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.

Baking Day....Date, Chocolate & Coconut Biscuits

So its Monday, which means I need to bake something for the baking tin. I confess I make Mr Hooper's lunch every day before he trudges off to school, its either that or a mince and cheese pie. He is easy to please, his sandwhiches generally consist of cheese, cheese and ham or egg. But I am committed to ensuring he has a sweet treat after the rather average sammies.


These biscuits are a recipe I have adapted from a Nigella Lawson cookbook, Feast. They originally had dried cranberries and white chocolate, but I thought they fell a bit flat, so have modified the ingredients slightly.

If the biscuits last, they get better with a day or two behind them. By day 4 they are deliciously chewy.



So to begin....you will need


140g flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
75g rolled oats
125g butter
75g brown sugar
100g caster sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract or essence
75g dates, chopped
50g shredded coconut
140g dark chocolate chopped up, as chunky as you enjoy in a cookie.

Preheat the oven to 180C. Measure the flour, baking powder, salt and rolled oats into a bowl.


Put the butter and sugars into another bowl and beat until creamy.


Beat in the egg and vanilla.


Continue beating and add in the dry ingredients combined above.


Fold in the dates, coconut and chocolate.


Put the dough in the fridge for 15 minutes.


Roll tablespoons of mixture into balls, put them on a baking tay lined with baking paper and squish balls with a fork. I needed to do two batches as I only have one tray. I also do a quick tray rotation half way through the cooking time.


Cook for 15 minutes, when ready the biscuits will be tinged pale gold, but they will be too soft to lift immediately off the tay, so give them 5 minutes to harden before transferring to cooling rack.

The nutritional info, per 100g : Energy 1842kj, Protein 5g, Fat 20g (Sat Fat 12g), Carb 55g (Sugar 35g), Sodium 142mg. A little bit naughty, but worth every chewy mouthfull.