Category Archives: Biscuits

Vintage Cooking: Japanese Biscuits

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My great grandmother, or Granny, was Mary. She died many years before I was born, but I have something that gives me a real connection to her – her recipe book.

Granny was born in 1902 in St Bathans in Central Otago, where she grew up with her eight brothers and sisters.
When she married my great grandfather Charlie, she moved to our family farm, Titri, near Waihola in Otago. Charlie and Mary had four children and farmed cattle and beef through the depression years. By all accounts Mary was a great housekeeper; apparently the old house at Titri always had sparkling floors and furniture, the cake tins were always full, and shelves lined with all sorts of preserves. 
When Charlie died suddenly in 1945, Mary continued working the farm with her teenage children. Her sons Ben and Max eventually took over the farm, and Mary lived with the family at Titri for the rest of her days.
I love this photo of Mary (on the left) with her sister Rebe and a family friend. They look rather formidable matrons, don’t you think?

Anyway, back to the recipes – I’ve been selecting recipes from Granny’s book at random to try, and I made these Japanese Biscuits a couple of weeks ago. Here’s Granny’s recipe:

I really don’t know what makes them Japanese. They’re like a thin almond shortbread biscuit, sandwiched together with a lemon almond icing.

They’re quite lovely – I think they make a very elegant biscuit. They could even find their way into a dinner party dessert, perhaps to accompany a coffee flavoured gelato or ice cream. What do you think?

Granny’s Japanese Biscuits

4oz flour
½ tsp baking powder
2oz butter
2oz sugar
2oz ground almonds
1 egg
½ tsp almond essence

Preheat the oven to 160°, and line a couple of baking trays.

Sift the flour and baking powder. Rub in the butter, then add the sugar and ground almonds. Lightly beat the egg and almond essence together, then add this to the flour mixture and mix well. Roll out thinly and cut using a small cutter, and place carefully on the tray. I baked these really slowly – I think for about 20 minutes at 160°. Watch them carefully as I imagine they will go from just pale and cooked to burnt very quickly.

When cold, sandwich together with icing made from icing sugar, a little lemon zest and juice, ½ tsp almond essence, and just enough hot water to mix. Granny also suggests icing the top and sprinkling with coconut but I think they’re rather elegant just sandwiched as here. Disobedient great-granddaughter.

I’ve got some other classic sounding recipes to try out, including a “goldenglow” cake, and a mysteriously titled cake for sham brides. Stay tuned for the results!

Thanks Granny! x

Easter Biscuits

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Another Easter recipe for you! This one’s a bit more old fashioned, and would make a great afternoon tea over the holiday weekend.

It comes from Alexa Johnston’s sequel to Ladies, A Plate – A Second Helping. They’re rather lovely biscuits – crisp and lemony, with crunchy sugar on top.

The dough is a delicate one to deal with – so chill it well before you roll it out so it’s good and firm. I rolled out half and left the remainder in the fridge, then started again.

Easter Biscuits

5oz butter, slightly softened
4oz caster sugar
1 tsp finely grated lemon zest
2 egg yolks
8oz flour
¼ cup currants
pinch mixed spice

for the glaze:
1 egg white
extra caster sugar

Preheat the oven to 190°C and line a couple of baking trays with baking paper.

Cream the butter and sugar with the lemon zest. Add the egg yolks and mix well. Work in the sifted flour, spice and currants until you have a fairly stiff paste. Put the dough in the fridge in a covered bowl, and leave there for 10-15 minutes.

Sprinkle the bench with cornflour to help the dough from sticking, and roll it out fairly thinly (I think 3-5mm), and cut biscuits (I used a 7-8cm fluted cutter). Place carefully on the lined baking trays, and brush with the lightly beaten egg white and sprinkle with caster sugar.

Bake for 10-15 minutes – mine only took 10, and watch them carefully, as they turn from lightly golden to crispily brown very quickly. Cool on a rack and store in an airtight container.

