With Christmas not that far away now (I know, I can’t believe it either), my thoughts have turned to which festive treats to make as gifts this year. Naturally, there will be my usual chutneys and preserves, but I liked to do a baked good or two as well.

These shortbreads my Mum makes are always a winner. They are absolutely delightful biscuits - one or two with a cup of tea is a lovely sweet treat. If you can stop at that many, of course!

Mum's shortbread

250 g unsalted butter
3/4 cup icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence or extract
2 cups self-raising flour
1/2 cup cornflour
Pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 180 C (or 160 C fan-forced) and then grease and line two baking trays. Beat the butter and icing sugar together until creamy, then add the vanilla.

Sift the self-raising flour, cornflour and salt together and then add gently to the butter mixture. Use a knife to mix it in, as if you were making scones.

Roll the dough into walnut-sized balls and place on to the prepared trays, about 5cm apart. Flatten the balls gently with a fork.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 8-10 minutes or until just starting to colour underneath. The biscuits are meant to be pale on top. Leave them on the trays for about 15 minutes to firm up, and then transfer to a rack to cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

These are buttery and gorgeous and very moreish! We love eating them plain, but we’ve also sandwiched them together with some passionfruit curd in the past, which went down an absolute treat.