Chocolate Orange Hearts

I am not surprised that my first blog after over a year of radio silence would be a food one, as my interest in baking has grown stronger in the last few months. I have actually considered creating a new blog that is called ‘My Training For The Great British Bake Off’ where I track the development of my baking skills with the sole intention of entering that blissful show. But I don’t know that I’m there yet. Let’s just play with the theme on this blog for a little while shall we.

And where better to start than with a little recipe I’ve invented. And when I say invented, I began with a Nigella recipe and then made several changes due to personal taste and lack of required ingredients, so that it now looks nothing like what the goddess was aiming for.

They love their “free from” food over here and after three years of living here I must confess I do like the odd liberated recipe to keep me intolerance friendly. This one has no gluten or dairy. Don’t panic they taste yum!

Ingredients

2 large egg whites

230g caster sugar

a pinch of salt

zest and juice of one orange

1 teaspoon of almond essence

250g of ground almonds

50g cacao powder

Whisk up the egg whites until they are stiff. Gradually add in the sugar, then the salt as you keep whisking. Fold in the orange zest and juice, almond essence, almonds and cacao powder. You’ll have a grainy dough.

Roll this out really thinly. Use icing sugar on your surface and over the dough to reduce stickiness. Using a small cookie cutter, cut out your shapes, I use hearts. Place them on a lined baking tray.

For a soft, slightly chewy bite of chocolate goodness, bake them in a 140 C oven for no more than 15 minutes. Take them out, lay them out on a cooling rack and wait about two minutes before you “test” the first one.

This makes about 50 biscuits and I eat two at a time. They are my little injection of energy during the day and they’re gone in just over a week (please don’t do the math on my daily intake!!)