Lemon biscuits

I'm in the process of writing another Wholesome Home mini recipe book at the moment. There are quite a few of these now - chutney, jam, soup, cakes, muffins, flapjacks, special occasions etc. What is clearly missing is a book on biscuits. This is missing because I didn't think I made a big enough selection of biscuits to warrant a recipe book. But in fact when I sat down and listed my favourite biscuit recipes I quickly came up with a list of 12 - enough to get started - and I have been adding more as I remember old favourites.

It doesn't take a particularly long time to type up a recipe but compiling the books is a lengthier process than you might imagine because I like to check all recipes as I include them in a book. The only way to check the recipe is to make up a batch, of course - something my family don't complain about, but even so there are only so many biscuits they can eat in a week so it can take weeks to check all the recipes. At the same time, I take a photo of each finished biscuit - a real photo of the real biscuits in an ordinary situation - not a perfect biscuit in a staged setting that is no longer edible by the end of the photo shoot.

So a very biscuity season is install for my family for the next few weeks. At the moment they are all enjoying my lemon sandwich biscuits.

Lemon Sandwich Biscuits

4 oz (110g) butter
2 oz (55g) caster sugar
1 lemon
3 oz (85g) plain flour
2 oz (55g) wholemeal flour
1 oz (25g) oat bran
¼ teaspoon baking powder
1 oz (25g) butter or margarine
¼ oz (6g) corn flour
2 oz (55g) icing sugar

Preheat oven to 180°C, gas 4 and grease a large baking sheet. Cream together the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the grated rind of the lemon plus the juice from half the lemon to the creamed mix and stir well. Add the flours, oat bran and baking powder and combine to form a soft dough. Roll out the dough on a floured surface and cut into squares 3 cm by 3 cm. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes until golden brown then cool on a wire rack. In the meantime, cream together the remaining butter/margarine with the corn flour, icing sugar and the juice of half a lemon. Once the biscuits are cool, smear the cream mixture onto a biscuit and stick another one onto it. Repeat until all the biscuits are paired.