♥ Baking: Biscuits

I don’t buy biscuits.  I simply don’t because I might simply scoff the lot.  Plus there is the vexatious question of dubious ingredients in some shop bought biscuits (think additives and trans fats).  However I do have a sweet a tooth so I occasionally bake a batch of biscuits. These vanilla biscuits are one of the first things I learnt to bake many years ago; they are beyond easy to make and if you exclude the cooking time the making of them takes just five minutes.  You should get about twenty from this recipe.

INGREDIENTS

5oz/140g self-raising flour

4oz/110g diced butter

2oz/55g caster sugar

A quarter teaspoon of vanilla extract.

METHOD

First preheat an oven to 180°C.  Then put all the ingredients into the bowl of a food processor and leave for one hour (to allow the butter to soften).  Blitz briefly until the ingredients start to come together (this should take less than a minute).  Remove the mix and knead it briefly to fully amalgamate everything.  Make little balls about the size of walnuts (think teeny tiny footballs) and place them on a baking tray.  With a fork flatten the balls into biscuits shape (keep dipping the fork in a jug of cold water to prevent it sticking to the biscuit mix). You will need to make sure that there is plenty of room on the baking tray between the biscuits, as they will spread while cooking.  Pop the tray into the oven for fifteen to twenty minutes.  When you remove the biscuits from the oven they will be quite soft, so don’t attempt to move them until they are fully cooled, (they will harden slightly as they cool).  Lastly dust with icing sugar.

Enjoy.

Note: You can make the vanilla biscuits without a food processor by mixing the softened butter with the sugar and the vanilla extract and beating well; gradually work the flour into the mix.  Then proceed as above.