What is nicer than tea and biscuits? Tea and homemade biscuits, warm from the oven.

We love baking club, for many of us it is our favourite activity, I don’t know if it’s the social aspect or the therapeutic mixing or kneading or just the fact that there is always something tasty to eat at the end of it, but we love it.

The last two weeks have been extra special for us bakers as our favourite show, The Great British Bake Off is back on our screens. We love to sit together and watch it, commenting on the bakes and admiring Prue’s glasses. It really is wonderful to be surrounded by like minded people. We understand each other and enjoy the same things. Bake Off is much better with friends.

Inspired by biscuit week we thought we’d try our hand at some shortbread. There is nothing like that buttery, crumbly biscuit eaten while warm and washed down with a cup of tea. 

We got together in the tearoom to make a start; it seems like week on week this club becomes more popular. This is lovely to see because not only does it make it more fun, but we also get to chat and learn about each other’s lives. We bond over baking.

Shortbread is a seemingly easy recipe however you do have to be careful not to be too heavy handed with the mixture otherwise your biscuits will be too hard, and Paul Hollywood wouldn’t be impressed with that.

As luck would have it our biscuits came out perfect, light and crumbly with the perfect crunch. We sat around at the end of the afternoon, just as we always do, drinking our tea and enjoying the fruits of our labour. The biscuits were scrumptious, we really are getting quite proficient at this baking game, I think Paul Hollywood would have approved of our bakes, maybe we should invite him along to give us his verdict. Paul, if you’re ever in the neighbourhood do feel free to pop in and tell us what you think.