This year I am going to attempt to complete the 52 week baking challenge. Each week has a different theme and the challenge is to bake one recipe a week that fits the theme. All my recipes are lactose free, but lactose free ingredients can simply be swapped for their dairy counterpart. Here is my recipe post for week eight, the theme “Chinese new year”…

Mandarin Cookies for week 8 ‘Chinese new year’ challenge.

Madarin oranges are the most popular and abundant fruit during Chinese New Year, and the name in the Teochew dialect is a homophone of ‘luck’ and ‘fortune’. I chose to make these cookies for my week eight challenge because the mandarin orange is connected to Chinese New Year traditions, and the flavour combination of this fruit with the almond appealed to my taste buds!

The cookies turned out looking lovely, with the beautiful orange slices on top. The flavour was wonderful and nutty, sweet and with a tang of citrus. The ground almonds give the cookie a crunchy and crumbly texture, after a few days they did begin to soften (even kept in an airtight container) but the taste if anything only improved!

Mandarin Cookie recipe adapted from Seasons and Suppers Mandarin Orange Tea Cookies recipe.

Ingredients

5-6 mandarin oranges (1 for zest and juice)

150g (.5c + 2.5tbsp) lactose free margarine

1 egg

200g (2c. ground almonds)

100g (.5c. + 1tbsp) white sugar

200g (1.75c. plain flour (all purpose)

1 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice

1 egg yolk

Turbinado/demerera sugar for sprinkling

Method

1. Wash mandarin oranges thoroughly in hot water and dry well with a towel. Zest and juice one orange, then thinly slice the remainder. You need to slice them as thin as you can, but keep the slices in one piece! Place the slices on doubled up kitchen paper.

2. Beat the margarine and the egg together. Add the ground almonds, sugar, flour, orange zest, and orange juice, and mix until it comes together as dough.

3. Shape the dough into a rolls about 1/2 an inch wider than your mandarins, wrap the dough in clingfilm and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

4. Preheat oven to 350F (180C). Turn over all the mandarin slices. Remove the dough from the fridge.

5. Slice each rolls into 1/4 inch thicknesses and place onto a cookie sheet – these do not spread much so leave an inch gap between each cookie.

6. Use a round flat bottomed object, roughly the same diameter as your mandarin oranges to press an indentation into each cookie (I used a 1/4c. measuring cup.

7. Brush the top of the cookies gently with the egg yolk. Place a mandarin slice on each cookie and gently press down. Sprinkle on some turbinado/demerera sugar.

8. Bake for 15 minutes, until the edges of the cookie have turned golden brown.

9. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire cooling rack.