Afghans

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Such a classic! I love afghans, all firm, crumbly and crunchy all at once. We had friends over a few days ago and I pulled some out of the freezer, iced and decorated them and voila, home made biscuits ready to go. (Oh my gosh, re-reading this, I sound like one of the women on the Glad “Better Living” ads! Aaaaaaaaaggggggggggghhhhhhhhhh!)

This is by far the best recipe I’ve ever come across for afghans. It comes from Ladies, A Plate by Alexa Johnston. Alexa researched New Zealand baking through old handwritten family recipe books and community fundraising cooking books. She says this recipe comes from a Mrs Marian Benton of Dunedin, and that Mrs Benton’s afghans “differ from the standard recipe in having less butter, more cocoa and a small amount of baking powder to make them a little less solid.” They taste really, really chocolate-y. I highly recommend them. Thanks, Mrs Benton!

I also love the icing on these afghans – a million times nicer than the usual cocoa + icing sugar + water = grainy icing. It makes a lovely syrupy icing, which complements to the rich chocolate-y-ness of the biscuits underneath.

I like to make smaller afghans – I get 30 biscuits out of this recipe. I make them about the same size as the circle your hand makes if you touch the tip of your forefinger to your thumb. They’re far more manageable at that size, and I think it makes them look infinitely cuter. I always think people like reaching for smaller baked items in polite company, too. So I don’t use a whole half of a walnut to decorate. I buy the packets of walnut pieces (or just break up halves, if that’s what’s in the pantry), and just pop a reasonable smidge of walnut on top.

Afghans
Mrs Marian Benton of Dunedin, as published by Alexa Johnston in Ladies, A Plate

6oz butter
½ cup brown sugar
1½ cups flour
3 Tbsp cocoa
½ tsp baking powder
2 cups (60g) cornflakes

3 Tbsp water
3 Tbsp caster sugar
3 Tbsp butter
1½ cups icing sugar
3 Tbsp cocoa
walnut pieces or halves, to decorate

Before you start, preheat the oven to 180°C and line two baking trays with baking paper. Break up the cornflakes with your hands a little, and soften (but don’t melt) the butter if you need to.

Cream the butter and sugar until the mixture is pale and fluffy. Add the sifted flour, cocoa and baking powder, then knead in the cornflakes. Put in teaspoonfuls on the trays, leaving a little space around each biscuit. Flatten slightly with a flour-dipped fork (you still want them quite chunky) and bake for 12-14 minutes. Cool on a rack.

To make the icing, gently heat the water, caster sugar and butter until the butter melts, and simmer for one more minute to form a syrup. Beating all the time, pour about ¾ of the syrup onto the sifted icing sugar and cocoa. Add the remaining syrup if necessary to make a smooth, fudgy icing. Add a little hot water if it’s still too thick. Put a teaspoonful of warm icing onto each (cooled) biscuit, plant a walnut half or piece on top, sinking it into the icing a little, and leave to set firmly.

Store in an airtight tin or container. They stay good for 3-4 days.

So there you have it. 1, 2, 3, it’s quick and easy and the kids just love it. Better Living everybody!

Favourite Shortbread

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OK, today I’m going to keep it short and sweet. Oh God. This is a post about shortbread. I told myself to avoid using puns on my blog at all costs. Groan.

This is our family shortbread recipe. It has never failed me. It’s buttery and has the best texture ever. We also have a variation featuring custard powder – that’s yummy too. I think the trick to lovely shortbread is to bake it really slowly and to keep a close eye on it near the end of cooking time. There’s a short window between beautiful pale perfectly cooked shortbread and golden brown crispy meh.

Shortbread makes a gorgeous gift, specially at Christmas time. People always say they love shortbread but haven’t had it for ages when I give them a batch. I always think my favourite homemade biscuit might be shortbread. Then I remember all my other ‘favourites’. Afghans. Belgian Biscuits. Chocolate Chippies. Gingernuts. Melting Moments. Lebkuchen. Anzac Biscuits. I won’t try to fight it. I can’t choose. They’re all winners on the day.

