Christmas pudding or mince pies might be on your menus this Christmas season, but whatever festive feast you’re throwing, you might fancy including a Spanish treat or two. So, following our recent post about traditional Spanish Christmas sweets, here are two easy recipes for homemade versions: Almendrados Navideños (almond biscuits) and Turron de crema y nueces (cream and nut nougat):
Almond biscuits
Ingredients: 250gr ground almonds, 250gr wholewheat flour or all purpose flour, 250gr sugar, 3 eggs, lemon zest, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, icing sugar
Put the sifted flour in a bowl, add the sugar and ground almonds, stir them all together. Then add the whole eggs, the cinnamon and grated lemon. Take portions of dough with a spoon and coat in icing sugar to give them shape and avoid stickiness. Place vegetable paper on a baking tray and lay out the biscuits. Preheat the oven to 180º and bake for 18-20 minutes. Once the biscuits look nice and golden, take them out and place on a rack until cool.
Cream and nut nougat
Ingredients: 200gr almonds, 200gr icing sugar, 120gr walnuts, 120ml pouring cream
Crush the nuts by hand leaving pieces that can be seen in the nougat. Heat the cream in a saucepan together with the icing sugar for around 10 or 12 minutes over a medium to high heat, stirring often so that it doesn’t stick. As it thickens, it should be more or less reduced to half its initial volume. Then toss in the mixture of walnuts and ground almonds, stir until a paste forms and place the mixture in two polycarbonate molds with a small spatula. Wrap the surface of the nougat in baking paper and let it dry for 24-hours before removing it from the mould.
