Eat. . . Afghan biscuits

My homemade Afghan biscuits

Afghans, at least in their biscuit form, were completely unknown to me until I set foot in Aotearoa/New Zealand back in 2002. But since then they have become one of my firm favourites! A deliciously short and crumbly chocolate biscuit studded with cornflakes for extra bite, enveloped in a rich and decadent chocolate icing and a walnut half to top it all off. Yum! If you don't have walnuts in your store cupboard, don't let that stop you - they are almost as delicious without!

Our tins have been looking very empty recently so this afternoon I spent a happy time in the kitchen baking Afghans. My recipe is based on the one in "Ladies, a Plate" by Alexa Johnston, but you will find an Afghan recipe in every Edmonds Cookery Book, and according to Alexa,  Afghans have opened the Edmonds' biscuit recipe section since 1953! No doubt there are plenty of other Afghan recipes to be found in other corners of the internet, but here's the recipe I use:

Afghans

For about 24 small biscuits:
6 oz/170 g butter (Use margarine at your peril!!)
1/2 cup/ 100 g brown sugar
1 1/2 cups/180 g Self-raising flour
3 tblsps cocoa powder
2 scant cups/60 g scrunched cornflakes

Preheat oven to 180C/350F and line two trays with baking paper. Soften the butter, then cream it with the sugar until pale and fluffy. Add dry ingredients, mix well, then knead in smooshed up cornflakes. Put tablespoonsful of mixture onto the trays, leaving a small space around each. They don't spread much. Flatten slightly with your thumb or a fork and bake for around 15 mins. Cool on wire rack.

For icing:
3 tblsps water
3 tblsps caster sugar
3 tblsps butter
3 tblsps cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups/190 g icing sugar
Around 24 walnut halves (optional)

Heat the water, caster sugar and butter in a pan until butter melts. Simmer for 1 minute to form a syrup. Beating all the time, add most of the syrup to a small mixing bowl containing the sifted icing sugar and cocoa powder. Add last bit of syrup if necessary. You are aiming to make a smooth, glossy, fudgy icing. Put a teaspoonful of icing on each biscuit and (if using), quickly press a walnut half into the icing. Leave to set.

Store in an airtight tin/plastic box. These stay fresh for 3 - 4 days if you can make them last that long!

Eat. . . Louise Cake

Louise cake with plum jam, baked 12.04.11

This is a real Kiwi classic. I had never even heard of it till moving to New Zealand back in 2002. Oh, horrors - 31 years without Louise Cake in my life! I was almost put off it forever though, when I first saw it on sale at a café. The label in the chiller cabinet proudly proclaimed "Lousie Cake" and I wondered why on earth anyone would want to eat it if it was so lousie! Always one for living dangerously, I braved a piece and was smitten! It is a tray-baked slice with a tender shortcake base, spread with a tart red jam and topped with a lightly browned coconut meringue. It's a big hit with all of us in our family, and one of Sonny Jim's friends came round to play yesterday and he loved it too.

There are so many recipes for Louise Cake available, but the following one is my favourite. It's from Alexa Johnston's wonderful book of traditional NZ home baking: "Ladies a Plate." I highly recommend that book by the way, it is one of my most frequently used recipe books. Alexa gives lots of details in her book re the social history of this recipe (and all the others she shares), but here are the basic details. . .


LOUISE CAKE

For the base:
2.5 oz/70 g butter
2 oz/55 g sugar
2 egg yolks
1 tblsp lemon juice
5 oz/140 g flour
1/2 tsp baking powder

For the topping:
5 tblsps raspberry jam (or other tart, red jam - I used my homemade plum jam this time)
2 egg whites
4 oz/115 g caster sugar
2 oz/55 g desiccated coconut

• Preheat oven to 350F/180C. Grease/line a shallow 12 x 8 "/30 x 21 cm tin. Soften the butter.
• Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add egg yolks and beat well. Add lemon juice, sift flour and baking powder over and mix to stiff dough.
• Press dough evenly into prepared tin. At this stage it will only be a thin layer, but it puffs up during cooking. Spread the jam evenly over the base.
• Beat egg whites till stiff, then gently fold in caster sugar and coconut using a metal spoon.
• Spread coconut meringue mixture over the jam, trying to keep it an even thickness. Sprinkle with a little extra coconut if you like. 
• Bake for 25 mins or until the coconut meringue is just turning golden brown.
• Remove from oven and cut into squares or fingers while still warm. Leave in tin to cool. Store airtight. 

If you haven't tried this before, give it a go ;-) It's number 6 in the Edmonds Cookbook "New Zealand's top 10 favourite baked goods" according to something I read on the internet. And you know you can always trust what you read on the internet, eh?!