Two of our favourite things: baking & foraging are covered in this weeks recipe, grab your crew and head out for a winter walk to forage for pine needles then fire up the stove to reward yourself with some pre-christmas cheer in the shape of these seasonal biscuits…

Pine needles are a great forage, they’re easy to identify and forage and they’re super good for you! High in Vitamin C, as well as Vitamin A for hair and skin regeneration! It’s also been used traditionally for coughs and colds, as well as allergies and high blood pressure. While tea might be the go to recipe, there’s so much you can do with pine!

We love the taste of pine needle tea, but this time of year we think it’s important to have a little treat, so get baking our delicious pine needle biscuits.

Pine Needle Biscuit Recipe

Time: about 20 minutes

Makes: about 20-30 biscuits

Ingredients:

• 250g butter, cut into cubes
• 1 egg yolk
• 300g plain flour
• 140g sugar
• 2tsp vanilla extract
• Icing sugar for dusting
• small handful of pine needles

How to:

1. Round up your helpers and set them to work chopping the butter into small chunks.
2. Finely chop the pine needles (using a food processor or kitchen scissors do the job just as well). Mix well with the sugar, then add this with the flour to the butter.
3. Rub the mixture together with your fingers to form a breadcrumb like consistency.
4. Add an egg yolk and vanilla extract, keep mixing until a dough forms.
5. Roll out the dough to approx 3mm thickness and get your helpers cutting
6. Bake for around 10 -15 minutes on 180°C  or until light golden-brown. Remove and transfer to a wire rack to cool. Dust with icing sugar for added festive cheer – Get munching your pine needle biscuits!

We love foraging, wild food and sharing a tasty recipe or two! If you want to learn more and forage with us in beautiful Dorset, head over the find out more about our foraging courses.