Recipe: Earl Grey Squirrel Biscuits

A lot of the time, when I'm cooking, I like to combine two things I love into one end result. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't, but it's fun experimenting all the same. That's how these Earl Grey Biscuits came about - trying to combine biscuits with the flavour of my favourite blend of tea. It actually worked a lot better than I expected, as the Earl Grey flavour was distinctive, but without being too overpowering. I bought the squirrel biscuit cutter on a whim, and used it here purely for the pun on grey squirrel. Because if there's anything I love just as much as baking, it's a pun.

Ingredients: (Makes Approximately 14 Medium Sized Biscuits)

• 100g Butter (or margarine)
• 100g Caster Sugar
• 275g Plain Flour
• 1 Free Range Egg
• 1 Earl Grey Tea Bag
• A slab of chocolate (optional)

Recipe: 

Preheat oven to 190 Degree Celsius

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. 

Mix in the egg, before slowly sifting in the flour. When the mixture is a soft dough, rip open the tea bag and knead the tea leaves into the dough. Add more or less tea bags if you want a weaker/stronger flavour (I used one whole tea bag).

Roll out to a 1cm thickness, and cut out shapes using a biscuit cutter.  

Place on a baking tray, and bake for 10 minutes, or until golden brown. 

Leave to cool, before melting chocolate for decoration. 

These are great little treats to serve with a cuppa. Because what goes better with tea than more tea? I'd describe the texture of these biscuits as being quite soft, but definitely not gooey. They cool a lot harder, but they rarely hang around for that long... If you're not a fan of Earl Grey, then simply replace the tea leaves with vanilla essence and a handful of chocolate chips.

Let me know if you try this, or if you recommend any other flavours for biscuits!