I spent years looking for a simple basic biscuit recipe that would fill hungry tummies when there wasn’t much left in the cupboard.

This year, through looking at lots of recipes and a bit of trial and error, I have finally got it mastered. So I am going to share it with you.

It only has three basic ingredients, you can add to it to make all sorts of other biscuits and the whole thing can be made, baked and ready to eat in as little as 20 minutes. Perfect for those snacking emergencies when you have a house full of children!

100g margarine

50g caster sugar

150g self raising flour

Cream the margarine and sugar together, mix in the flour and bring together as a ball of dough with your hands.

Roll it out on a lightly floured surface and cut into shapes.

I cook them in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for about 10 mins, but as with most biscuits you need to keep watch and take them out as soon as the edges start to look golden.

That’s it – I told you it was simple! For the biscuits shown at the top of this post, we added 1tsp of vanilla extract and a pack of chocolate chips.

We have made these up in lots of different ways – we have added cocoa to the mix and then sandwiched them together with chocolate buttercream to make bourbons – add cinnamon and sandwich with cinnamon buttercream – simply add some orange and lemon zest. Experiment and use whatever you have to hand. 

They are really easy for kids to make and come out light, crisp and delicious.

Oh and we often double up on the recipe because there are a lot of us and we’re greedy!