Pre-heat the oven to 200⁰C.

Sieve the flour and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl and add the chopped almonds and seeds from the vanilla pod.

Chop the butter into the dry ingredients and then rub in with your fingers until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.

Mix in the sugar and egg and then knead to form a dough.

Place the dough in cookie press and press out wreath shapes onto ungreased baking trays (or any shape you wish).

If you don’t have a cookie press chill the dough for 30 minutes then take small amounts of dough, roll into a sausages and form small ring shapes. Or if you have a traditional meat mincer with a star shaped nozzle use this to form small lengths of dough that you then curl round to form a ring. Place ring shapes on baking trays.

Bake for 6 – 8 minutes (turning the tray half way for an even bake).

Makes 84 biscuits.