Here’s one of my BBC bakes (i.e. Basic Biscuit Creations). They’re easy, they’re snappy, they’re tasty, they’re quick, they’re worth making. End of story really.

Makes: 12 large pieces, 16 medium, or 18 smallish

Time: 80 – 90 min + 15 min to decorate if required

Level: Easy (providing you can pipe OK – unlike me)

Need: A 20cm/8” square loose-bottomed tin

Ingredients

175g/6oz plain flour
25g/1oz cocoa powder
85g/3oz caster sugar
200g/7oz butter, at room temperature, in pieces
85g/3oz fine semolina
85g/3oz white or dark chocolate for piping over to decorate (optional)

Method

1. Grease and line the base of the tin. Turn oven on to 150°C / Fan 130°C / 300°F / Gas 2.

2. Place all the ingredients except the piping chocolate in a mixing bowl and rub together until crumbly.

3. Bring together to a dough, using your hands. Place “blobs” into the prepared tin and press it out evenly, smoothing it with the back of a tablespoon. Prick it all over with a fork .

4. Bake near the centre of the oven for 60 – 75 minutes. (Or until it begins to come away from the sides of the tin.)

5. Allow the shortbread to cool in the tin for 10 minutes. If you mark the block now or even cut part way through, it will be easier to fully cut once cold.

6. To decorate, melt the white chocolate and pour into a piping bag. Snip a very small hole in the end and pipe zig-zag lines over the pieces – hopefully with a much steadier hand than me.

My poor piping is an embarrassment, even though I have – believe it or not – got slightly better recently. I can’t even blame the brandy in my coffee because I drank that afterwards.