A cross between a brandy snap and a florentine - these lacy, toffee-crisp biscuits can be devoured as they are; may be half dipped in melted white chocolate; or can be rolled into a delicate tube to be piped full of Chantilly cream (these you need to eat immediately or they’ll become soggy). Serve with coffee or with ice cream and fruit.

Ingredients - makes about 50

100g Essential golden syrup
100g Riverford Dairybutter
100g caster sugar
100g Doves Farm plain flour
50g Essential almond slivers
50g mixed peel
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tbsp dark rum

100g white chocolate

and/or Chantilly cream...
284ml double cream
2 tbsp icing sugar
(whisk cream and icing sugar until thick - use a piping bag to ‘inject’ rolled snaps).

Method

1 Preheat the oven to 180°C
Using a mini processor, reduce the peel and almond slivers to smaller pieces - don’t turn it to a purée, you’re looking to retain some texture.

2 Place the sugar, syrup and butter in a small saucepan and warm over a gentle heat, stirring, until they are melted together. Add peel and almond, lemon juice and dark rum and incorporate. Now beat in the flour and allow to stand for a few minutes (it will thicken as it cools and become more manageable).

3 Using a teaspoon, spoon small blobs of mixture, well apart, onto an oven tray lined with silicone paper - work on the basis that you’ll get around 9 on a large tray. Transfer to the top of the oven for 5-6 minutes until golden and lacy. Remove and stand for 30 seconds before attempting to lift with a palette knife to a cooling rack. You can curl them or leave flat. If you play around, you can make baskets for summer fruits by cooling the biscuit over a small basin.

4 Melt the white vanilla chocolate in a bowl over simmering water, stirring until smooth, and dip the lacy snaps into it at one end, cool and set on silicone paper. Store in an airtight box.