1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
60g butter
1 cup Chelsea White Sugar
1 cup medium-cut coconut (not fine)
1 large egg
optional topping (crystallised ginger, glace cherries, mixed peel, chocolate chips, chopped nuts, coffee crystals)

Put flour, baking powder, salt and butter into a food processor and mix well. Add sugar, then process till just mixed. Add coconut and pulse to just mix through.
Break the egg into the food processor and run the machine until the dough clumps together around the blade. With floured hands, roll the dough into a sausage-shaped log approx. 2.5 cm thick and slice into little discs.
Press the discs flat on a baking-paper-lined or well greased oven tray. If you wish, you can add your chosen topping. Bake at 160°C for 10 – 12 minutes.

The biscuits tend to puff up then sink when they come out of the oven. Rest for 2 minutes on the tray, before removing to cool thoroughly (and crisp up) on a wire rack. These biscuits should be a fairly pale golden colour. They keep extremely well in an airtight container and make wonderful presents.

From Sue Thornton of Browns Bay, Auckland an excerpt from our 'Sugar & Spice' recipe book.