We used to have lots of biscuits at home growing up – more than cakes or sweets. I keep meaning to revive some of the forgotten ones, like rice crispies, sultana biscuits and coconut clusters (did anyone else have those?). What are your favourites?

Shortbread

8 oz butter, softened
4 oz icing sugar
12 oz flour
2 Tbsp cornflour

Preheat the oven to 150°(c) and line 1-2 baking trays with baking paper.

Lots of people use food processors for mixing shortbread; I use my Kenwood cake mixer. Sift the dry ingredients and place in the mixing bowl with the butter. Mix well – it might look a bit crumbly but leave the beater running a minute, it will be fine.  You can also mix by hand.

Tip the mixture out onto the bench and knead it a little; it should come together nicely. I roll my dough into two long square logs, 4cmx4cm, and cut into 5-7mm thick slices with a sharp knife. Shortbread pieces with cut edges (rather than the ends of the logs) are always the best, so I shave the ends off as thinly as possible. Someone usually eats those mixture scraps before they get to the oven. But when I bake any kind of biscuits, I make a tiny deformed one with whatever scraps of dough are left, and then I’m allowed to eat that one warm out of the oven. Silly rule I know, but sometimes it’s the little things that keep you going.

Set the little 4x4cm squares onto the baking trays (they don’t spread so don’t worry about leaving acres of space in between). I prick my slices twice with a fork diagonally (see picture) but each family has their own quirks, so don’t mess with how your grandma makes it!

Bake the shortbread for about 30 minutes, one tray at a time if you can. Start checking after 25 minutes. The shortbread shouldn’t change colour, they’ll just be changing from creamy to very pale golden when they’re done. The bottoms are usually a little more golden, that’s a good way to check.

Cool on a rack and store in a tin or container. Shortbread keeps really well and is probably the best freezer of all the biscuits I know. Voila! In case you’re wondering, the swan below serves no useful, meaningful or symbolic purpose. I just kind of like it.

ANZAC Biscuits

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I have a raft of sweet posts saved up for the next few days… I had a bit of a baking festival over the last couple of weeks. All my favourite biscuits and puddings. My golden baking rule is that I’m not to bake unless we are expecting people or it is destined to be taken off-site (work morning teas, gifts, etc). I have not been following this rule. Sigh.

But I am on a new health kick inspired by the lovely spring weather. So for now the baked goods are safely tucked locked away in the freezer. I’m a pretty healthy eater all the time actually, so it’s not too severe a change, but I’ll admit that typing up these recipes and adding images to the post isn’t easy… the freezer is calling me. Caaaaaaaaaaaallliiiiiiing me. Must remind self of beautiful fresh and healthy recipe posts coming up in another week or two.

For now, I hope you like ANZAC biscuits! I love them. They fall into my beloved category of fairly modest baking – they’re not the size of a CD and the height of a thick book, bulked up with chocolate. While I love multi-media sized chocolate-stuffed food, I can’t eat it every day. But ANZAC biscuits, like my Grandma’s apple shortcake and my Nana’s jam drops make an ordinary afternoon cup of tea a little more ‘treaty’ without turning it into a meal. Know what I mean?

This recipe makes lovely chewy, golden syrupy biscuits. They compete with gingernuts for the coveted ‘best biscuit with cup of tea’ title. They’re good on baking day but even better the next. If you haven’t tried making ANZAC biscuits at home before, try this recipe out. They are nicer than bought ones (I should know, I bought the tin and ate the originals!).

ANZAC Biscuits

1 cup rolled oats*
1 cup coconut
¾ cup flour**
1 cup sugar
4oz butter
2 Tbsp golden syrup
1 tsp baking soda
2 Tbsp boiling water

*I used the big wholegrain ones this time around, but normal porridge type oats are the classics
**Try wholemeal flour. It doesn’t negate the butter and sugar, but you might feel more virtuous!

