Currant and Oat Biscuits

I think these might possibly be our favourite home-made biscuits at the moment - thank you Mary-Ann! They are straightforward to put together and although the quantity of the mix means you have to cook them in 2 batches (and therefore total cooking time is about 40 minutes) they are well worth making as they are totally delicious. Yum yum yum. I thought I had already blogged about these as several batches have been made to date, but couldn't find it so if I'm repeating myself then I apologise.

Currant and Oat biscuits

225g plain flour
2tsp bicarbonate of soda
1.5tsp cinnamon
3/4tsp salt
170g unsalted butter – softened
100g soft brown sugar
200g Demerera sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
180g rolled oats (we have used both porridge oats and Quakers whole rolled oats and can't honestly say I noticed any difference)
100g currants

• Preheat the oven to 160°C, 140°C Fan.
• Sift the flour, soda, cinnamon and salt into a bowl and set aside.
• Cream together the butter and the sugars until light and fluffy.
• Add the egg and the vanilla and mix in thoroughly.
• Gradually stir in the flour mixture, one spoonful at a time.
• Finally, fold in the oats, followed by the currants. NB: The mixture will be very stiff by the end.
• Divide the mixture into balls the size of a walnut, about a heaped tablespoon, and roll smooth.
• Lay the balls of dough onto baking sheets and press down slightly, flattening them. Leave about 5cm between biscuits to allow for spreading. This quantity of mixture will be enough for four baking sheets, so bake them in 2 batches of 2.
• Bake for 18-20 minutes, until crisp and golden. Turn the baking sheets around 180 degrees after ten minutes, to ensure even colouring. Don’t over-bake, or the cooled biscuits will be extremely hard.
• Cool on a wire rack.
• Store in an airtight container (if they make it that far!)