

    7

    250g cake flour, sifted

    8

    100g blanched almonds, coarsely chopped

    9

    Chocolate ganache

    10

    120g good-quality dark chocolate, finely chopped

    11

    120ml fresh cream

    12

    Topping

    13

    15ml Frangelico

    14

    100g slivered almonds

    15

    icing sugar, to garnish

    Notes

    Cook's tips: • Scalding means heating the water close to boiling point. • When melting chocolate over water, don’t allow the water to boil as it heats the chocolate to above 40°C, which changes the texture of the chocolate. • Butter should always be at room temperature. Cold hard butter does not cream as easily when you incorporate it with sugar, and will result in flat cookies. • Do not use imitation vanilla extract, use the real thing – it really does make a difference.

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