A nice cup of tea and a biscuit

May 6, 2012 at 4:39 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments
Tags: Agnes Jekyll, cinnamon biscuits, Persephone Books

Just the ticket on this unseasonably cold and grey Sunday – a nice cup of tea and one of Agnes Jekyll’s cinnamon biscuits. I enjoyed her recipe for orangeade (made as part of a Famous Five High Tea a few weeks ago) so made these in order to have a little something to take with me on a long walk around London tomorrow afternoon.

I recall cinnamon biscuits making an appearance in one of the ‘Barney R’ mysteries (can anyone remind which one?) and this recipe, published in 1922 is very simple and traditional and could easily have been baked for hungry and inquisitive children taking a break from solving a mystery.

Cinnamon Biscuits (from Kitchen Essays by Agnes Jekyll, (re)published by Persephone Books)

3 oz butter

3 oz castor (sic) sugar

6oz flour

1 egg

1 teaspoonful powdered cinnamon

Beat butter and sugar to a cream. Mix cinnamon with flour, adding it gradually; moisten this mixture with beaten egg till a stiff paste. Roll out, and cut into cakes with a round cutter; sprinkle with chopped almonds. Put on a baking sheet in a moderate oven.

Miss Jekyll does not specify time or temperature. I opted for 150ºc for 15-20 mins and this seemed to work. The biscuits firm up as they cool. I also added an extra sprinkling of cinnamon after putting the almonds on top.

Serve with tea or orangeade.