There’s always someone in a family home looking for something to eat, whether it’s for morning smoko, with the lunchtime cuppa, for afternoon tea or when the kids come home from school hungry…and lots of times in between. In our house, it’s hard to keep the tins stocked, so fast do the contents disappear.

Biscuits are so versatile; they can be sweet or savoury, plain or fancy. They are easy to make and keep well when they’re given the chance! The American term is “cookies” so beware if you are in the USA that if you ask for biscuit, what you’ll get is a thick, soft, scone-like product – served in the South with “gravy” a white-grey tasteless concoction; personally I’d stick to the cornflakes!

The name “biscuit” comes from Latin ‘panis biscotus’ – “bread twice cooked”. While they might seem a galaxy away from Toffee Pops, twice cooked dough of flour and water was literally what the early ones were, whether rusks or the ship’s biscuit made from stiff flour and water dough for sailors on long voyages and soldiers on the march. The Italians produced such “biscuits” commercially in the Middle Ages, while the English had a particularly unappetising equivalent. It’s said that part of the kit of a 14^th century Scottish soldier was a flat tin plate and a bag of oatmeal with which he would mix up the oatmeal and water and bake it over the fire on the plate, making fresh oatcakes. to the envy of their fellows chomping on hard tack!

The Romans made thin sweet biscuits, first boiling a thick paste of fine wheat flour which was spread out on a plate until cooled and hard, then it was cut up and fried until crisp before being served with honey and pepper. Cracknel came from that process, while the mediaeval simnel was similarly made.

Sweeter, spiced mixtures also came in to being, the forerunners of gingerbread and honey cakes, which in turn led to the likes of “ginger nuts” and the German Lebkuchen. In time it was found that beaten eggs would make a lighter product led to the progenitors of macaroons, meringues and boudoir biscuits.

In other words, like most of our popular foods, biscuits evolved from the very simple to the much more complex and wide range from plain water biscuits and crackers for serving with cheese to the very sweet, ‘death by chocolate’ confections evident on today’s supermarket shelves.

However, I think the best biscuits are still home baked and it is much more economical to make your own, especially if you have a growing family and lots of casual visitors. You can make such a wide variety, too, that rivals the commercial selection but without the additives and salt/sugar overload!

Try some of these ideas to fill your tins. Flat Mustard Biscuits make a tasty pre-dinner nibble on their own or with cheese. Perfect to serve with coffee are Greek Hazelnut Biscuits or Amaretti. Scotch Shortbread is a perennial favourite with all ages as are Bobby’s Peanut Biscuits. I always look forward to morning coffee with my old friend Tui Flower when she has made her Cornflake and Raisin Biscuits. Get the children to help ice Spiced Pumpkin Biscuits, which can also be eaten un-iced when they aren’t too sweet. Crispy, crunchy and nutty, I love biting in to Hazelnut Biscuits.