The bit I liked was that a scallop shell is pressed into the top to give it a shell-like pattern. Nowadays, a lot of the Aberffraw cakes have the pattern put on with a knife. I have a bag of scallop shells, brought back from France so I used a genuine one to make my pattern.
The recipe is a 3.2.1 - quite common for biscuits. This means 3 parts flour to 2 parts fat to 1 part sugar.
175g flour
110g butter
55g caster sugar
a little milk
more caster sugar for sprinkling over
Preheat oven 190C/gas5.
Grease a baking sheet.
I used a processor to make my dough.
Put flour and sugar in a bowl and rub in the butter. Bind together with a litle milk to make a soft dough.
Roll out and cut out circles. I used a 7cm cutter and made 12 cakes.
Use a scallop shell to press the scallop pattern onto the top, or cut the pattern with the back of a knife.
Put the cakes to cool on a wire rack and sprinkle with sugar. You can eat them served with cream and jam, but they're delicious as they are.
They have a nice crunchy texture, and the butter gives them a rich flavour.
