Hello, it’s been a while.

Blogging, for a time took a natural back seat whilst I set about the busy business of bringing another small human onto planet Earth; then all of the milestones, small and large backed up begging to be written about. and the task of starting again seemed too huge to take on! So I’ve decided to simplify things and just carry on as I started – writing about the small things whilst they are still fresh in my memory. So no mammoth ‘life update’ blog here, no gratuitous birth story and baby pictures; just some tasty, simple biscuits, with a little bit about why I made them.

Now, nearly 6 months old we strongly suspect our otherwise robust, bequiffed little smiler, Baby D is following his sister with his allergic tendencies; so whilst I am still breastfeeding my diet is free from dairy and eggs as well as the usual gluten. This makes the hungry work of nursing pretty hard – as pretty much every gluten free convenience product has egg! There have been a lot of quick biscuit recipes concocted over the past few weeks as D’s (and thus my) sleep has improved to the point where I feel almost productive. This is my favourite, celebrating gloriously sweet and fleetingly seasonal blood oranges. That pink! Make them for someone you love – perhaps yourself?  You could even do them in heart shapes if you are so inclined.

Blood Orange, Hazelnut & Rosemary Biscuits

Ingredients

• 75g hazelnuts
• Leaves from a sprig of rosemary
• 120g dairy free butter (I use Stork)
• 70g brown sugar
• 145g plain gluten free flour blend (I use Free From Fairy)
• Zest & juice of 1 blood orange
• 125g icing sugar

Method

1. Blitz the hazelnuts & rosemary in a food processor to a fine crumb.
2. Cream the butter and sugar, then combine with the flour, hazelnut meal & orange zest.
3. Knead a little, then roll to a few mm thick and cut out rounds.
4. Bake at 160c (fan) for 15 minutes until starting to colour.
5. Carefully lift onto a wire rack to cool.
6. Add enough orange juice to the icing sugar to maps a spoonable consistency, then coat the cool biscuits and leave to set before storing in an airtight container.

I decorated with a few dried edible petals and brushed with a little gold lustre to make them super special.

Of course, you’re not really a food blogger until you’ve tied up a stack of biscuits in string to photograph them, are you?

Until next time amigos 🙂