Here are my top 5 no-fail biscuit and cookie recipes to wow your family and friends, or to dunk in your tea this afternoon! These are great recipes to make with the kids, so if you’re looking for something fun to do in the school holidays why not try making one of my favourite recipes?
Who doesn’t love a biscuit?! We grab them to pacify our hunger pangs before lunch, offer them to visitors with a cuppa, throw them to the kids as we’re running out the door and hear the familiar sound of “but I’m hungry” and they’re the perfect addition to an evening in front of the TV! But do you ever think it would be nice to offer up some homemade biccies instead of the standard custard cremes or digestives?! Don’t get me wrong, I do love a custard crème, but there’s nothing quite like serving up a homemade all-butter shortbread, or a warm-from-the-oven chocolate chip cookie. Most of these recipes are also really easy to make with the kids and they can all be decorated as you wish.
Sugar Cookies
Let’s start with the simplest of biscuits, a yummy sugar cookie. This is a great base for lots of different variations, try different additions and flavours such as lemon and poppyseed, spices and cocoa powder. You can also find this recipe in my Easy Baking Cookbook available here.
Kids will love making these biscuits, cutting out lots of different fun shapes and decorating with water icing, melted chocolate or ready to roll fondant. They can be used at any time of year as a gift for the grandparents, part of a buffet or party spread! Be prepared for some waiting around with this recipe as the dough needs chilling in the fridge twice. I learned this the hard way, most recipes suggest only one chill time and this caused spreading and burning in the oven! The cookies came out too thin, or huge and needed to be cut once they came out of the oven. If you chill the dough, then roll and cut and chill again whilst the oven heats up everything should hold together well. You can also substitute the butter for dairy free block spread, but you need an even longer chill time for this as the spread itself doesn’t set as hard as butter.
These are also really easy to adapt as gluten free, just choose a pre-mixed flour such as Doves Farm and add some Xanthan Gum so the biscuits don’t fall apart.
Makes: 15-20 depending on size of cutter
Total time: 20 mins (not including cooling). Plus 40-50 mins chilling time
INGREDIENTS
225g butter
200g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg, beaten
250g plain flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
METHOD
· Line a cookie sheet with baking paper (or a silicone baking liner).
· Whisk flour and baking powder together
· Cream butter and sugar with a hand mixer or stand mixer until light and fluffy
(about three minutes).
· Add the egg, mixing on a low speed.
· Add the flour and fold in with a spoon until the mix turns into dough. It will be quite sticky.
· Wrap the dough in cling film and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.
· Roll out the dough to 1/4” thick, cut shapes and place on prepared cookie tray.
· Chill again for another 20-30 minutes.
· Pre-heat oven to 170℃ fan/375℉/gas 5.
· Bake for 10-12 minutes or until turning golden brown.
VARIATION
1. You can keep these cookies plain or decorate with icing, and lots of sprinkles.
2. Dip into melted chocolate.
TOP TIP
Flour your work surface really well when rolling out the dough as it will easily stick.
Shortbread
This one is my Mum and my daughter’s favourite. I’ve made it with lemon zest, rosewater, different spices, herbs and dried fruit but my absolute fav is a simple chocolate chunk version. This one took me a while to perfect, there’s a bit of trial and error involved in not over-mixing, under or over-baking or making the mixture too thick. I’ve got the perfect proportions and timing for my oven in this recipe so hopefully, it will work perfectly for you too. You may need to tweak timings slightly because as we’ve seen on ‘Bake off’ time and time again, all ovens vary slightly. With just three ingredients, this is an all-butter recipe but works equally well with most dairy-free spreads (I prefer Flora Plant Butter).
Makes: 12-15 depending on what shapes you cut (fingers, squares etc)
Total time: 20 mins (not including cooling
INGREDIENTS
125g butter
55g caster sugar
180g plain flour
100g milk chocolate chunks or chips
METHOD
· Line a cookie sheet with baking paper (or a silicone baking liner).
· Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
· Add flour and mix until a smooth dough forms.
· Add chocolate chunks and work into the dough lightly.
· Roll out dough to 1cm thick and cut into whatever shape you like. Or fill a lined baking tin with the dough, bake and lightly sore whilst still warm from the oven.
· Lay the dough shapes onto your tray.
· Chill for 20 minutes.
· Pre-heat oven to 170℃ fan/375℉/gas 5.
· Bake for 15-20 minutes.
· Cool on the tray for five minutes then carefully transfer to a cooling rack.
VARIATIONS
1. Try different chocolate and fruit combinations. White chocolate and cranberry are a
favourite of mine.
