Ingredient: Almonds

A wooden bowl filled with whole, raw almonds sits on a wooden surface, with more almonds scattered around it.

Here’s something that might change how you see almonds: they’re not actually nuts. They’re the seed inside a stone fruit, closely related to peaches and plums. If you’ve ever seen an almond tree in bloom, the flowers look almost identical to peach blossom – because they’re cousins.

This peach connection feels right once you know it. That slightly sweet, fragrant quality makes more sense. And it explains why ground almonds give cakes such a particular, almost fruity richness – think Bakewell tart, or a proper dense Christmas cake.

Nutritionally, they’re doing good work: vitamin E, magnesium, the kind of fats that keep your heart happy. A small handful makes a genuinely satisfying snack in a way that, say, rice cakes never quite manage.

One last thing: the word “almond” shares its root with “amygdala” – that almond-shaped bit of your brain. The Greeks named the brain part after the nut. Or rather, after the seed. Old habits.