10 Delicious Homemade Biscuits That Are Surprisingly Easy to Make
I am no baker. Baking is far too much of a science for me – too precise, too many rules and, frankly, I just don’t have the patience. I am what you might politely describe as a slap-dash cook. A bit of this, a splash of that and hope for the best is much more my style.
That said, I do absolutely love a sweet treat. I buy all the usual British favourites – I love a Bourbon biscuit and absolutely adore a Jammie Dodger – but there’s something about a homemade, slightly misshapen, rather on-the-large-side crumbly cookie that you just don’t get from a packet. Especially when it’s still a little warm from the oven and you’ve got a mug of tea ready for dunking while settling in for the latest box-set binge.
The good news is that making biscuits doesn’t have to involve the kind of precision that sends people like me running from the kitchen. These ten biscuit recipes are tried, tested and, most importantly, actually rather simple. No elaborate decorating, no obscure equipment and no need to possess the patience of a saint. Even I have perfected them.
So dust off your mixing bowl, stick the kettle on and bang some of these bad boys in the oven. Homemade biscuits, a smug sense of achievement and brownie points for days – what’s not to love?
1. Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies
Let’s start with the one everybody should have in their repertoire. A proper homemade chocolate chip cookie should be slightly crisp around the edges, soft and chewy through the middle and absolutely loaded with chunks of chocolate.
Ingredients
- 125g unsalted butter, softened
- 100g light brown sugar
- 75g caster sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 200g plain flour
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- Pinch of salt
- 150g milk or dark chocolate, roughly chopped
Method
Heat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan and line a baking tray with baking paper.
Beat the butter and both sugars together until combined, then mix in the egg and vanilla. Add the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt and stir until you have a soft dough. Fold through the chocolate.
Roll into balls – don’t worry about making them perfectly even – and place well apart on the tray. Bake for around 10–12 minutes until golden at the edges but still soft in the middle.
Leave them on the tray for five minutes before transferring to a rack. They’re particularly good eaten while the chocolate is still slightly molten.
2. Buttery Shortbread
Shortbread is proof that you don’t need a cupboard full of ingredients to make something delicious. Butter, sugar and flour do virtually all the work here.
Ingredients
- 200g unsalted butter, softened
- 100g caster sugar
- 300g plain flour
- Pinch of salt
- Extra caster sugar for sprinkling
Method
Heat the oven to 170°C/150°C fan.
Beat the butter and sugar together, then add the flour and salt. Bring everything together into a dough without working it too much.
Roll to around 1cm thick and cut into rounds or fingers. Alternatively, press the whole lot into a lined baking tin and cut it afterwards – which is probably more in keeping with my slap-dash approach.
Prick with a fork and bake for 20–25 minutes until just beginning to turn golden. Sprinkle with caster sugar while still warm.
3. Ginger Biscuits
These are crisp, buttery and have a proper warming hit of ginger. They’re also excellent dunkers, which is surely one of the most important measures of a British biscuit.
Ingredients
- 100g unsalted butter
- 100g light brown sugar
- 2 tbsp golden syrup
- 175g self-raising flour
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
Method
Heat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan.
Gently melt the butter, sugar and golden syrup together in a saucepan. Leave to cool for a couple of minutes.
Mix the flour, ginger and bicarbonate of soda in a bowl, then pour in the butter mixture and stir into a dough.
Roll into small balls, place on a lined baking tray and flatten slightly. Bake for 10–12 minutes until golden. They’ll firm up considerably as they cool, so don’t panic if they’re still soft when they first come out.
4. Double Chocolate Cookies
Sometimes one type of chocolate simply isn’t enough. These are rich, soft and packed with chocolate chunks – exactly the sort of biscuit to make when you’re after something properly indulgent.
Ingredients
- 125g unsalted butter, softened
- 100g light brown sugar
- 75g caster sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 175g plain flour
- 30g cocoa powder
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 150g chocolate chunks
Method
Heat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan.
Beat together the butter and sugars, followed by the egg and vanilla. Stir in the flour, cocoa and bicarbonate of soda before folding through the chocolate chunks.
Roll into generous balls and space them apart on a lined tray.
Bake for around 10–12 minutes. Take them out while the centres still look slightly underdone and let them finish setting on the baking tray.
5. Oat & Raisin Cookies
A little less decadent perhaps, but don’t mistake oats and raisins for these being remotely virtuous. They’re buttery, chewy and brilliant with tea.
Ingredients
- 125g unsalted butter, softened
- 100g light brown sugar
- 50g caster sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 100g plain flour
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 150g rolled oats
- 100g raisins
Method
Heat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan.
Cream the butter and sugars together, then beat in the egg and vanilla.
Add the flour and bicarbonate of soda, followed by the oats and raisins. Stir until everything is evenly distributed.
