Biscuits. 
I love them. Anytime of day, a cup of tea (plastic free, obvs) and a biscuit is pretty much guaranteed to put a smile back on my face.
But the wrappers from packets of biscuits are not generally easily recycled, which can mean that our daily sugar fix can be adding lbs to our landfill waste, as well as possibly our hips 😉

My solution to this is a spot of light baking, and this is such a great recipe.
It's adapted from Nigella's Christmas Chocolate Shortbread Cookies in her Christmas book and I love it because a) it is super easy - bung it all the mixer and done, no rolling, no chilling, just scoop and bake; b) I can normally be guaranteed to have all the ingredients in the house; c) they taste delicious; d) they freeze really well; and e) as I am about to show you, they are infinitely adaptable.
What’s not to love?!

For the basic chocolate version (ala Nigella)

• 250g butter at room temperature (try to ignore the fact that this is a whole packet of butter…)
• 150g caster sugar
• 300g plain flour
• 40g cocoa
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1tsp baking powder

• Pre-heat the oven to 170C
• Line 2 baking trays with baking paper or re-usable liners
• Put all the ingredients into a Magimix type food processor and whiz until it forms a dough
• Place tablespoons of the dough onto the trays, and roll them into balls. I get 20-30 from this mix. I flatten them down a bit with a fork as I like the ridges that it leaves
• Bake for about 15 minutes, remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10-15 minutes before removing to cool completely on a cooling rack

• Add white chocolate chips or chunks to the recipe above
  
• Add fruit and nut chocolate chunks to the recipe above
• Use a little less cocoa powder, and add in some espresso coffee powder, for mochachino biscuits
• Omit the cocoa and add:
  - milk or dark chocolate chunks/chips
  - raisins
  - raisins and chocolate!
  - white chocolate and cranberry
  - white chocolate and apricot
  - orange zest or lemon zest
  - chunks of crystallised ginger
  - chunks of ginger with dark chocolate chunks
  - a tsp of mixed spice for a festive version-with or without cranberries etc
  - a tsp of almond essence
  - a tsp of coconut essence and a 25g of desiccated coconut

Have you tried this recipe?
What's your favourite flavour...?!
Do share below in the comments!

Finding plastic free snacks for grown-ups and kids alike is a challenge, I'm not going to lie.
There are those times in the day when you're feeling peckish, and fruit just isn't going to cut it. I'm a bit of a sugar fiend, so my go-to is usually homemade biscuits, or maybe flapjack, but I do try (I really try!) to steer the kids away from too much sugar.
This recipe ticks lots of my boxes - it's savoury, easy to make, freeze-able (I make a big batch and then freeze them once cooked), the kids actually like them, and it's plastic-free (ish)!

The recipe is from the marvellous Nigella's “Feast” book.
You don't have to make them feet shaped - use whatever cookie cutters you have, (or turn a glass upside down and use that!) but the feet make me giggle (I'm quite easily amused..

I usually double this recipe and then freeze some.

• 100g cheddar cheese, coarsely grated-I use mature cheddar, but we do like strong cheese in our house!
• 50g plain flour
• 25g soft butter
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• Cookie cutter-preferably in the shape of a foot...
• Baking sheet

• Put all the ingredients in a magi-mix type processor and whiz
• Keep whizzing. Don’t lose the faith, it WILL come together
• When it all starts to whiz around in a big ball, stop, take it out, and roll it into a ball. Then flatten it into more of a disc shape, and wrap it in cling film, or put into a sandwich bag (which you can then re-use!) and place in the fridge for at least an hour (I have been known to leave it overnight or even longer if I run out of time to roll them out-if you do this, then it is worth getting them out half an hour before you want to roll, otherwise it will be hard work!)
• When you are ‘ready to roll’, pre-heat your oven to 170C and line 2 baking trays-I use reusable silicon type liners, or you could of course use greaseproof (which I think can be composted?)
• Roll the dough out on a floured surface until it’s about 0.5 thick
• Use your cookie cutter to cut out your biscuits-I get about 10 from this amount of mix, but obviously it depends on the size of your cutter
• Bake for 8-10mins. I do mine for about 8mins-keep an eye on them, they can go from ‘golden’ to ‘brown’ in an instant!

Have you got any favourite savoury plastic free snacks?
Do share below in the comments!

Not only are these packaging free, they are a million times tastier than their shop bought counterparts!
Recently I made teeny tiny versions of these using my smallest cookie cutter, and packaged them up in jam jars for gifts - they went down a storm..!
This recipe is adapted from  “Let’s Bake” by Cathryn Dresser

For the biscuits

• 200g plain flour
• 75g custard powder (I have yet to find a plastic free version of custard powder, but I reckon the payoff of one tub for about a bazillion biscuits, vs a LOT of wrappers works out in my favour?) 
• 25g icing sugar
• 175g butter (I always use salted, but all the recipe books specify unsalted. Take your pick..!)
• +/- 1 tbsp milk (you might need this to get it to all come together into a dough)

For the icing

• 50g soft butter
• 150g icing sugar
• 1tbsp custard powder
• 1 tbsp milk

• Put the flour, custard powder, and icing sugar into a food processor, and blitz to get rid of any lumps
• Add the butter and whiz again until if comes together into a dough. If it’s not looking very dough like, add tsps of milk and keep whizzing until it does
• Tip out the dough, and shape it into a disc. Place the disc of dough in a freezer bag, and then in the fridge for about 20 minutes
• Pre-heat the oven to 180C/160C fan, and line two baking sheets (I use the re-usable silicon liners)
• Take your dough out of the fridge and divide it into two equal-ish pieces (this just makes it easier to roll out)
• Lightly dust your work surface with flour, and then roll out the dough to about the thickness of a pound coin
• Cut out your biscuits-I used a plain circle cutter that was about 6cm diameter, but you can use any shape you like-Nigella does custard cream hearts in one of her books!
• Place them on the baking tray, and then bake for 8-10 minutes (adjust the cooking time depending on the size of your biscuits) until they are a ‘pale golden colour’
• Allow to cool for 10 minutes before transferring onto a cooling rack to cool completely
• To make the icing, combine the icing sugar, butter and custard powder, and mix (I use our kitchen aid). Add the milk, and mix well again until light and fluffy
• When the biscuits are completely cool, sandwich them together with the icing

What's your favourite shop bought biscuit?

Have you been able to find a recipe for a homemade version?

Do share in the comments!