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Sunday 13 December 2009

Yummy Eggnog Nibble Squares (Advocaat Nibbles for the adventurous)

Eggnog, or rather its alcoholic version Advocaat, is one of my favourite drinks. Advocaat is just heaven in a glass as far as I am concerned !

And it has to be Warninks Advocaat - no other comes close.

MMmmmMMmmmm

Shame I can't drink alcohol now ! Well not often...

Being English, I was naturally raised with eggnog and advocaat. Eggnog is a very old English medieval traditional drink which has now spread around much of the world. It was an upper class drink which often also had brandy or rum added (hence the later development of advocaat). The lower classes could not have even afforded the milk, let alone the rest of the ingredients.

It crossed the Atlantic in the 18th century and is now part of American traditions also.

Many years ago a friend (knowing how much I have a fetish for cookery books) sent me a very special book called Cookies For Christmas. It is a huge book devoted entirely to festive biscuits, tiny cakes and cookies ! A very fun book.

I got the idea for this recipe in that book and have used it since. I changed a couple of the ingredients and with just a couple of tweeks and changes I had something delicious to suit my tastes...

Eggnog or Advocaat Nibble Squares

2 cups Castor Sugar
2 Eggs
2 cups Plain Flour
1/2 cup ground Almonds
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
2/3 cup Unsalted Butter
1 teaspoon pure Vanilla Extract
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground Nutmeg

1. Put the butter and sugar into a saucepan and melt them together, on a medium heat only. Stir whilst it is melting.

2. Once it is melted and combined - stir for 2 more minutes.

3. Cool the saucepan and its contents for 10 minutes off of the stove top.

4. After the 10 minutes, use a wooden spoon to stir in the eggs, one at a time.

5. Then stir in the vanilla extract.

6. Next stir in the flour, the baking powder and then nutmeg, until it is all well mixed in.

7. Now stir in the ground almonds.

8. Spoon the mixture into a greased 13" x 9" pan, which is 2" deep (" is inches).

9. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C (350F or gas 4) for 25 or 30 minutes (until the edges of the cake/slices start to pull away from the edge of the pan).

10. Cool in the pan on a wire rack.

This should make roughly 36 bars or squares.

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