So I found a recipe for ‘old fashioned tea cakes’.  My grandma used to make these and everyone loved them.  I still have a few stored away.  Yes, they’re 15 years old or something but they still at least smell as good as new!  Anyway, my attempt has twice now turned out marginally better than this guys:

I started out very genuine with all the right ingredients from a recipe I found. Mixed all my stuff together and proceeded to cut out the cookies.  But they weren’t nearly what grandma used to make.

A second attempt didnt prove any more useful.   Until finally I ended up making a new type of cookie from another recipe which did end up turning out great.  You can see the adventure on my cookie making flickr set.