Easter isn’t just about chocolate. For my family Easter Biscuits are as important as chocolate eggs are in celebrating everyone’s favourite spring festival!

My mum has has always been a good baker and one of her specialities is Easter biscuits – Those delightful buttery, crumbly biscuits with their unique fragrance and crunch.

One of the secrets of their success is undoubtedly cassia oil, a cinnamon-like oil Extracted from the bark of a Cinnamomum cassia plant. It used to be very hard to get hold of, with mum resorting to finding it in Boots the chemist! Hence the fact that the age-old recipe she has adapted (which came on a small card with the oil) considers cassia oil as a ‘health product’).

If you can’t get cassia oil, you could of course use a pinch of ground cinnamon, but it’s not quite the same. The other must is Corinthian currants from Greece (otherwise and slightly confusingly known as Corinthian raisins!) which you can get in supermarkets, delis and online. Mum uses Golden Black raisins which have 2 Great Taste Award stars. They are goooooood!

A lot of people have been asking for a delivery of the biscuits… And let’s face it, Mum would be very busy this week with requests! But if you have the time, have a go at making them yourselves. She has kindly shared her recipe with me.

So here is Pauline Clarke’s Easter Biscuit Recipe!

Ingredients:

275g plain flour
200g butter (I use salted butter)
150g caster sugar
50g Black Corinthian currants (I put just a little bit more – Perhaps 60g)
2 egg yolks (no other liquid)
6 drops Cassia oil (I find it needs a bit more, so I use about 10 drops)

Method:

Mix all the ingredients together (I mix the butter and sugar first then add the rest).

Roll out and cut the shapes
I put 3 cuts on the top with a pointed sharp knife.

Bake in a moderate oven (about 160 – 170 fan) for approx. 10 mins.

Transfer to cooling rack and shake over caster sugar.