These delicious spiced biscuits are quintessentially autumnal given their warm spiced aroma and flavour. This is an old and simple recipe and with it being eggless and quick to bake, perfect during times of rationing.
Yesterday I enjoyed an afternoon of pumpkin carving and baking these delicious cookies so thought I’d share the traditional recipe with the additions I made too. I used 1/2 the ingredients below, added extra spice and a couple small handfuls of dried mixed fruit.
Ingredients
250g/9oz – softened butter
125g/4oz – caster sugar (or granulated sugar)
350g/12 oz – self-raising flour
1½ tsp mixed spice (or pumpkin spice)
¾ tsp cinnamon
Method
- Cream together the butter (I used plant-based Flora butter) and sugar.
- Stir all of the dry ingredients into the creamed butter and sugar. (I also added a couple of handfuls of mixed dried fruit) Knead lightly until all of the flour mix has been incorporated
- Pinch off approximately 10g pieces, roll into a ball and place on a baking tray leaving space between each to allow for spreading. Depress the centre of each dough ball lightly with finger. (I actually rolled the dough out and used a cutter as I wanted thin crunchy biscuits)
- Bake at 180ºC / fan 160ºC / gas mark 4 for 15 minutes.
- Cool on the baking tray for 10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.
I used half the ingredients and made around 20 x 2.5 inch biscuits.
Happy Halloween!
C xx
Back in the day, we were celebrating Guy Fawkes. We had a bonfire and some fireworks and jacket potatoes cooked in the ashes. Halloween hadnt arrived in the UK! I made some biscuits similar to yours for Guy Fawkes which we adults ate with mulled wine! I hope you are making pumpkin soup!
Hi Franky. I think you’ll find that Halloween (or Samhain to we Pagans & Celts) was being celebrated all over the UK long before the days of Guy Fawkes in the last days of the Tudor dynasty.
Hi Louise. On pumpkins, how do you still have flowers on your plant when there are no pumpkins to harvest ? I find that after the fruits have formed the plant develops mildew on the leaves and dies back, then it’s time to harvest.
Hi Carolyn. Try this method to make pumpkin soup, put the pumpkin in a slow cooker (roughly chopped) with a ham hock or ham ribs and one chopped onion just cover with water and leave to cook overnight. In the morning take out the ham hock and allow everything to cool down, blend what’s in the slow cooker then season to taste. You can have the meat as your meal or add it to the soup for a hearty meal, this method uses little power for the end product.
Hi Carolyn, yes, Halloween was celebrated in England in Tudor times and probably even earlier. It just wasnt celebrated in the 1940’s. However, my father had lived in Canada before he married my mother and so we wete bery aware of Halloween. In fact, my late husband and I got engaged at Halloween. And we had to make all tne decorations because you couldnt buy anything back in 1962! Happy Halloween
This was my first experience with pumpkins, and I probably could’ve done things different. The flowers grew large and had pollinators but kept falling off before the fruit would form. I’ll have to research that issue for next year. The one pumpkin that did grow was a fluke. Maybe the flower was resting on the ground so it didn’t fall off? We’ve also had an unusual Fall so far. We had 2 freezing nights that killed most of the plants but now the weather is warm again. Small sections of the plants survived and are still green and flowering. I’m leaving them alive for the bees. There is also another tiny egg-sized pumpkin growing but I don’t think it will stay warm long enough for it to mature. Sorry for such a long answer!
Those biscuits look so yummy! I planted pumpkin seeds this year and out of 10 plants I only harvested one beautiful pumpkin. I’m thinking about what to cook with it. Pumpkin puree in the cans has gotten so expensive! I’m leaving the pumpkin plants alive because they still have some beautiful yellow flowers that the bees are feasting on! I’ll try again next year.
I’m having my afternoon coffee break which gave me enough time to chop up my non carved pumpkin and put it in the oven to bake as I’ll have pumpkin soup tonight! xxxx
Hi Carolyn I’ve just made these, they are so tasty. Even the raw biscuit dough tastes amazing. Thank you