What's your best biscuit/cookie recipe ever?

[dairymoo]

You know, the one that never lets you down and never leaves you with any leftovers.

Oh, and doesn't contain nuts?

Please share with me...

Thanks very much!

8 oz sr flour
4 oz butter
4 oz sugar
zest 1 lemon
1 egg

rub fat into flour, add sugar and lemon rind, bind with egg, roll out and stamp shapes. Bake 10 mins till pale golden.

Add raisins at rubbing-in stage for a different flavour.

1oz sugar
2oz butter
3oz flour
cream butter and sugar, add flour, mix, knead, roll out, cut out, gas 4 10min

no rubbing in, no eggs, no scales (use 2, 4 and 9 level tablespoons respectively), all things you have in the cupboard
dd (2.1) can make them

tart up by adding raisins/choc chips / orange zest etc or by icing afterwards. They make good Christmas tree biscuits if you remember to make the hole before baking

150g margarine
150g caster sugar
300g flour (plain)
150-200g plain or milk choc (chopped)
1 egg
1 tsp baking powder

Mix everything together. In the oven for 8 mins at 180°C.

Its never gone wrong and they never last more than 24h in my house (there's only two of us! )

Orange Biscuits (Officially makes about 60 biscuits - more like 40 in my hands)

150g (5oz) butter (take out 1 hour before to soften)
200g (7oz) plain flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 large egg
200g (7oz) caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanillae essance or extract
2 oranges (zest only, grated on medium holes)

1. Beat butter & sugar together until creamy
2. stir in pre-beaten egg & vanilla
3. Stir in orange zest
4. Sift flour, baing powder and salt into a bowl. Add to the dough and stir until very soft. IF dough is very soft put into fridge for an hour (I don't normally do this).
5. Lay piece of foil on worktop. Roll the dough on it to make a suasage shape. Wrap the foil around sausage and put n fridge for an hour until it becomes firm. At this stage it will keep for 10 days in fridge or 6 weeks in freezer.
6. Cut dough into thin slices (I expeperimented a bit with this and do about 3mm) and spread out on a non-stick baking sheet. It doesn't say anything about greasing it but I am not brave enough not to!!!
7. Bake in preheated oven at 200C, gas Mark 6 for 6-7mins until golden
8. Leave on baking sheet for 1 min before moving to a wire rack to cool.

Biscuits keep well in a airtight container (4-5 days).

I am not a biscuit person but these are delicious

Thanks all - some great ones to try! Am getting into baking with the DTs so particularly like the sound of the easy peasy ones.

More ingredients required for these, and a few steps, but they are the BEST biscuits. I'm lucky to get my hands on one when I bake them.

Oatmeal and raisin biscuits

Makes about 18 large ones.

1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 pound unsalted butter, softened
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups rolled oats (NOT instant.)
1 1/2 cups raisins

Method

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Line two large baking trays with baking paper.
Cream butter and sugars. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add vanilla.
Mix flour, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon together in medium bowl. Stir dry ingredients into butter-sugar mixture. Stir in oats and raisins.
Take 2 big tablespoons of dough at a time, roll into 2-inch balls. Place balls on baking trays, leaving at least 2 inches between each ball.
Bake until edges turn golden brown, 22 to 25 minutes. Let cool on tray at least 30 minutes before moving to cooling rack.

Do not overbake. The edges should be brown, but the rest of the cookie should be pale. If you make large biscuits they'll be gorgeous and chewy, if you make smaller biscuits they'll be crispy. The chewy ones are the best!

Chocolate Chip Cookies Millies Style

Ingredients

125g butter, softened
100g light brown soft sugar
125g caster sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
225g self-raising flour
½ tsp salt
200g chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C, gas mark 4.

1. Cream butter and sugars, once creamed, combine in the egg and vanilla.

1. Sift in the flour and salt, then the chocolate chips.

1. Roll into walnut size balls, for a more homemade look, or roll into a long, thick sausage shape and slice to make neater looking cookies.

1. Place on ungreased baking paper. If you want to have the real Millies experience then bake for just 7 minutes, till the cookies are just setting - the cookies will be really doughy and delicious. Otherwise cook for 10 minutes until just golden round the edges.

1. Take out of the oven and leave to harden for a minute before transferring to a wire cooling rack. These are great warm, and they also store well. In our house they disappear within two days!

Twinks Hobnobs as made famous on MSE - makes around 30-40 depending how big your balls are

Ingredients

8oz sr flour
8oz sugar
8oz porridge oats
8oz margarine
1tbsp golden syrup
1tbsp hot water
1/2 tsp bic soda

Instructions

Mix the flour, oats and sugar, melt marg, syrup and water in a pan. Stir in bic soda and add to dry mix.

Then mix well and make into smallish balls which you then put on a greased tray and flatten slightly with a fork. Put in the oven at 180 degrees C for 15 mins... and cool on the tray. The aim is to get them golden in the oven not brown.

coconut macaroons.

Can't be easier, whip up eggs, add sugar and desciated coconut, blob onto baking trays, cook, eat.

And when they are cooked and cooled, you can dip them in melted dark chocolate and they look really good and taste lush.