I’m just heading out of town to see a great friend and old sous chef of mine, Guy Day.

As a treat, I have decided to make these super tasty, easy, moreish and downright wicked biscuits or, to give them their other name, which horrified me when I heard it at the kids school playground, cookies.

Yes, they are the same thing and we love ‘em as much as the Cookie Monster but please let’s not lose the food that we love and know as British biscuits. Our shortbread, ginger snaps, Empire biscuits, bourbons and jammy dodgers are all lovely.

So let’s get the kids making some of these classic bickies and get them into the swing of all things good and homely. From there, we can then start to add all the exotic fancies out there, whether it be spices, fruits or veggies, to give our biscuits a bit of a fusion twist.

So here is the easiest recipe (from Guy) that’s been tweaked with a bit of ground cardamom.

These biscuits are easy to make and if you pop them in a jar with a big red bow then, hey presto, you have got a nice wee pressie for your travels.

Cardamom lemon crunchies

1lb of soft flour

2 level teaspoons of baking powder

Half an lb of butter

12oz of caster sugar

Finely grated rind from 4 lemons

2 teaspoons of lemon juice

2 eggs

A quarter teaspoon of ground cardamom

1 Mix the flour, baking powder and cardamom together in a bowl

2 Rub in the butter

3 Mix in the sugar and lemon

4 Add the eggs and knead lightly

5 Roll the dough into a sausage shape (it should be the same thickness as your pinky and 12 inches long), wrap in cling film and freeze for a minimum of 6 hours

6 Take the roll out of the freezer and cut what you need into inch long pieces

7 Place the inch long frozen pieces onto greaseproof paper and bake in the oven at 165 degrees centigrade until the biscuits are golden brown and risen

8 Let them cool and devour.