Margaret Biscuits

Ingredients

• 1 cooked egg yolk
• 50 g butter
• 20 g caster sugar
• 1 g salt
• 50 g low-protein flour
• 50 g cornflour

Method

Warm the butter in a bain-marie until it's fully liquid but not foaming — you need it fluid enough to bind the other ingredients without cooking them. While it melts, press the cooked egg yolk through a fine sieve or the back of a fork to break it into powder; lumps will create uneven texture in the finished biscuit.

Pour the melted butter into a bowl and add the caster sugar and salt. Stir until the sugar dissolves fully — this matters because undissolved crystals create grittiness and uneven spread in the oven. Add the crumbled egg yolk and fold everything together until the mixture is homogeneous and pale yellow. The egg yolk acts as both a biscuits binder and a source of fat and lecithin; this is why the dough comes together without additional eggs or liquid.

Sift the low-protein flour and cornflour together into the bowl — sifting aerates them and prevents lumps. The cornflour reduces gluten development and creates a shorter, more delicate crumb structure than wheat flour alone. Fold with a spatula until the dough just comes together; overworking develops gluten, which toughens the texture. The dough will be quite soft and slightly oily to the touch. Shape it into balls of roughly 8 g each — a teaspoon is approximate guide, though weighing is more consistent. Press your thumb gently into the centre of each ball to create a shallow well; this allows heat to penetrate evenly and gives the distinctive Margaret profile.

Preheat the oven to 150°C. Arrange the biscuits on a lined baking tray, spaced 3 cm apart — they spread very slightly as the butter softens. Bake for 18–22 minutes. The surface should remain pale, almost white, with the faintest colour only at the edges where they're crispest. The centres will still feel soft when hot; they firm up completely as they cool on the tray for 5 minutes. If you bake hotter or longer, the delicate texture-control is lost — they become brittle rather than tender.