Simple & delicious Sultana cookies

My friend Miss Rabbit (a good Yorkshire woman) who I travelled to London with in May got me onto a LOVE of all things M&S when we were there. She has a passion and love for the M&S Onion ring unlike anything I had ever seen and as for the baked goods? Well we tried them all, including the biscuits. Ok, especially the biscuits. OH MY GOD THE BISCUITS.

The mini containers/buckets of flapjacks and chocolate crunch! THE SULTANA COOKIES. She returned back to England after we went for the wedding and brought me back a gift of a packet of said sultana cookies. I forgot how good they were until I opened them up and you know, rolled half the pack without even thinking about it. I’m not sure what the magic mix is in these biscuits. They are really sugary, but with a little salt too. They are chewy and thin, they are just THE perfect size cookie and perfect for a cup of hot tea.

Of course I started to obsess about the biscuits once they are all gone and decided that I better try and make some of my own because I can’t be going to London every time I want a good bikkie. I searched the internet and found this recipe and decided to adapt and have a crack. They are a work in progress, but a damn good start. In fact, they reminded me of a biscuit that my Grandma Dot used to make for us being the good country woman that she was, they are a simple, no fuss biscuit that I know she would have made and liked. These were a little crumbly for my liking, next time I will add in a little more butter and I also made them too thick (I added too much mixture per cookie) and perhaps over baked them so they weren’t as chewy as I would like, but they were still delicious. And of course devoured by every member of the family and perfect with tea. PERFECT.

Simple Sultana Cookie (makes 30)

2.5 cups plain flour
1.5 cups caster sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sultanas
200 grams butter softened
1 tablespoon milk

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees fan forced. Into a bowl mix in the flour, salt and baking powder (I had a little helper with me)

2. Into a mixer add in the butter and caster sugar and mix until light and fluffy

3. Add in half of the flour mixture to the sugar and butter mix until combined

4. Then add in the milk and the remainder of the flour mixture until combined, then add in the sultanas and then the mixture will start to come together in a ball

5. Line your baking trays and take a tablespoon and a scoop of the mixture (see in my picture how it was quite crumbly? I think I needed a little more butter and less of a scoop). Roll into balls and place on the baking trays

6. Place another baking tray on top to push to biscuits down (mine were too big so were too thick when squished) then place into the pre heated oven and bake for 6 minutes. You won’t get much colour on them but this gives the chew…don’t overbake like I did (I left them 8-10 minutes)

7. Allow to cool (if you haven’t made many biscuits before you will think that they are SOFT when they are hot and not cooked. They are! Just leave until cool before putting onto racks). Eat when cool (ish) it’s hard to wait with a hot cup of tea. The girls ate these in their lunchboxes all week too and they went down a dream.

The one thing I love about cooking and trying new things and making mistakes is the chance to make them again right?! And I will definitely be trying these again because that sugar and salt with the soft sultana was SO good and THE best cup of tea companion.

[gmc_recipe 27062]

Best I get cooking again right? RIGHT!

What is your favourite M&S biscuit?
Do you love a cup of tea with your bikkie or is it coffee?

Comments

  1. I don’t know about biscuits but the M&S range of yoghurts was phenomenal…. madagascan vanilla, lemon…. and their hoisin duck wraps basically kept me alive when I lived in London. If i could afford it, I’d go back just to wander around the M&S Food Halls.

  2. I remember back in the early 60’s my older sister worked at M&S and at the end of the day Marks would sell off all the unsold cakes etc to the staff at crazy low prices. We kids would stand and wait for Jean to arrive off the bus with all the goodies, as we basically had only ever had homemade cakes and biscuits our whole lives. Definitely something about M&S food and whenever my daughter visits UK she always heads to M&S to stock up.
    I love their meringues with fresh cream!

  3. I recently tried the white chocolate and cranberry biscuit recipe in the Ottolenghi book – and oh my lord, the perfect chewy biscuit. It might make a good recipe base to cross check for your sultana biscuit (old school I’m afraid).

  4. My hot baking tip would be to weigh out the flour – 150g is a cup. Scooping always gives more… Try the recipe as is with weighed flour and see if it makes it less crumbly. Also make sure the butter is only soft, not melted… that will help the texture of your dough. Jesus, so bossy! I ate put some time into perfect cookies!

  5. Have you tried Aldi’s peanut cookie? Omgosh…YUM!!

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