Fat rascals

Ingredients

• 450 g (3 cups) plain flour
• 60 g brown sugar
• 100 g lard, chilled
• 125 g unsalted butter, chilled, chopped
• 150 g currants
• 150 ml milk
• 2 tbsp caster sugar

Cooling time allow to cool completely

Instructions

Place flour, brown sugar and ½ tsp salt in a bowl. Add lard and butter, and rub into dry ingredients until the texture of coarse breadcrumbs. Please don’t be fussy about this; some unevenly mixed bits will make the dough more flaky and interesting. Add currants and enough of the milk to form a nice, textured dough.

Preheat oven to 200°C. Using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll out dough on a lightly floured surface until 1 cm thick. Using a 7 cm-round cutter or bowl, cut into rounds, re-rolling scraps as necessary. Place on oven trays lined with baking paper and sprinkle with caster sugar. Bake in the centre of the oven, swapping trays halfway, for 14 minutes or until the tops and bottoms of the biscuits are starting to turn golden. Cool on the trays for 10 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Store fat rascals in an airtight container for up to 2 days.

Photography Alan Benson