By Keighley’s Mike Armstrong, an award-winning master baker with a big passion for baking...

AH, is there anything more nostalgic than making biscuits?

Homemade biscuits, as they come together with only a handful of ingredients, are ideal for any baker young or old.

The word biscuit is derived from the Latin 'bis-cotus', meaning twice baked, in a two-fold process of the Middle Ages.

The Tudors loved sweet foods, and ate preserved fruits and gingerbread made from honey.

In the 19th-century baking revolution came mass production of biscuits, dried out in a slow oven – and there was the need for nutritious, easy-to-store, easy-to-carry and long-lasting foods on a long journey, in particular at sea.

The Egyptians and Romans loved them too. Biscuits were good for digestion, hence daily consumption of a biscuit was considered good for health.

Early biscuits were hard, dry and unsweetened, but today biscuits can be savoury or sweet, are commonly eaten as a snack food made from wheat or oats and sweetened with sugar, and may contain chocolate, fruit, jam or ginger.

The digestive biscuit and rich tea have long been associated in British culture with cups of tea.

It's true to say I love eating lemon biscuits. They always remind me of summer, with their bright yellow sunshine colour – and it is something so easy to make, which melts in your mouth.

Lemon biscuits also remind me of lemon puff biscuits when I was growing up.

There was just something totally irresistible and moreish about having a flaky, cracker-like pastry, sandwiched together with a tangy lemon cream filling, and a sticky coating. I could eat a full packet at once, addictively good washed down with a can of pop!

Jacob and Co is credited with the original recipe in around 1912. The company had been founded in 1851 in Ireland by Willian Jacob and his brother Robert.

Luckily for me, I do have a lemon puff biscuit recipe in my collection and so set about recreating this classic again.

Hobnobs, custard creams, Empire and Garibaldi biscuits are essential to the British culture history – this lemon biscuit is right up there with them and will not disappoint!

RECIPE

LEMON PUFFS

Ingredients:

400g pack of ready-made puff pastry

2 lemon zests, finely grated

2 tablespoons caster sugar

Batch of lemon curd

Icing sugar to dust

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1. Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan/Gas Mark 6 and line two baking trays with baking paper.

2. Zest the lemons and divide the pastry in half and roll each half into an 8’’ square.

3. Mix the lemon zest with 2 tablespoons of caster sugar and sprinkle over the pastry sheets.

4. Carefully lift one sheet and place on top of the other, with both sugar sides facing upwards.

5. Roll out until double in size, then – using a 2’’ round pastry cutter – cut out 24 discs, placing them on the baking trays, lightly prick and bake for 12 minutes until light brown.

6. Once cooled, split and sandwich with the lemon curd, and lightly dust over with a little icing sugar.