Chef Thomas
Jam Sandwich Biscuits
Buttery shortbread rounds with a little cutout window of raspberry jam, the kind of biscuit that makes a wet afternoon feel like the right place to be.
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Chef Thomas
Homemade Bourbon Biscuits
Dark cocoa biscuit fingers sandwiched with proper chocolate buttercream, made the way they should be: at home, with good butter, on a grey afternoon that needs them.
Chef Thomas
Sultana Scones
A batch of proper fruit scones, well risen and golden, the kind that turn a Tuesday afternoon into something resembling an occasion when split warm with butter and jam.
Chef Thomas
Welsh Cakes
Spiced griddle cakes studded with currants, cooked slowly on a heavy pan until golden, dusted with sugar, eaten warm with tea on an afternoon that asks for nothing more.
Chef Thomas
Scottish Girdle Scones
Soft, lightly charred scones cooked on a hot pan instead of in the oven. A Scottish teatime trick for a wet afternoon when the oven feels like too much trouble.
Chef Thomas
Date and Walnut Scones
Soft, buttery scones studded with sticky dates and toasted walnuts, the kind of thing you make on a cold afternoon when the kettle is already on and the light is going early.
Chef Thomas
Melting Moments
A small, oat-jacketed biscuit with a cherry on its head, the kind of thing you make on a wet afternoon when the kettle has been on twice already and the radio is muttering away in the corner.
Chef Thomas
Viennese Whirls
Tender, crumbling butter biscuits piped into spirals and sandwiched with raspberry jam and vanilla buttercream, the kind of biscuit you make for someone you want to impress without saying so.
Chef Thomas
Brandy Snaps
Lacy golden tubes of toffee and ginger, filled with cold brandy cream and served the moment they're ready. The biscuit that breaks under your teeth and tastes of December.
Chef Thomas
Cherry Scones
Light, crumbly British scones dotted with sticky red glace cherries, baked until tall and golden, the kind that ask for nothing more than butter, jam if you like, and a strong pot of tea.
Chef Thomas
Cornish Fairings
Spiced ginger biscuits from Cornwall, crackled on top and chewy in the middle, the kind of thing you bake on a dark afternoon when the kitchen needs to smell of something warming.
Chef Thomas
Classic English Scones
Tender, lightly sweetened English scones, split warm and piled with clotted cream and jam, the kind of small bake that turns an ordinary afternoon into something worth sitting down for.
Chef Thomas
Chocolate-Dipped Florentines
Lace-thin biscuits crisp with caramel, almonds and candied fruit, backed with dark chocolate combed into wavy lines. The Christmas tin biscuit that looks like trouble and isn't.
Chef Thomas
Yorkshire Fat Rascals
Burnished, fruit-studded scone-cakes from the Dales, glossy with egg wash and grinning back at you with cherry eyes and almond teeth, the kind of bake that makes a grey afternoon feel like an event.
Chef Thomas
Treacle Scones
Dark, spiced Scottish scones the colour of toffee, made for the kind of November evening when the bonfire is going out and someone needs something warm to hold.
Chef Thomas
Grasmere Gingerbread
A crumbly, deeply spiced gingerbread from a stone cottage in the Lake District, all toasted oats and dark sugar and the kind of ginger that warms you from the inside on a cold afternoon.
Chef Thomas
Empire Biscuits
A pair of pale shortbread rounds held together with raspberry jam, dressed in white icing and a glace cherry. The biscuit your grandmother bought from the bakery on a Saturday morning.
Chef Thomas
Coconut Macaroons on Rice Paper
Crisp-edged, chewy-centred mounds of coconut on a thin disc of edible rice paper, the sort of biscuit that lives in a tin on the counter and disappears faster than you'd think.
Chef Thomas
Iced Gingerbread Men
Soft, spiced gingerbread men rolled out on a December afternoon and decorated by whoever happens to be in the kitchen, which is usually most of the family.
Chef Thomas
Chocolate Tiffin
A Scottish fridge cake of crushed biscuits, butter, syrup, and cocoa under a slab of set chocolate. No oven, no cleverness, just patience and a few hours in the fridge.
Chef Thomas
Buttermilk Scones
Tall, tender scones with a soft buttermilk crumb and a deep golden top, the kind of thing you can make from cold to plate in half an hour and feel quietly clever about all afternoon.
Chef Thomas
Crispy Ginger Nuts
Proper ginger nuts, dark and fiery and built to crack between your teeth, made for the kind of grey afternoon when the kettle goes on twice and the biscuit tin earns its keep.
Chef Thomas
Millionaire's Shortbread
Buttery shortbread, thick caramel cooked slow and patient from a tin of condensed milk, and dark chocolate set in a clean snap over the top. Three layers in one tin, none of them difficult, all of them generous.
Chef Thomas
All-Butter Shortbread Fingers
The plainest biscuit in the tin and the hardest one to stop eating, three ingredients and a slow oven turning good butter into something quietly perfect with a cup of tea.
Chef Thomas
Homemade Custard Creams
Two crisp vanilla biscuits sandwiched around a pale yellow custard buttercream, made properly at home and quietly better than the packet you grew up with.
Chef Thomas
Shrewsbury Biscuits
A tin of Shrewsbury biscuits is the kind of small domestic kindness that makes a wet afternoon feel deliberate. Lemon-scented, crisp at the edges, the colour of pale honey.
Chef Thomas
Petticoat Tails Shortbread
A single round of buttery Scottish shortbread, scored into eight slender wedges and baked pale gold, the kind of biscuit that belongs beside a cup of tea on a December afternoon.
Chef Thomas
Rock Cakes
Craggy little fruit buns made with butter, flour, currants and not much else, ready in the time it takes to boil a kettle and worth every rough, golden bite.
Chef Thomas
Golden Syrup Flapjacks
Butter, sugar, golden syrup, oats, and a pinch of salt, pressed into a tin and baked until the edges go dark and caramelised and the middle stays chewy. The most useful thing you can do with porridge oats and an afternoon.
Chef Thomas
Cheese Scones
Sharp cheddar scones with a hum of mustard and cayenne, golden-topped and tall, made for a bowl of soup on a grey afternoon or a picnic basket on a hopeful one.
Chef Thomas
Homemade Digestive Biscuits
Nutty, oaty, properly biscuity digestives made by hand on a quiet afternoon, the kind that ask for nothing more than a hot mug of tea and a chair by the window.
Chef Thomas
Singin' Hinnies
A Northumbrian griddle scone, named for the sizzle of lard on hot iron, eaten warm from the pan with cold butter slumping into the crumb.
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