2. Try some unusual flavour combinations such as lemon and rosemary, delish!
TOP TIP
Try not to knead the dough too much, the more it’s worked the less ‘short’ the pastry will
be and you’ll lose the crumbly texture that shortbread is well known for.
Grandma’s Oat Biscuits
This recipe was probably my first introduction to baking at a very early age. My first experience of a home-made biscuit, me and my siblings used to pester my dear Mum to knock up these delicious biscuits for us. Still just as good today these oaty, syrupy little nuggets of delicious-ness have really stood the test of time. We think the recipe originally came from an episode of Blue Peter in the 1970’s! They are simple and cheap to make and absolutely delicious. The batch never lasted very long in our house. I hope you have a go at these with your children or grandchildren and have as much fun as my Mum and I did in the kitchen.
INGREDIENTS
Margarine/baking spread 114g
Brown Sugar 85g
Golden Syrup 1 dessert spoon
Plain Flour 114g
Oats 114g
Ginger 1 tsp
METHOD
· Line a cookie sheet with baking paper (or a silicone baking liner).
· Pre-heat oven to 140℃ fan/280℉/gas 3.
· Melt margarine/baking spread, syrup and sugar in a pan or microwave.
· Add flour, oats and ginger.
· Form into balls, place on baking tray then flatten slightly.
· Bake for 10-17 minutes.
· Cool on the tray for five minutes then carefully transfer to a cooling rack.
TOP TIP
Dipped in melted chocolate and left to set these are absolutely delicious!
White Chocolate and Raspberry Cookies
This recipe makes soft, chewy, American style cookies. These are the best-selling cookies I have on my website, where they’re sandwiched with soft raspberry flavoured buttercream and boxed up in packs of four to post anywhere in the UK! Find them here. These are also one of the most popular items when I sell them on my stall, with people coming back to look for them month after month.
The main thing to remember here is to freeze your raspberries. If they’re fresh you’ll end up with a big gooey mess in the oven!
Makes: 12-15 cookies
Total time: 20 minutes (not including cooling)
These always disappear so quickly in my house! It’s taken a bit of trial and error to get the perfect chocolate chip cookie. You can roll up this dough and chop circles off to bake or use an ice cream scoop (if you’ve made any recipes from the cupcake section, you’ll know how fond of this tool I am!).
INGREDIENTS
150g butter
80g brown sugar
80g granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg yolk
225g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp salt
100g chocolate chunks
METHOD
· Line two cookie sheets or baking trays with baking paper or silicone tray liners.
· Heat the oven to 170℃ fan/375℉/gas 5.
· Beat butter and both sugars together with a hand mixer until light and fluffy.
· Beat in vanilla extract and egg.
· Add plain flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt to the bowl
· Mix well with a wooden spoon.
· Add chocolate chips or chunks and stir well.
· Use an ice cream scoop to make rounds of the mixture, spacing them well apart on the baking trays. This mixture should make about 12-15 cookies.
· Bake for 8–10 mins until they are light brown on the edges and still slightly soft in the centre if you press them.
· Leave on the tray for a couple of mins to set and then lift onto a cooling rack.
VARIATIONS
1. Of course different chocolate chips, nuts and fudge chunks can all be added, maybe experiment with one at a time.
2. Try some flavourings, just 1/2 tsp per mixture. Chocolate orange is a particular favourite.
TOP TIP
This mixture freezes really well, it’s great recipe to prep before Christmas, make dough well ahead of time. Freeze and pull out portions of dough as and when you would like to
bake them.
Biscotti
Looking to add a delightful crunch to your tea or coffee break? Biscotti, the classic Italian twice-baked cookies, are the perfect choice. Whether you're a biscotti connoisseur or a first-time baker, these crunchy, flavourful treats are a joy to make and enjoy.
INGREDIENTS
Plain flour 250g
Caster Sugar 250g
Baking Powder 2 tsp
Eggs 3
Apricots 50g
Cranberries 50g
Dried Blueberries 50g
Pistachios 75g
Almonds 50g
Hazelnuts 50g
Zest and juice of one lemon
METHOD
· Line a baking tray with paper or silicone liner.
· Pre-heat oven to 180℃ fan/200℉/gas 6.
· Mix all the ingredients
· Make two sausages of dough.
· Bake for 20 minutes.
· Drop oven temperature to 120℃ fan/275℉/gas 1.
· Cut into slices with a bread knife.
· Cook for 10-15 minutes.
TOP TIP
When shaping the biscotti dough, wet your hands to prevent sticking. This will make it easier to handle the sticky dough.
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