Curd cheese cookies with almond and cherries

100 g curd cheese (I used mascarpone)

100 g unsalted butter

200 g caster sugar

1 medium egg

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract

50 g ground almonds

125 g Self Raising flour

200 g rolled oats

100 g dried cherries

30 flaked almonds for the top

icing sugar for dusting

Preheat the the oven to 170°C /150° C fan /325°F /Gas Mark 3

Prepare a couple of baking trays either by wiping with a non stick product like Lakeland’s Cake Release or line them with non-stick baking paper.

Beat the curd cheese and the butter until smooth, then add the sugar and egg and beat further. Stir in the vanilla and almond extracts, followed by the ground almonds. Now add flour, then the oats and cherries and mix until evenly combined.

Spoon dollops of the mixture on to the baking trays and press a flaked almond on to each biscuit. Bake for about 18 minutes until lightly coloured .

Transfer to wire cooling rack and sprinkle with icing sugar while still warm.

Curd cheese cookies with almond and cherries

This is basically a Dan Lepard recipe (from the Guardian website) to which I added dried, slightly sour cherries. I’ve used curd cheese to replace some of the butter before and I was a bit disappointed in the result, which is  more cake like, not at all cheesecake like and not really very biscuity. For church last Sunday I tried the recipe out using dried pineapple and Ready Brek instead of rolled oats (well, I am trying to empty my cupboards and waste not want not, etc…) The result was ok but not great. This time I stuck more closely to Dan’s recipe but I’m no more impressed by the result. The ingredients summon up a delight far greater than the end biscuit. There are many better ways of using delicious plump flavourful cherries.

Ducklings – the first and only sight of them (Friday 22 April). Mother and one duckling hidden behind the tree stump.

Mother and father ducks have been seen but there is not a hint of a duckling.