ANOTHER dismal Bank Holiday. I despair; I really do. I still can’t believe how cold it is, and we’re in May already.

The weather gods are certainly having a bit of fun with us.

So the salads are taking a back seat for now, because all I feel like doing is making hot dishes, or spending lots of time upstairs in the patisserie at the café, playing about making biscuits and keeping warm thanks to our nice big cake oven.

The Oreo cookies I made recently went down very well, so I decided to have a go at something biscuit-y, but a little more British, and a true childhood favourite for many of us, the Wagon Wheel.

There are few biscuits more capable of stirring up serious nostalgic feelings than this schoolyard snack of the 1970s – a huge disc of crunchy biscuit, sandwiched together with sticky marshmallow and a blob of jam, the whole thing dunked in creamy milk chocolate. Individually wrapped in shiny gold foil with cowboy-style typeface, it was a real treat to find in the lunchbox.

Many of us will remember the Wagon Wheel being much bigger than they are today, but apparently the manufacturers deny this, and research shows that they are actually only a few millimetres smaller, due to a change in the manufacturing process. Perhaps it’s because our hands were much smaller back then!

Anyway, I’d got a bee in my bonnet about these, and set about formulating a recipe to share with you. I decided to use a nice rich biscuit recipe I’d used before – the muscovado sugar and vanilla give it a real depth of flavour, and the requisite crunch. Accomplished biscuiteers will know that the essential element of the wagon wheel biscuit really is the marshmallow, and may be getting anxious already. No need. Despite seeming a bit daunting, it’s actually quite easy to make marshmallow, and the home-made version, properly scented with vanilla, is a million miles better than the extruded-sugary shop-bought versions.

You will, however, need to fork out for a sugar thermometer, but it’s a pretty handy piece of kitchen kit, and essential for making caramels, toffee and a lot of meringue-based cakes and whatnots.

All we need to add is a little lick of raspberry jam, and some good-quality milk chocolate and we’re away. The recipe sounds and looks a bit complex, but it’s not that hard if you set out all the ingredients and equipment before you get going.

Never has the maxim ‘read the recipe through before starting’ rung so true. It will be a little messy, but boy is it worth the faff – these home-made versions are so delicious, you’ll be making batch after batch.

Just remember to slap those grasping little hands away and enjoy the first one yourself. Chef’s prerogative. Aprons on!

For the biscuits:

360g butter at room temperature

300g unrefined golden caster sugar

110g unrefined light muscovado sugar

4 eggs

4 tsp vanilla extract

700g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

Large pinch Maldon salt

For the marshmallow:

9 sheets leaf gelatine

450g caster sugar

1 tbsp liquid glucose

200ml water

2 large egg whites

1 tsp vanilla extract

To assemble:

A jar of raspberry jam

800-900g milk chocolate

Extras:

Sugar thermometer

Piping bag

Pastry cutters

Baking parchment & clingfilm

Method:

First, we need to make the biscuits. Preheat the oven to 190ºC / Gas 5. Using a mixer, cream together the butter and both sugars until pale and fluffy. Whisk each egg in one at a time, and then add the vanilla and a pinch of salt.

Sift together the flour and baking powder, and add slowly to the mixture, until the whole lot comes together to form a soft dough.

Roll the dough in clingfilm and chill for at least an hour. When your dough is sufficiently chilled, roll it out on a well-floured surface, and cut out biscuit-sized discs.

Lay these on a non-stick baking tray or on lightly-buttered greaseproof paper on a tray. Chill the biscuits for half an hour before baking.

Bake the biscuits for 10-12 minutes, or until the start to go a nice deep golden colour.

When slightly cooled, place on a cooling rack until completely cold. As they’re cooling, you can make the marshmallow.

Soak the gelatine in 140ml cold water, turning occasionally to make sure it gets completely soaked through and jellified.

Put the sugar, glucose and water into a heavy-based saucepan. Bring the liquid to the boil and continue cooking for about 12-15 minutes until the mixture reaches 127ºC or hard-ball stage on a sugar thermometer.

When the syrup is up to temperature, remove from the heat and carefully slide in the softened gelatine sheets along with the soaking water.

The syrup will bubble a bit so take care. In a mixer, set the egg whites whisking, and when they reach a firm peak, start pouring in the syrup slowly.

The egg white should inflate a little and start to become thick and glossy.

Add the vanilla extract and continue whisking for about 5 minutes, until the mixture is very stiff and thick enough to hold its shape on the whisk.

While this is finishing up, set out half of your biscuits on a tray, and spread a little raspberry jam on each half.

Transfer the marshmallow mixture into a piping bag, and carefully pipe a swirl of marshmallow onto each biscuit half, leaving about a centimetre rim to allow for squashing.

When you’ve done, quickly press the remaining biscuit halves on to the marshmallow-covered biscuits, making little sandwiches.

You should leave the biscuits to set for about half an hour; the marshmallow will become firm and less sticky.

While the biscuits cool, melt the chocolate in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water.

To finish the wagon wheels, set out a large sheet of baking paper or clingfilm, and dip each biscuit completely in the melted chocolate, shaking any excess off before placing them carefully on the paper.

Allow the chocolate on the biscuits to set before serving or wrapping as gifts.