ESPRESSO SWIRL BISCUITS

There’s a time for drama, anger, deafening rants, unkindness, hacking (or murder); for making soap-opera scenes on a busy street at lunch time in the presence of a coachload of elderly tourists from Shropshire; for judging books by their cover, being scared and selecting your new self-destruction method of choice.

But I want this to be that time when the sky splits and rain pours down on one side of the office only; a time for looking out for bells when they ring, for having no direction and following your own feet, for finding strength, for tattoos you can't hide, for trying, for acceptance, for more or less feeling less incomplete; and for all those things that come about that spiral and twist and swirl and make your head spin but then one day just surpisingly fall into place.

ESPRESSO SWIRL BISCUITS

Vanilla dough:

75g (1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons) plain flour

75g (1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons) wholegrain spelt flour

1 tablespoon cornflour

60g (1/4 cup) unrefined golden caster sugar

1/8 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
80ml (1/3 cup) vanilla flavoured soya milk or other non-dairy milk

2 tablespoons sunflower oil or other vegetable oil

Espresso coffee dough:

75g (1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons) plain flour

75g (1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons) wholegrain spelt flour

1 tablespoon cornflour

60g (1/4 cup) unrefined golden caster sugar

1/8 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 teaspoon cocoa powder
3 tablespoons vanilla flavoured soya milk or other non-dairy milk

2 tablespoons sunflower oil or other vegetable oil

1 ½ tablespoon strong coffee, room temperature

1 teaspoon coffee extract

To make the vanilla dough, combine flours, cornflour, sugar and bicarbonate of soda. In a separate bowl, mix together oil and milk. Combine wet and dry ingredients until you get a smooth dough then place in the fridge for 30 minutes.

For the coffee dough, combine flours, cornflour, sugar, bicarbonate of soda and cocoa powder. In a separate bowl, mix together oil, milk, coffee and coffee extract. Again combine wet and dry ingredients until you get a smooth dough and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes roll out both vanilla and coffee dough into a thin rectangle a couple of millimetres thick. Place the coffee dough on top of the vanilla dough, then starting from the long end, roll up into a log. Place in the freezer for an hour.

Preheat the oven to 180°C (360°F) and line a baking tray with parchment paper.

Cut the frozen dough into slices about half a centimetre thick then place on the prepared tray and bake for 15 minutes. Leave on a cooling rack to cool, serve with a cup of coffee, and make a toast to the cursed and blessed swirliness of life.