Quick-mix anything biscuits – add what you like, ready in 5

Imagine a biscuit that seems to magically appear from nothing and you can make with whatever you’ve already got in the pantry. That’s what these ‘quick-mix biscuits’ are all about. They take less than five minutes to put together and you can throw in whatever’s around.

You can basically swap most of the ingredients in this recipe out for other things (see notes). Hence why I call them ‘anything’ biscuits. I don’t think I’ve ever made this recipe exactly the same more than a handful of times. From the same recipe, I’ve turned out choc chip biscuits, sugar-free spelt and ginger biscuits, coconut biscuits, wholemeal sultana biscuits…  They also take less time than it would take to buy a packet of biscuits at the supermarket. Clever cookies.

I use this recipe when I remember at 3pm that the kids have invited a mate home after school and I need to show off my mad home-baking skills. Because if not for other-people’s-children, then who?

Also good: Ginger biscuits that I ripped off from our canteen lady

Anything quick-mix biscuits

Makes about 20 biscuits
Takes 15 minutes
Bakes around 12 minutes

100g of butter, melted (really soft butter works too)
½ cup of raw caster sugar or brown sugar
1 tbsp of golden syrup
1 free-range egg, lightly-beaten
1½ cups self raising flour
1 cup of ‘extras’ to add to your biscuits (I used choc chips, see notes below)

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a baking tray with baking paper or grease well.

Mix the butter and sugar together, then stir in the golden syrup. Once completely cool, add the egg and mix together well.

Add flour and mix. Then gently fold through whatever you are adding to your biscuits.

Scoop dessert spoon sized blobs onto the baking tray – no need to flatten them or shape them.

Put in the preheated oven for around 12-15 minutes.

Notes:

•  Swap the self-raising flour for plain, plain wholemeal or spelt flour plus 3 tsps baking powder. For my little coeliac friend Alyssa, I’ve also made these anything biscuits with gluten-free coconut flour and gluten-free baking powder.

•  Swap the golden syrup with honey, rice malt syrup or maple syrup – I even made it with chocolate syrup once and that worked too.

•  Leave out the sugar if you like, or swap for coconut sugar or muscavado for a less-processed biscuit, or brown sugar to give a richer flavour.

•  ‘Extras’ could be chocolate chips, sultanas or other dried fruits, peanuts, sprinkles, chopped dates, sunflower seeds, pepitas, oats, coconut or chopped almonds.

•  You could probably use coconut oil in place of the butter, but be warned that while I’ve swapped out everything else, I’ve never swapped the butter.

•  You can also skip the extras entirely and jazz up the recipe using a pinch of nutmeg, cinnamon or ground ginger

And that, dear mums, is why these babies are called anything biscuits!