Coconut and Lime Biscuits

It’s February, apologies for stating the obvious. To me, February is the interim month; not as fresh as January when I’m enthusiastic about the New Year and not as good as March when you know that spring has pretty much arrived. So as far as I’m concerned February needs a bit of brightening up to get us all through the cold, grey days. That help can come in many forms; in this case coconut and lime biscuits. This particular flavour combination can transport you to a place of tropical tranquility and for a brief moment you can forget your February woes. *see below

You will need (for around 15 biscuits):

• 150g margarine, cubed
• 75g caster sugar
• 150g plain flour
• 25g desiccated coconut
• Zest 1 lime

Combine all the ingredients together in a bowl or food mixer.

Preheat an oven to 150C.

Roll the biscuits into small balls (just smaller than a golf ball) then put onto greased trays.

Press each biscuit lightly with a fork.

Bake for 15 minutes or until lightly golden. Remove from the tray and leave to cool on a cooling rack.

For a bit of baking escapism it doesn’t get much simpler than this recipe. Mix, bake, eat; all in under 30 minutes (and washing up can get done while they bake). The combination of coconut and lime is sublime; subtle but just enough to give you that little bit of sunshine. I urge you to try these and let them to take you away from the kitchen table and onto a deck chair on a white sandy beach. Mojito optional.

*February woes include:

• Grey skies,
• It’s always cold but it never actually snows,
• The washing on the line is either: wet, damp or frozen,
• Being so over wearing two of everything so as not to shiver uncontrollably for two reasons: you resemble the Michelin man and it generates more washing, adding (literally) to my previous point,
• The evenings are meant to be getting lighter but it all just seems like a big lie,
• Realising that any new year resolutions you had have long since been thrown out of the window,
• And (worst of all) we’re still in the hunger gap so no matter how enthusiastic you are about Jerusalem artichokes there’s only so many one person can eat.