Irish hazelnut honey biscuits

Apparently the saying 'Nip the Cake' stems from the Irish custom of breaking off a small corner of a freshly baked cake or biscuit to ward off bad luck.

Irish Hazelnut Honey Biscuits

• 75g hazelnuts
• 150g plain flour
• salt
• 100g butter
• 50g caster sugar
• 4 tablespoons thick honey

Toast the nuts in the oven for 10 minutes. You need to remove any skins before grinding to a powder. Cream the butter and sugar together and sift in the flour and salt. Add the nuts. Knead lightly. Chill the dough for 30 minutes.

Roll out the dough and cut iinto 5cm rounds. Grease a baking tray, line with paper and bake at 190C/375F/G5 for 7 - 10 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Serve sandwiched together with thick honey.

I didn't actually ground the hazelnuts up all that finely wanting a little crunch in the biscuit; it made the dough rather fragile though, but the end result is rather tasty.

[Photo Andrew Barrow]