Lemon polenta crescents
Delicate lemon biscuits with the gritty addition of polenta and the soft nuttiness of ground almonds. They would have been even better half dipped in the most velvet of dark chocolate but it was fortunate I never got round to doing this as someone came along with a biscuit tin full of Maison Blanc’s best (and richest, slightly crisp outer coat with the inside verging on truffle) chocolate brownies. One chocolate brownie taken with one lemon polenta biscuit – a great combination.
This recipe is slightly adapted from the recipe for Polenta Crescents in 500 Cookies by Philippa Vanstone (pub. Apple Press, 2005)
115 g unsalted butter (cubed and softened)
100g golden icing sugar
2 egg yolks
grated zest 1 lemon (2-3 teasp) (or lime)
1 teasp vanilla extract
100 g SR flour
50 g ground almonds
50 g finely ground polenta
1 dessert spoon of lemon or lime curd (optional)
Lemon polenta crescents
Preheat oven 160 ºC/ 140 º C for a fav oven/325º F/ Gas Mark 3
Grease 2 largish baking sheets.
Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks, lemon (or lime) zest, lemon curd and vanilla essence.
In another bowl sift the flour and almonds and stir in the polenta. Add this to the butter mixture ad mix until you get a smooth dough.
Roll little balls of dough into small sausages (using lightly floured hands) and curve this into crescents as you put them on the baking sheet. Space them about 5cm/2″ apart on the baking sheets. Bake for 10-15 minutes until they start to become golden at the edges. Leave on baking trays to firm up for a few minutes and then transfer to wire rack to cool right down.
Store in an air tight container for 5-7 days.
I used self raising flour so mine puffed out to make podgy crescents. If you want yours to be a bit more refined and sylph like use plain flour and add just a very small pinch of baking powder. I only had a slightly wizened lime which is why I added some lemon curd – not really necessary but made sure the biscuit was moist and very citrusy.
Makes 24.
Lemon polenta crescent on an Anthropologie grasshopper plate
6 Comments
Now I’m suddenly craving lemon and chocolate!
It is a very good combination.
I love the way you photograph and display your biscuits, so tempting in every way. Thank you for your very comprehensive reply to my question in your last post. I’m enjoying playing at embroidery at the moment and hope to improve as I practise.
As if biscuits aren’t tempting enough in themselves – but thank you for saying such nice things about them.
Do play around with embroidery – so many people are inhibited by a too formal approach. There’s nothing like practising – especially with something like satin stitch.
Such a fabulous plate for your very yummy looking biscuit. I do love biscuits but for me one is never enough and so it is really just as well I am never able to sample yours Mary!
One is never enough for me neither, Lydia so that’s exactly why I make them for church. I’m never so pleased as when I leave with an empty tin.
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[…] either by adding them to the ingredients for an extra fortifying omelette or you could make some Lemon Polenta Crescents at the same time and freeze them for later. This recipe comes from Nigella […]