ORANGE BACI DI DAMA BISCUITS WITH ROSEMARY

THESE melt-in-the-mouth ‘lady’s kisses’ are irresistible. They can be made with other flavours, but I think orange and rosemary is a great combination. MAKES 20 100g butter, softened 100g caster sugar 100g ground almonds 100g plain flour Finely grated zest of 1 orange ½ tbsp rosemary, finely chopped 20 apricot kernels (see Prue’s tip, right) or 10 almonds, halved HEAT the oven to 180c/fan 160c/ gas 4. Beat together the butter and sugar until smooth and light, either by hand or machine. Add the ground almonds, flour, orange zest and rosemary and work the mixture until it forms a stiff dough. Shape into 20 small balls, then arrange on baking sheets, leaving a 3-4cm gap between each one. Press an apricot kernel or almond half in the centre of each ball and bake for ten minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

PRUE SAYS: These are delicious served with coffee or ice cream — anywhere you can ration them to one or two per person. Put them in a biscuit tin and they’ll be gone by morning. Apricot kernels — like tiny, powerfully fragrant almonds — can be bought online, but they are much cheaper from an organic food shop. Please note that the Food Standards Agency advises us not to eat too many of them as they can be toxic — another good reason to avoid eating more than a couple of these biscuits at a time!