Love For Orange and Rosemary Biscuits.

Oh biscuits, I do love you so. In all of your forms; plump and chewy, thin and crumbly, chocolatey, buttery, oaty...whatever, I love you all. But I'm afraid it is an unrequited affair.

I'm not a snacker in general. Therefore the appearance of a biccy in my day has got to be a special one. And myohmy did this orange and rosemary concoction deliver. Crumbly shortbread with a sweet, creamy icing, and the fantastically unexpected combination of orange and rosemary.....mmmm dreamy.

But the biscuit doesn't love me back. It leads me on with it's delicious delicacy, leaves me wanting more and more and more without remotely satisfying any hunger (or nutritional requirement, but the less said about that the better).

Like a classic fool I will continue to love these wonderful little mouthfuls, lust after their soft melty-in-the-mouthyness and embrace their calories into my day. Make them and you will not be able to resist their charm either. Sorry. With Love and Cake.

Orange and Rosemary Biscuits.

A few notes:

• If you're not liking the whole rosemary thing here, first, think again, it's wonderful, second, simply leave it out and the orangeyness will be even more lovely and sunshiney.
• The icing is not mandatory of course, but does contribute greatly to fancyness and to texture.
• I use my food processor here, which means the biscuits are a cinch to make, but if that's not an option for you, just rub the butter in with your fingers and bring the dough together with your hands.

Makes 15-20

You will need

a 7-ish-cm round cutter (or use a glass or mug)

a large baking sheet, lined

For the biscuits

175g plain flour

100g soft butter

50g caster sugar

zest of 1 orange

1 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary

1 egg yolk

For the icing

100g icing sugar

1 tbsp fresh orange juice

1/2 tsp orange food colouring (optional)

fresh rosemary leaves

• Get your oven on first, so it preheats to 180°c.
• Now pop the flour and butter in your processor and whizz (or rub in by hand) to the texture of breadcrumbs.
• Whizz or stir in the sugar, zest and rosemary so everything is evenly combined.
• Add the egg yolk and bring the mix together in your processor or by hand to a smooth dough.
• On a clean, floured surface roll the dough out to about the thickness of a pound coin.
• Cut out discs with your cutter and transfer them to your baking sheet.
• Collect up and roll out the excess dough and cut out more discs; continuing until all the dough is used up.
• Bake in the oven for 12 minutes when they should be just golden.
• Leave the biscuits to firm up a bit on the baking tray for 5 minutes or so, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
• When the biscuits are cold it's time to ice.
• Whisk the icing sugar with the orange juice and colouring so you have a smooth, faaaairly thick paste.
• Then spoon and smooth it over the top of your biscuits and top with a rosemary leaf if you're feeling fancypants.