Preheat the oven to 180° and line baking trays with baking paper.

Mix together the oats, coconut, flour and sugar. Set aside.

In a medium saucepan, gently heat the butter and golden syrup, stirring them so they melt together. Find a small ramekin or cup and mix together the baking soda and boiling water. Let it fizz a wee bit and dissolve before adding it to the saucepan. Keep it over the low heat and stir the mixture very briefly- it will foam up a bit and smell divine. Add this mixture to the bowl of dry ingredients. Stir the lot together – the mixture will form a crumbly dough.

I use a round (as in hemi-spherical, if that’s a word) tablespoon measure to form the biscuits. I use it like an ice cream scoop, pack it fairly firmly and gently ease the little mound of dough onto the baking tray. Don’t flatten them, they do that on their own in the oven – so be sure to leave a bit of space around each biscuit. Mine take exactly 10 minutes. Leave them to cool a little and firm up on the trays before transferring to a rack to cool completely. Makes 36.

When is a macaron not a macaron?

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When it’s a macaroon!

I know, this isn’t a new debate, and it seems to drive some people bananas. So I might as well just wade on in there.

To clarify, these French almond meringue type confections, sandwiched together with ganache or buttercream, are macarons:

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These coconut puff-type biscuits, also made with ground almonds, which you were more likely to find on a ’70s New Zealand afternoon tea table, are macaroons:

What drives people nuts is that the French sandwiched macarons are often referred to as macaroons. And I’ll admit, that when I posted on them a while back, I referred to them as macarons but called the post Swoons for Macaroons.

I’m usually an annoying perfectionist when it comes to this kind of thing (I have a major in linguistics and languages – including French; I pretty much studied pedanticism at university). But I really wanted to call that post Swoons for Macaroons! I was weak; what can I say.

And I’m not entirely ashamed. I’m in good company calling them macaroons – proper macarons have been referred to as such by Cuisine magazine, Nigella Lawson, and even at Ruth Pretty’s a few weeks ago we kept stopping to correct ourselves – including Ruth!

However, in the interests of accuracy, here is a humble apology. I should have held off using the Swoons for Macaroons title a few weeks ago, and saved it up for a post on this most deserving of biscuits. Coconut macaroons seem a little… unloved. But I rather like them. Also, I’m not an expert on dietary requirements, but this recipe appears to be gluten free. Even better!

This is a recipe from Nigella Lawson’s How To Be A Domestic Goddess. It’s a favourite book, it makes me wish I had loads more people to cook and bake for. I want to try so many of the recipes but we don’t have that many occasions for her gorgeous desserts and cakes unfortunately! I’ll keep chipping away at it though.

Coconut Macaroons

2 large egg whites
¼ tsp cream of tartar
100g caster sugar
30g ground almonds
pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract (or coconut essence)
250g shredded coconut

Preheat the oven to 170°C and line a baking tray or two with baking paper.

Beat the egg whites until frothy – no more – then add the cream of tartar. I like Nigella’s instruction to then “carry on beating, Missus, until soft peaks are formed.” Add the sugar, a teaspoon at a time, and whisk until the peaks can hold their shape and are shiny. Fold in the almonds, salt, vanilla and coconut. The mixture will be sticky but should still hold its shape when clumped together.

Nigella recommends forming into domes about 6-7cm in diameter (resulting in 8 from this mixture). I prefer these little mallow puff-sized treats, but you can really make them whatever size you want. I think this batch made about 16. I don’t flatten them; Nigella and I think they look nice as little mounds – but again, I guess it’s personal taste!

Nigella’s cook for 20 minutes, until they’re just beginning to turn golden in parts. Mine took more like 12-15, so check them often according to how large you’ve made them. Viva La Macaroon!

Almond, Orange & Cardamom Biscotti

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Biscotti are a very special kind of biscuit. They take some extra work during their baking, but it pays off. They last in the tin for ages, and they’re healthier than most biscuits. Biscotti can also form part of an elegant dessert, they’re nice with semifreddo or anything with dark chocolate.

