174/656 - Spicy hazelnut fingers

It was my sister's birthday last week. My sister is one of those people who not only remembers the birthday of every person she has ever met, but she also backs this up with well thought out presents and a birthday card that has been obviously hand-picked.   

I would like to say this attention to birthdays and special occasions runs in the family but sadly this is not the case.  I have been known to let the birthdays of my children sail by present-less when they were too small to know the difference (I can practically hear the gasps from new mothers), and regularly get caught out missing the birthdays of people that are close to me (again, sorry Emily). Luckily my friends and family are aware that this is entirely due to my drifting brain and nothing at all to do with how much I actually love them. Receiving a text from my brother reading, "Happy birthday to me" is now something of an expected event come August.  

So this year I made sure I was on the ball for my sister's birthday. We went to see Annie (fifth row from the front!) and ate a wonderful meal together complete with our mum for company and pink champagne to make it a perfect girls night out. The only problem with my plan was that this wonderful evening occurred four weeks before Jane's actual birthday. 

Hence this recipe! I decided that since I had delivered on a well thought out (although very early) birthday present, it was only fitting that my supplementary gift should be lovingly hand-made. Of course now I am a week late given the drawn out saga that was my candied lemon rind, but I know my efforts will be well received once Jane takes a bite of these glorious biscuits.  

I didn't use an icing piper to shape these little fingers as my mixture turned out a bit thicker than expected and I was able to simply roll the mixture into little sausages. The thick mixture was due to my double-dipped lemon rind that was so incredibly hard it would have taken me all day to chop it finely with a knife. Enter the thermomix and say hello to chopped, but also slightly ground candied rind.

Yummy home-made biscuits and a blog post dedicated to my lovely sister; I think I may have redeemed myself in the birthday stakes even if I am a week late.