Perfect for morning tea or in a lunch box. Ice and decorate with slices of candied orange peel for high tea.
Ingredients
| 1 ½ cups | Self raising flour |
| 1 ¼ cups | Ground almonds |
| 1 tsp | Baking powder |
| 1 cup | Caster sugar |
| 175 g | Butter, well softened, but not melted |
| 3 | Eggs, lightly beaten |
| 1 | Orange, zest and juice (Main) |
| 1 sprinkle | Icing sugar, to decorate |
Directions
- Heat the oven to 170C.
- Place the ground almonds in a shallow baking tray and toast for 5 minutes until they just begin to colour. Remove from the oven and spread on a plate to cool a little.
- Lightly grease 8 mini loaf tins (¾ cup capacity) and line with a strip of baking paper. This will help when you come to turn loaves out.
- Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl. Add the sugar, butter, eggs, orange zest, juice and toasted ground almonds. Using a large spoon or spatula fold the ingredients together until just combined. Spoon the mixture evenly into the prepared tins. They should be about ¾ full, no more.
- Place in the pre-heated oven and cook for 20 minutes. Insert a skewer in the centre of a loaf and if it comes out clean then the loaves are cooked. Leave for 5 minutes before turning out.
- Serve sprinkled with icing sugar, if you wish.
Tips
- You can use whole blanched almonds rather than already ground almonds; heat a dry frying pan over a medium heat, add the almonds and toast for 3 minutes, they will just begin to take on a little colour. Cool, then place in a food processor and process until ground.
- Loaves can be iced with a thin drizzle of icing if you wish; mix 2 cups icing sugar with the zest and a little juice of 1 orange.