Breads, Cakes and Biscuits

In classical Rome, bakers used to place a seedhead of fennel under their loaves as they slid them into the oven. Chinese cooks have added poppy seeds to their steamed buns for centuries and today, in Devon and Cornwall, a golden saffron doughcake studded with dried fruit, a relic of medieval times, is still baked. After many years of home-baking, my own favourite biscuit remains a thin pale disc of buttery shortbread flecked and flavoured with finely chopped leaves of rosemary or lavender.

How beautifully an aromatic herb pervades a pastry or dough during baking.