Thursday, July 1, 2010

Afghan Biscuits

I can't believe its Thursday already, this week is going so fast! Yesterday Grand Mama, The Boss and I squeezed a little culture into our day. We went to the Auckland Museum to check out the free exhibition kai to pie, it was fabulous, so if you are looking to kill half an hour and you happen to live in Auckland, it is worth paying the museum a visit. So with all the reminiscing on New Zealand food I thought it was time to pull out my faithful Edmonds cook book. This is a classic, that has been around since my mother was a girl. If you need to whip up a quick white sauce, make some hokey pokey or throw together a fish pie, its to this cook book I would turn.

I had some cornflakes in the pantry, so without a flinch I turned to the biscuit section in search of my beloved Afghan recipe. Why you may ask does a classic New Zealand cook book have a recipe for Afghan biscuits, unfortunately I have absolutely no idea. Perhaps it is a symbol of how cultured we are...or perhaps not. Either way I hope that it is not offensive to the Afghan people, as it really is a yummy biscuit, so I am sure it was named with complimentary intentions.

AFGHANS
200g BUTTER
1/2 cup SUGAR
1 1/4 cups PLAIN FLOUR
1/4 cup COCOA
2 cups CORNFLAKES

CHOCOLATE ICING
2 cups ICING SUGAR
1/4 tspn BUTTER, melted
approx 2tbsp WATER
1/4 tspn VANILLA ESSENCE

GARNISH
WALNUT halves

Heat oven to 180C and grease a baking tray or cover with grease proof paper.

Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.

Sift flour and Cocoa. Stir into creamed mixture.

Add the cornflakes to the bowl. The recipe suggests folding them in, but I have deemed this impossible. I get my hands in there and gently squeeze the mixture together until the cornflakes are evenly dispersed, trying to avoid reducing them to a fine crumb.

Still using your hands take dessert spoon sized dollops, roll into a ball (of sorts) and pop onto the prepared tray. Press, but don't press too thin, you want them to be quite fat so they don't over cook and go crumbly.

Bake at 180C for about 15 mins, my oven requires staunch observation so I hold vigil in front of the glass and turn the tray at about 7 minutes.

To make the icing, mix the icing sugar, butter and cocoa together, slowly add the water until it reaches a spreadable consistency.

When cold ice with the icing and decorate with a walnut half.

This recipe claims you can also press into a tray and create an Afghan slice. I have found this less successful, the slice comes out slightly stodgy and dry in texture, but it is a bit quicker to prepare.
I hope you enjoy this super quick biscuit, I'd love to hear from anyone who can shed some light on the name.

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