Easter biscuits

We went climbing this morning, and photographed Sweetcorn the bear making his way up the wall. Nursery will either think it's hilarious, or we'll be forever labelled as rebellious parents.

Biscuits were definitely required after all that hard work. These are based on a Hugh Fearnley-Whirligig recipe, and are nicely spicy for Easter - a good antidote to all that chocolate.

You'll need:

100g raisins
juice of half an orange
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
225g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon mixed spice
a little grated nutmeg
110g sugar
110g butter
1 egg

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C, and find a baking tray.

Sling the raisins in a bowl with the orange juice and vanilla extract, and leave to steep for 10 minutes.

In the meantime, mix together the flour and spices in a bowl. Rub in the butter, and then stir in the sugar. Tip in the raisins/juice, and mix well, so that they're evenly distributed. Beat the egg lightly, and then add that too. It'll look like a sticky mess - you'll need to mix it until it comes together to form a ball of dough. Give it a knead for a minute or two, to make sure all the crumbs stick together.

Hugh reckons you should chill the dough in the fridge for 15 minutes. He's probably right, but I ran out of time and energy, and moved straight onto the next part - rolling out the dough. Once it's about 0.5cm thick (ish), fish out your cutters and start cutting out some rounds (or squares, or whatever).

Place on your baking tray (that you've conveniently lined with a silicon sheet, or some such thing), and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until they've turned golden brown. Sling onto a wire rack to cool. And try not to wolf them all at once.