History Bakers: Mrs E. Horsley's Lemon Biscuits (The Great British Bake Off - Week 7-8)

With no-one feeling up to Meringue Week or another Pastry bake here is an Archivist staple another biscuit recipe. 

I decided to make lemon biscuits from a recipe book created by the Anlaby Road Methodist Church’s Wives and Mothers Club. The book was complied at some point in 1950, and was filled with delicious recipes submitted by local women. This lemon biscuit recipe is credited to Mrs. E. Horsley. Presumably, since she decided to add this particular recipe to the book, it was one she was very familiar with – and maybe even one of her favourites! 

I chose to make these biscuits because I love lemon-flavoured things, and adding cherry to the mix sounded like a very interesting combination. I was very pleased with the outcome of this recipe, and will likely make the biscuits again in the future!

In the book, this recipe called for:

- 3 oz butter

- 3 oz castor sugar

- Grated rind and juice of lemon

- 6 oz self-raising flour

- ¼ tablespoon salt

- 4 tablespoons condensed milk

- Glazed cherries

None of these ingredients were tricky to find, and most of the instructions were similarly easy to follow – albeit not as detailed as a modern recipe! I’m not very familiar with measuring in ounces, so I wasn’t sure how many biscuits the recipe would make. 

I wound up doing two batches to ensure there were enough for everyone to enjoy. By doubling all of the ingredients, I ended up with just over 20 biscuits – so it’s likely the original recipe meant to make around 10.

I did find myself having to make a guess on just how much lemon to include, as ‘grated rind and juice of lemon’ wasn’t as specific as I would have liked. I ended up using two lemons, with as much rind and juice as I could possibly get out of them, and the flavour came through perfectly!

In grams, the ingredients that I used for roughly 20 biscuits were as follows:

- 170 grams unsalted butter

- 170 grams castor sugar

- Grated rind and juice of 2 lemons

- 340 grams self-raising flour

- ½ tablespoon salt

- 8 tablespoons condensed milk

- 10 glazed cherries

I began by getting my butter out of the fridge to allow it to soften. Then, I pre-heated the oven to 160 degrees Celsius, as the recipe called for a ‘fairly hot oven’. My first batch of biscuits ended up baking for around 20 minutes, rather than the instructed 15, so I increased the temperature to 180 degrees for the rest.

Here’s a picture of my cat, Napkin, trying to get involved with the baking before he was promptly shut out of the room… I made sure everything was clean after he was locked away, I promise!

Image: Napkin trying to get involved

Following the recipe carefully, I first measured out the butter and sugar, beating them together with a whisk until they were soft and fluffy. I used a mini grater to zest the lemons directly into the bowl, then cut each of them in half, removed the seeds, and squeezed in as much juice as possible. Mixing these ingredients together resulted in quite a wet batter.

Image: Mixing the batter

At the time, I worried I had put in too much lemon juice for the volume of batter in the bowl, but it wound up being perfect once I added the flour! In fact, after I folded in the flour, salt, and condensed milk carefully, the mix came together into a dough that looked heavier than I had expected.

Image: The final dough mix

I then greased a baking tray with butter and took small balls of dough from the bowl, rolling them with my hands to get a good shape. I pressed these onto the baking tray, cutting the glazed cherries in half and putting a half on each biscuit. After sprinkling them with a bit more sugar, it was time to put them in the oven!

Image: Cherry additions and into the oven

At 180 degrees Celsius, the biscuits baked for around 15 minutes until they were golden.

Image: The finished Lemon Biscuits

This recipe turned out to be very simple, and resulted in some absolutely delicious biscuits! The staff at the History Centre agreed, commenting:

• ‘Very pleasing as it has just the right amount of bite which then obliges to melt in the mouth.’

• ‘Delicious – a lovely crisp texture with a delicate lemon flavour. Save the middle till the end for a cherry finale!’

• ‘Nice mix of textures with the crunchy biscuit and soft lemony centre.’

• ‘Loved the texture. The cherry gave it a sweet taste to finish!’

• ‘Such a nice lemony flavour and a beautifully chewy yet crunchy texture.’

I will definitely be making this recipe again in the future, these biscuits were delicious!