There's a long tradition of eating spiced biscuits with currants and a sugar topping at Easter. I'm not sure there's a traditional Easter biscuit recipe anymore. Each recipe has its own twist - this has lemon juice and zest for a light zing.
There are so many lovely traditional Easter biscuits and cakes but, once my children were old enough to eat them, I stopped making most of them because they don't like dried fruit. Chocolate and mini eggs took over as the basis for most of the baking I did at this time of year.
It's been so long since I made these biscuits that I had to have a couple of attempts at them. You have to take the biscuits out when they're partially cooked to add the egg white and sugar topping. The first lot I made late one evening - always a mistake - and I brushed the egg white too thickly over the top so that the sugar clumped a bit. They tasted good, but look a bit uneven.
I wanted to make sure that they could look better so I made them again, in the afternoon, paying much more attention to how I finished them.
The point is to brush the egg white very thinly over the biscuits and do one at a time - egg white then sugar.
I also made some the second time without the sugar topping. The biscuits on the left don't have any topping - they still look okay but not quite as special. One thing that most of the recipes I've seen have in common is the topping, so I stick with it.
I shan't be offering these to my children, although my stepchildren might appreciate them, but they're all looking forward to a chocolate Easter cake with mini eggs.
If you like this...
...Why don’t you try:
Easter Bunny Biscuits
Easter Rocky Road
Easter Nest Cupcakes
Traditional Easter Biscuits
Ingredients
For the biscuits:
- 100 g butter
- 90 g caster sugar
- 200 g plain/all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon mixed spice (2.5ml)
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg (2.5ml)
- ½ lemon, juice and grated zest
- 1 large egg yolk
- 75 g currants
For the topping:
- 1 egg white
- Caster sugar
Equipment
Instructions
PREPARATION:
- Set the oven to 180°C/ 160°C fan/ gas mark 4/ 350°F
- Grease the baking trays if you aren’t using a liner
- Grate the lemon rind. Juice the lemon
For the biscuits:
- Put all the ingredients for the biscuits, apart from the currants, in the bowl of your mixer or processor and mix well to combine.(Butter, sugar, flour, spices, lemon zest and juice, egg yolk)
- Scrape down and mix again.You will have a ball of dough of a soft consistency
- Add the currants and mix in by hand
- Gather the dough into a ball and squish onto your rolling surface.If you're using a magic liner or silicone sheet you don't need to dust with flour. Otherwise, you do
- Roll the dough to about ½ cm thick and cut out rounds with the cutter, transferring to the prepared baking sheet. Gather the dough together and roll and cut again until it's all used up.The dough is quite resilient and doesn't mind a few rollings out
- Gather the dough together and roll and cut again until it's all used up.The dough is quite resilient and doesn't mind a few rollings out
- Bake for about 10-12 minutes
- Remove from the oven and brush each biscuit, very lightly, with the lightly beaten egg white
- Sprinkle with a little caster sugar and return to the oven for 4-5 minutes or until pale golden brown.For best results do one biscuit at a time, i.e. egg white and sugar
- Cool on the tray for 5-10 minutes then lift onto a wire rack until completely cool
Marianne says
Excellent result. When you are about to bind the dough together you might think it is too dry but if you add just a teaspoon of milk along with the yolk, hands in the bowl to knead it & the mixture comes together well. Good tip about the sugar frosting. Have made these biscuits many times
Susie says
Hi Marianne. Good tip - glad you like the biscuits 🙂
Bev says
I made these and replaced the currants with cranberries and the lemon with orange.
Great results ....
Susie Collings says
Hi Bev, Sounds delicious!
Karen says
Thank you, will have to have another go.
Karen says
Sorry meant added more egg not milk
Susie says
Hi Karen,
Confusion possibly - down to me - about adding lemon juice. Milk would have been a good substitute. I've updated the recipe to make it clearer.
Karen says
Hi I followed this recipe as you said, and there was not enough ingredients to bind it, stayed like breadcrumbs , so added some milk to try and combine ingredients.... not nice Im afraid.
Nicky says
very good recipe, but I presume you mean juice and zest, rather than the bitter white rind of the lemon?
Susie says
Hi Nicky, You're right. The pith, the white part, is not what you want. It is the juice and zest. Hope you enjoy the biscuits. Cheers - Susie.