Spiced Biscuits

I spent the Bank Holiday weekend with a cold. I had managed to get out and about a bit on Saturday as I'd spent Friday off work pathetically lying on my sofa watching my box set of Arrested Development. However Sunday and Monday meant a return to the sanctity of my sofa with a couple of ventures outside to gain some sustenance. The Thew was off trekking around the coast of west Wales so I had no one to tend to me. It was only thanks to a tin of tomato soup I found at the back of my cupboard and Deliverance that I even made it through Friday. 

I'd planned a wonderful baking extravaganza on Bank Holiday Monday as I would have lots of time. I was going to make a New York Cheesecake and then tackle my demons by attempting to ice cupcakes with fondant icing. Best laid plans and all that came down to bear on me. I managed to make cupcakes but after attempting to roll out icing while watching Romancing the Stone I gave up. 

I decided that what I needed was a nice cup of tea and a biscuit. Nothing too exciting as I had to work with what was in the house but a simple satisfying biscuit. So I hunted through some recipe books and discovered a recipe for 'Simple Biscuits'. I added some spice and was proud to have created something just right. These can be made quickly and even if you have cold you can triumph over something, feeling a little bit better for a while. 

Ingredients 

175g plain flour

1/4 rounded tsp grated nutmeg

1/4 rounded tsp ground mixed spice

1/4 rounded tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cardamom (this is a compete bugger to find but it amazing so snap it up if you see it. Leave out if you don't have any)

115g butter

50g caster sugar 

1.    Preheat oven to 180°C/GM 4.

2.    Put flour and spices in a bowl and mix together.

3.    Add the butter, cut into cubes/chunks, and rub in until you get something that looks like breadcrumbs.

4.    Add the sugar and then strongly suggest to all the ingredients they want to form a dough. You'll need to squish everything together forcibly.

5.    Then lightly flour a surface and roll the dough out until about 5mm thick. It might break a bit but just mush the edges back together. Cut out biscuits to the size you want. I used a 6cm cutter but you could go bigger. These are a little fragile when cooked so don't go too big.

6.    Bake on a non-stick tray for 10 minutes. They'll be pale when they come out and let them cool slightly, but not too long so a couple of minutes, before transferring to a cooling rack. Cool compete as these are one of those rare baked goods that taste better cold than fresh out of the oven.

7.    Make a cup of tea, grab some biscuits, pop on the second disc of the third series of Arrested Development, crawl under your duvet on the sofa and await someone's arrival who can tend to you.