Ingredients
- Self-Raising Flour 250 g, plus extra for dusting
- Baking Powder 1½ tsp
- Salt a pinch
- Sunflower Oil 100 ml
- Beer 100 ml
- Apricot Jam 60 g
- Caster Sugar 150 g
- Lemon ½
- Walnuts 100 g
Cook It
- Preheat your oven to 190˚C/fan 170 ˚C/gas mark 5. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the self-raising flour, baking powder and salt and make a well in the centre. Pour in the sunflower oil and beer and whisk until a dough is formed. Knead for a minute then turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough equally in two and roll each piece into a ball. Place the balls of dough between sheets of greaseproof paper and roll out into circles that are 2mm thick – it is important that they are circular. Cut each circle in half, then quarters and so on, until you have 16 triangles (32 in total). Spoon a small amount of jam onto the wide end of each triangle and start rolling the little rolls, from wide end in. Line baking trays with greaseproof paper – you can use the sheets you used to roll the dough – and evenly space out the little rolls. Pop the trays in the oven and bake for 15–18 minutes, swapping the trays part-way through if they’re cooking unevenly. When the rolls are done, they should be just golden.
- While the rolls are baking, make the syrup. Place the sugar in a medium saucepan with 100ml of water and the juice from the lemon half. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes. Grind the walnuts using a spice grinder or pestle and mortar – avoid using a food processor, if possible, as a bit of texture is needed here, and the walnuts go oily if they break down too much.
- When the rolls are baked, pop them straight in the pan with the syrup. Do this in batches. Use tongs to turn them, and leave them in for less than a minute. You want them syrupy enough that the nuts stick, but not so soaked as to be soggy. Use the tongs to retrieve them from the syrup, roll in the ground walnuts and place on a tray. Keep going until all the biscuits are coated. Leave until cool before eating, and store any left over in an airtight container.
Reprinted from Nistisima: The Secret to Delicious Vegan Cooking from the Mediterranean and Beyond by Georgina Hayden (C) 2022. Reproduced by permission of Bloomsbury. All rights reserved.
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