Michaela's Poppy Seed Biscuits

Want a biscuit that 's crisp but not hard, sweet  but not sickly sweet (you could eat it with cheese), good as an accompaniment to ice cream as well as tea or coffee? Try this easy to make addictive little number.

 

Ingredients

1¾ cup of plain flour
1 rounded teaspoon baking powder
¼ cup of poppy seeds
3 ounces butter (75 grams)
½ cup white caster sugar
2 eggs
Grated zest of 1 lemon
Vanilla flavouring (optional but omit if you are intending to eat these with cheese -cheese/vanilla, yuk!)
 

Method

Heat the oven to 170c
Sift together the flour and baking powder then stir around until well mixed. Add the poppy seeds and give the mixture another stir .
Cream the butter and sugar together with an electric beater until the mixture becomes paler and a bit fluffy. Add the beaten eggs and mix together until you have a smooth batter.
Add the dry ingredients, lemon zest and vanilla if using. Scrape down the sides then mix again briefly.
You will have a soft, smooth dough.
At this stage you could ,if you wanted to, freeze half or some of the dough to use another time.
Take heaped teaspoons of the mixture and roll into balls.
Place a sheet of non-stick baking paper on a baking tray. Place a ball of dough on the tray .Take a heavy flat bottomed glass, place a little square of paper on top of the ball of dough to prevent sticking, then, (I like this bit) squash the ball of dough into an even circle. They work best when the dough is squashed out to about the same thickness as a digestive. Peel the square of paper off the biscuit.
Repeat until the dough is used up.
Bake for about 15 minutes. This will depend on your oven but you should aim for a light golden brown colour.
Remove from the tray using a palette knife and leave them to become completely cold - if you can resist the temptation to pop one in your mouth - on a  cooling tray.