Spoon generous mounds onto a lined baking tray, leaving room for them to spread. Bake for 10–14 minutes until golden around the edges.
6. Lemon Biscuits
After all that chocolate, something fresh and zingy is in order. These simple lemon biscuits are buttery and crumbly with plenty of citrus flavour.
Ingredients
- 150g unsalted butter, softened
- 75g caster sugar
- 225g plain flour
- Finely grated zest of 2 lemons
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- Icing sugar, optional
Method
Heat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan.
Beat the butter and sugar together before adding the lemon zest and juice. Stir through the flour and bring everything together into a soft dough.
Roll into balls and flatten gently with your fingers or the back of a fork.
Bake for 12–15 minutes until pale golden. Once cool, dust with a little icing sugar if you’re feeling fancy.
7. Peanut Butter Cookies
Sweet, salty and dangerously moreish, peanut butter cookies also happen to be ridiculously easy to make.
Ingredients
- 125g smooth or crunchy peanut butter
- 100g unsalted butter, softened
- 100g light brown sugar
- 50g caster sugar
- 1 large egg
- 175g plain flour
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- Pinch of salt
Method
Heat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan.
Beat the peanut butter, butter and sugars together. Add the egg and mix well before stirring in the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt.
Roll into balls, place on a lined tray and gently flatten each one with a fork to give them that classic criss-cross top.
Bake for around 10–12 minutes. Allow them to cool slightly before moving them because they’ll be wonderfully soft straight from the oven.
8. White Chocolate & Raspberry Cookies
These look much more impressive than the amount of effort involved would suggest, which is exactly the sort of baking I approve of. Sweet white chocolate and sharp raspberries are a brilliant combination.
Ingredients
- 125g unsalted butter, softened
- 100g light brown sugar
- 75g caster sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 200g plain flour
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 150g white chocolate, roughly chopped
- 80g raspberries
Method
Heat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan.
Beat together the butter and sugars before adding the egg and vanilla. Stir through the flour and bicarbonate of soda.
Fold in the white chocolate, followed very gently by the raspberries – you don’t want to completely mash them into the dough.
Spoon onto a lined tray and bake for 12–14 minutes. Let them cool on the tray before attempting to move them.
9. Fudgy Brownie Cookies
Part brownie, part cookie and possibly my favourite of the lot. These have those lovely crackly tops you get on a good brownie while staying rich and fudgy inside.
Ingredients
- 200g dark chocolate
- 50g unsalted butter
- 2 large eggs
- 150g light brown sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 75g plain flour
- 25g cocoa powder
- ½ tsp baking powder
- Pinch of salt
- 75g chocolate chips
Method
Heat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan and line two baking trays.
Melt the dark chocolate and butter together gently, then leave to cool slightly.
Whisk the eggs and sugar for a couple of minutes until slightly thickened. Mix in the vanilla followed by the melted chocolate.
Fold in the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt, then add the chocolate chips.
Spoon generous dollops onto the trays and bake for 9–11 minutes. The tops should be crackled but the middles should still look soft. Don’t overbake them – the fudgy middle is the whole point.
10. Chocolate-Dipped Orange Shortbread
We’re finishing with something that looks like you’ve made considerably more effort than you actually have. Buttery orange shortbread dipped in dark chocolate feels almost sophisticated enough to serve when people come round.
Almost.
Ingredients
- 200g unsalted butter, softened
- 100g caster sugar
- 300g plain flour
- Finely grated zest of 2 oranges
- Pinch of salt
- 150g dark chocolate
Method
Heat the oven to 170°C/150°C fan.
Beat the butter, sugar and orange zest together. Add the flour and salt and bring into a dough.
Roll out to around 1cm thick and cut into rounds or fingers. Bake for 20–25 minutes until pale golden, then leave to cool completely.
Melt the dark chocolate and dip one end of each biscuit into it. Place on baking paper until the chocolate has set.
They’ll look wonderfully neat if you get the dipping exactly even. Mine generally don’t. They still taste fantastic.
A Few Tips From a Reluctant Baker
If, like me, precision baking isn’t exactly your natural habitat, there are a few things worth remembering.
Don’t panic when cookies come out of the oven looking too soft. They continue to cook and firm up on the hot baking tray. In fact, leaving them in the oven until they look completely cooked is one of the easiest ways to end up with hard cookies.
Give them plenty of room on the tray too. I’ve learnt this one the messy way. Cookie dough spreads, and six individual cookies can very quickly become one enormous cookie continent.
And finally, don’t worry about perfection. Homemade biscuits aren’t supposed to look as though they’ve rolled off a factory production line. Wonky edges, different sizes and enormous chunks of chocolate are all part of the appeal.
Put them on a plate, make a proper cup of tea and take full credit for your efforts. And if anyone asks whether they were difficult to make, there’s absolutely no need to tell them just how easy they were.
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