Chilli and Almond Biscuits

I am rubbish at blogging.  It's been over a month since I last posted on here.  Like a lot of people who start blogs, I had the best of intentions, but life just keeps getting in the way at the moment and if I can't think of anything vaguely interesting to write about, I get into the head space of 'who cares that I made somebody else's cake recipe yesterday?'  And so I don't bother to write about it.

Hot stuff!
Having spent three hundred and sixty six days of (mostly) using other people's recipes and writing about them for the 366 Recipe Challenge (there are a few of my own recipes scattered throughout the blog), the drive for writing on Small Bites hasn't been there.

I must refocus myself for the New Year and include this as part of my action plan for 2013.  Assuming that The World doesn't end on 21st December.  And if it does, I would quite like it if The World would be so kind as to wait to implode until I've been out and had my birthday lunch.

Anyhow, onto the biscuits.  This is a partner post for a post that's due to appear over on the 366 Recipe Challenge.  I know that technically finished back in September, but I really wanted to take part in the Food Blogger Cookie Swap this year.  And to take part, you had to have a blog that had been in operation since before 15th August 2012.  Small Bites was a little too new to allow me to participate so I used my old blog for qualification and will do lots of linkying between these two posts on Dec 12th - the official 'recipe reveal' date.

Because I am particularly indecisive, I opted to bake three kinds of cookies and ask my work colleagues to vote which were their favourites.  True to form, they picked the chocolate ones, but my favourites were these delicious little savouries, courtesy of Dan Lepard's Short and Sweet.

Ready for the off
They not only appealed because I generally prefer savoury snacks to sweet, but I also loved the baking the blurb for the recipe.  The baking world is bursting at the seams with smutty innuendoes about soggy bottoms, squidgy or nice firm buns and perfect (Paris) Brests.  Dan describes these as 'mildly hot and a pleasure to nibble'.  Oooer, Missus!

With copious amounts of cheese and nuts, how could these be anything other than amazeballs?  I ended up sending a few to each of my Cookie Swap buddies as a bonus.  And they appeared to go down well even though they're not the most robust of biscuits for surviving transport by Royal Mail.  Feedback from work colleagues included 'can I have the recipe for your rather excellent chilli biscuits?' and 'mmmm...hot stuff'  I trust that particular person was referring to the food!

With Christmas coming up, they would also be great with a glass of wine if you have non-fussy visitors.  And you can make the dough in advance and chill it for a few days before you bake it, allowing you to show off for unexpected guests.  The only thing I found was that the chilli flavour was far more intense in the 'mature' ones.

Luckily, this is one of those recipes that was first published via the Guardian so if you don't own a copy of Short and Sweet, you can find it here.


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