Today was a day of good food! This morning, I made some Afghan biscuits (my favourite biscuit to make at a minute's notice, since all the ingredients are normally in the cupboard, and they store really well).
The recipe I use is from the brilliant New Zealand cookery book, Ladies, A Plate, which I have mentioned here before - it is a compilation of dozens of classic recipes from women around New Zealand.
Here is how you make them - I seriously suggest you try baking a batch, they really are ridiculously good, and dead easy to make:
AFGHANS
Cream 170g butter with 100g brown sugar. Add (sifted together) 180g plain flour, 3 tablespoons cocoa and 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder. Mix, then knead in (with your hands) 2 cups of cornflakes (crush them first).
Roll teaspoonsful of the dough into balls (about the size of a large cherry), then flatten each ball slightly with a fork. Allow about 2cm in between the balls, for a little spreading.
Bake at 180 degrees for 12 - 14 minutes. Cool on a rack.
To make the rich, fudge-like frosting, gently heat together in a small saucepan 3 tablespoons of water, 45g caster sugar and 45g butter. Once melted, bring to a rapid simmer for one minute (do not stir), to form a light syrup.
Pour about 3/4 of the syrup into a bowl containing 190g pure icing sugar sifted together with 3 tablespoons of cocoa, and beat well as you're pouring. Add a little more syrup only if needed - you want a thick, smooth, fudgy icing. As you use the icing, you can add a little more syrup or plain hot water if it starts to thicken and cool.
Spread a good, thick layer of icing onto each biscuit (about a teaspoon per biscuit), then place a walnut half onto each one as you go.
Leave them to set - they will keep well in a tin for a few days.
At dinnertime, Tabitha tried an Afghan. She liked it, but after eating about a third of a biscuit, she dropped it and went back to her chicken and vegetable pot pie! I don't really have a big sweet tooth, perhaps she is taking after me.
This evening, The Daddy brought home a jar of honey he was given at work - from an apiarist in Blackburn! A man has a little colony of bees in the middle of the nice bushland area of Blackburn, and produces his own honey. We have a great big jar of it - and it is excellent. Tabitha can't try the honey, as honey should never be given to babies under the age of one, as there is a small but serious risk of deadly botulism poisoning.
Apparently, keeping bees in your backyard (urban apiary) is the latest trend - keeping chickens is so last decade! This is an interesting article about all the beehives in Paris.
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