Dairy-Free Casablanca Cakes

It's stating the obvious, but London's never short of places to eat.

Despite there being a plethora of incredible independent coffee shops and restaurants, the temptation to turn to a chain for convenience is often all too easy a trap to fall into. I've had my fair share of Starbucks before jumping ship and discovering real coffee in the the likes of Monmouth, Notes and Peyton & Byrne. When it comes to food, there's nothing quite as depressing as having to settle for a Boots meal deal or battle your way through the sandwiches aisle at Sainsbury's on a frazzled and hectic lunch break. That's where Leon is an absolute godsend.

Yes, Leon is a chain, and yes, Leon is fast food. But it's not ordinary fast food. Leon offers "naturally fast food" that not only tastes amazing but is also pretty good for you. Inspired by the Mediterranean, the menu focuses on fruits and vegetables, whole grains, seeds and unrefined cereals, and boasts options that are gluten/dairy/wheat free, low in saturated fat and Vegan. If you're in London and stuck for somewhere to eat, then it's definitely worth giving Leon a try.

Now I'm no longer in London and also not eating conventional food, Leon is totally out of the question. However, I've been reorganising my cookbooks recently and came across Brownies, Bars & Muffins. I was drawn in by a couple of recipes in particular, but given the fact that I had an open pack of semolina thanks to last week's dalliance with Ciabatta, I knew I'd have to give Casablanca Cakes a try.

These small dairy-free cake-biscuit hybrids are adorable, easy to make and are an undeniable crowd pleaser! This recipe makes between 25 and 30, and they are so moreish the tin full I made was empty less than 24 hours after making them...

Ingredients:

50g almonds, with skins
1 lemon
1 large free-range egg
100g icing sugar, plus extra for dipping
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
100g semolina

Method:

Preheat the oven to 170C / 325F / gas mark 5.

Put the almonds into a food processor and grind as finely as possible.

Finely grate the lemon rind.

Whisk the egg with the icing sugar until very pale.

Stir in the baking powder, semolina, ground almonds and lemon rind. Mix thoroughly.

Butter a large baking tray. I lined the tray first to ease with cleaning up afterwards and because I'm paranoid about things sticking to trays, but I'm sure it's fine if you only grease the tray. Put some sieved icing sugar into a bowl. Dampen your hands, take a piece of the mixture and form a ball the size of a large marble.

Dip one side of the ball into the icing sugar and place it on the baking tray, sugar side up.

Continue like this with the rest of the mixture, spacing the balls out 5cm a part as they spread in the oven.

Bake them in the centre of the oven for 10-12 minutes, until a pale brown colour.

Ease carefully off the baking tray using a palette knife and cool on a wire rack.

These reminded my parents of amaretti, so apparently they went down a treat with a cappuccino!

As I said at the start - this batch didn't last more than 24 hours! They're ultimately more of a cake than a biscuit due to the soft texture, so opens up the same kind of dilemma that faces a Jaffa Cake! In the future I'll probably use a little less lemon as apparently that was the most dominant flavour and the almond was a little lost. That being said I can't remember the last time I made something that disappeared so fast!

Do let me know if you give this a go and if there are any other Leon or dairy-free recipes that you think I must try out. As always leave a comment below or drop me a tweet!