How simple and so very delicious is this authentic wartime recipe. They were so easy and quick to make and would cope with the addition of sultanas or aromatic spices such as cinnamon and nutmeg or black market chocolate chunks.

I haven’t baked biscuits or cakes for quite some time, simply because I have a rather uncontrollable sweet tooth but with porridge oats being one of the main ingredients, I convinced myself that these were “good for me”. Three biscuits later (had to taste test!) I can comfortably say these are wonderfully comforting and one or two won’t do you too much harm!

Crunchies

• 5 oz plain white flour
• 4 oz porridge oats (I used regular porridge)
• 2 oz sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 oz lard
• 2 oz butter or margarine (I used 4 oz of Flora plant based butter instead of lard and butter)
• 2 oz golden syrup
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (I didn’t have any and it still tasted great)

1. Cream the fats, sugar, syrup and vanilla essence together until well mixed.
2. Add the dry ingredients and mix until a dough forms.
3. You can then divide mixture into 12 balls and press them onto the lined baking tray until they form round discs about 1 cm thick or you can flour a board, roll out the dough and cut out the biscuits.
4. Bake at 180 c for about 20 minutes or so until golden brown on the edges.
5. Remove from oven. Leave to cool on tray for 10 minutes then transfer to wire rack and leave to fully cool.

Makes 12 large biscuits, or 18 smaller ones.

You can listen to this recipe on Spotify: https://anchor.fm/carolyn-ekins