To skin hazelnuts and increase their flavour: Spread hazelnuts on a baking sheet and roast in a hot oven for 4-5 minutes until the nuts are golden and the skins start to lift. Tip onto half of a clean dry tea towel, fold the second half over the hot nuts and rub with the tea towel until the skins rub off.

Preheat oven to 150 °C/gas 2. Grease a flat baking sheet.

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Mix together flour and semolina and sieve. Add nuts. Gradually work the sifted flour and chopped nuts into the creamed mixture until it forms a dough.

Blend the few crumbs in with your hand to make it all stick together. Gently knead it on a lightly floured surface until smooth. This is a fragile dough - which is why it is so crumbly and rich to eat - so handle it lightly and carefully. Heavy handling will cause the butter to oil out and the biscuits to be hard instead of crispy and crumbly.

Roll out lightly to a rectangle about 1/4 inch thick. Exact size is unimportant as you will be cutting it into finger shapes. Crimp the edges with the back of a fork and make fork marks all over the dough in even lines. This is partly traditional and partly to prevent the biscuits from bubbling up in places.

Bake for 10-12 minutes until lightly coloured. Dredge with caster sugar. Mark into finger shapes. When cool, lift with palette knife onto cooling rack until cold.

The biscuits only become crisp when cold.

Carlton Food Network http://www. Cfn. Co. Uk/