Mary Berry has a range of Easter recipes she’s perfected over the years from her Easter simnel cake and chocolate steamed pudding to her lemon pavlova and chocolate truffle pots.
However, those recipes are more fitting for those with a very sweet tooth as they are sugar-heavy.
For those on the lookout for a sweet treat this Easter that isn’t too sweet, Mary Berry’s Easter biscuits are the perfect choice.
These buttery lemon biscuits are easy to make and take very little time. They took me less than 30 minutes to whip up.
Not only are they very quick and easy to make, but you probably already have all the ingredients in your cupboards, I know I did.
Ingredients
100g unsalted butter, softened
75g caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
One egg, separated
One small unwaxed lemon, finely grated zest only
200g plain flour
50g currants (I used sultanas instead)
Two tablespoons milk
Method
Before getting on with the recipe, I started by weighing out all of the ingredients and zesting the lemon.
Next, I preheated my oven to 180 Fan and lined three baking trays with baking paper.
To a bowl, I added the butter and sugar and beat until well combined and fluffy using a hand mixer.
Then I added the egg yolk and sifted in the flour before mixing well. Once mixed, I added the lemon zest.
While the recipe calls for currents, I used sultanas as I had them to hand. With the sultanas added in, I poured in enough milk to make a fairly soft dough.
Mary claims that you only need one to two tablespoons of milk to make the dough, however, I found that I needed significantly more.
Once the dough was starting to form as I was mixing, I then added it to a floured worktop and kneaded the dough before using a rolling pin to roll out it until 5mm/a quarter inch thick.
Using a 6cm fluted cutter, I cut out exactly 24 rounds which I transferred to the baking trays using a palette knife and left them to bake for eight minutes.
While the biscuits were in the oven, I lightly beat the egg white using a fork.
Once the five minutes were up, I took the biscuits out of the oven, brushed the tops with the beaten egg white and sprinkled over caster sugar before returning them to the oven for 10 minutes.
If you find that this is not enough time, keep them in the oven until they are of a pale golden brown shade and cooked through.
I left the biscuits to cool on the trays for a few minutes before moving them to a wire rack to cool completely.
These biscuits store well and can be made up to three days ahead and kept in an airtight container.
Going in for a taste, the biscuits were delicious and had the perfect crunch. However, one change I would make next time is probably to add more lemon zest or add some drops of lemon juice as the biscuits only had a subtle hint of lemon.