Biscuit breton

The simplest things in life are usually the best, and this also applies to cookies. My favorites are plain butter cookies, also known as “biscuit Breton” in French. Crunchy, buttery, with a mouthwatering almond aroma. That’s all you need for a deeply satisfying experience.

What I like most about biscuits breton, aside from the fact that they are addictively delicious, is that they can also be used as pie crusts! Pie crusts (pâte brisée) have been my Achilles heel for a long time. Aside from the fact that my kitchen lacks the proper counter space to roll out dough, I have never been able to produce a decent pie crust. More frustratingly is the fact that every one around me keep insisting on how easy it is to make a pie crust… mine are always too soft or too hard, or just plain awful. Then, one day, I remembered that I used to buy little raspberry/custard tartlets not far from my workplace, and they were made with a biscuit breton and not traditional pie crust. I made tiny lemon tarts with biscuit breton over last year’s holidays and they were a huge success! This has since become my go-to pie crust recipe as well as my quick fix anytime I’m in the midst a cookie craving.

This recipe is so simple and takes no time to prepare.

Biscuit breton

Makes approx. 16

ingredients

• 1 cup flour

• 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature

• 2/3 cup icing sugar

• 1 egg yolk

• 1/3 cup ground almonds

• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

• 1/8 tsp almond extract

• 1/4 salt

• optional : a few sliced almond

directions

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix sugar and butter at medium speed, until light and fluffy, 2 minutes.

2. Add egg yolk, vanilla and almond extracts and mix until combined.

3. Add the ground almonds, and mix until combined.

4. Add the flour and salt, and mix until combined.

5. Place the dough in a wrapper and roll it into a sausage shape of the size of your choice. I usually like a diameter of approx. 4 or 5 cm.

6. Refrigerate the dough for about 2 hours.

7. Preheat the oven at 325 and place parchment paper on a large cookie sheet.

8. Remove the dough from the refrigerator, place it on a cutting board and cut into slices of equal thickness. I find that 5 mm (1/4 inch) is what I prefer.

9. Put the slices on the prepared cookie sheet. If you find that the dough has softened quite a bit because you kitchen is too hot, you can put the sheet in the fridge for about half an hour. Optional step : you can put an almond slice in the middle of each cookie before putting them in the oven.

10. Bake for 20-22 minutes, until golden brown.

11. Let the cookies cool down on the sheet before transferring them to a cooling rack.

And that’s it! You now have delicious, buttery, almondy, crunchy cookies in no time, and if you’re anything like me, you’ll end up gobbling them down in no time.

Enjoy!

Easy amaretti cookies

A few weeks ago, I woke up with a hankering for something sweet and nutty. Of course, I had nothing that would remotely fit my cravings in my pantry and though I normally enjoy baking, I really wasn’t in the mood for it that time. Work has been stressful and lately, all I want to do during my time off is nap. In the end, my gluttonous belly got the better of me and I skimmed kitchen cabinets, looking for something very easy and quick to bake, just to satisfy my needs and go back to bed.

I had bags and bags of ground almonds and as I was holding them in my hands, wondering why I bought so many of it, a light bulb lit up in my head. Almond cookies! More specifically, amaretti cookies. I love these. It’s like eating sweet, soft, chewy and moist balls of almond paste. There is a little Italian bakery not so far from my home, with an amazing display of various amaretti cookies of so many different flavors. For special occasions, I would often request to be given one of each of their cookies (as well as a few cannolis).

As it turned out, these cookies are super easy to make, so I made a small batch. They were all gone within 2 days.

Easy amaretti cookies

Makes approx. 15-18 cookies

ingredients

• 2.5 cups ground almonds

• 3/4 cups granulated sugar

• 1/8 tsp salt

• 2 egg whites

• 1/4 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

• optional: no more than 1/2 tsp almond extract

• powdered sugar

directions

1. Preheat oven at 300. Stack 2 cookie sheets one on top of the other (this prevents the cookie bases from browning too much) and line with parchment paper.

2. Fill a small bowl with powdered sugar. Set aside.

3. In a bowl, mix together ground almonds, salt and sugar.

4. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk eggs whites with lemon juice until soft peaks form.

5. Add egg whites to the almond mixture and knead with your hands, until you obtain a soft, sticky dough.

6. If you’re using almond extract, this is where you add it. Knead it in the almond mixture, with the beaten egg whites.

7. Roll cookie dough into 1 inch balls and roll them in the powdered sugar until covered.

8. Place balls on the baking sheets, one inch apart from each other.

9. Bake for 30 minutes, until the tops are cracked and the bases are slightly golden.

10. Let rest on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring on a wire racks, to cool completely.

Aren’t they beautiful? This is pretty much what a no-fail cookie recipe looks like. I normally use almond extract in almost all my cakes and cookies but somehow, in this case, I did not feel like it was that necessary, given the amount of almonds used. If you fear that the cookies will not taste enough, add a little bit of almond extract but be careful because too much of it will be overwhelming and unpleasant.

Variations

From now on, you could create whatever variation you like.

For pistachio, replace the ground almond with ground pistachio. This goes for any nut of your choice.

For chocolate, use 2 cups of ground almond and 1/2 of cocoa powder. In this case, I would use a little bit of almond extract, no more than 1/2 tsp so that it doesn’t overwhelm your taste buds.

For lemon, add 1 tbsp of freshly squeezed lemon juice (instead of 1/4 tsp) as well as the zest of 2 lemons.

For espresso, mix 3 tsp of good espresso powder in 1 tbsp of boiling water.

You get the idea.

Now, have fun and enjoy!