And I love how long they take to eat; I usually gobble biscuits but a biscotti will last right through my cup of tea! They are truly the pixie caramel of the biscuit world.

I always assumed that the biscotti name was related to our word ‘biscuit’, and that these words just meant a small baked hard-ish food. The words are related. But in fact, biscotti is made up of bis, meaning two (which you may recall from words such as bisect or bigamist), and cotti, meaning cooked (like in panna cotta). Twice cooked.

So our word ‘biscuit’ isn’t usually very accurate. But biscotti is very accurate here; this is the biscuit you bake twice.

Ok folks, Latin lesson over, you can wake up now. It’s time for biscotti.

I think of this recipe as quite a classic biscotti; the cardamom and orange flavours are very subtle. It’s more like a plain almond biscotti with a bit of extra warmth. Perfect with coffee or tea after dinner. The recipe comes from a funny little English book I have with classic sweet food recipes; a little gold mine of European baking.

Almond, Orange & Cardamom Biscotti

2 eggs
⅔ cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup self-raising flour
¾ cup plain flour
1¼ cups almonds
1 Tbsp finely grated orange zest
¼ tsp ground cardamom

Preheat the oven to 160°(c) and line a baking tray with baking paper.

Beat the eggs and sugar in a bowl with electric beaters until pale and creamy. Sift the self-raising and plain flours into the bowl, then add the almonds, orange zest and cardamom and mix to a soft dough.

Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Divide the mixture into two, and shape each portion into a 5x20cm loaf. Bake the loaves for 35-40 minutes, or until lightly golden. Cool on a wire rack. When cool enough to handle, slice the loaves into 1cm diagonal slices with a large serrated bread knife. The loaves will be a little crumble on the edges, so work slowly and if you can, hold the sides firmly. If you can hold the pieces together, they’ll firm up and dry out on the second baking.

Place the slices carefully back on the baking trays in a single layer. Return to the oven for 10 minutes on each side. Don’t worry if they don’t seem fully dry as they will crisp up on cooling. Makes about 40 slices.

Sailboat Baby Shower

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One of the lovely ladies in my office is expecting a baby boy next month. Not wanting to miss any opportunity to get clucky, the rest of us organised a surprise baby shower for one of her last afternoons at work. We brought beautiful china teacups into the office, and had a proper ladies’ afternoon tea.

There was a sailboat theme – little sailboats on the invitations, a sailboat card, sailboat biscuits, and sailboat table decorations – one of my clever colleagues made little sailboats out of gorgeous patterned paper in nautical colours. We had a pretty coffee table set with fresh flowers, our afternoon tea delicacies, and beautifully wrapped gifts (I didn’t get any pictures of the set table, so  you’ll have to imagine it. Ready? - ok….. now!). We had dainty club sandwiches, chocolate macaroons, mini savoury muffins and cupcakes decorated in blue. I iced some gingerbread biscuits – baby rattles and sailboats!

I actually used the same recipe as for my Ninja-Bread Men. It’s the best recipe I’ve found for biscuits that really need to hold the cutter shape well. Some biscuits get a bit enthusiastic about rising up or spreading out, and the shape isn’t as clear as you’d like once they’re cooked. Here’s the recipe again. This is a halved mixture – it made about 20 biscuits.

Iced Gingerbread Biscuits

60g butter, softened
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup golden syrup
1 1/4 cups plain flour
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp baking soda

Preheat the oven to 190(c). Line two baking trays with baking paper.

Soften the butter if it’s been in the fridge (but don’t melt it), and cream it with the sugar until light and creamy. Add the golden syrup and sifted dry ingredients. Mix to a smooth dough. Wrap in cling film and chill for 10 minutes or so, until it’s firm enough to roll out.

Roll the dough to about 4mm thick, and cut out shapes. Place carefully on baking trays (I have one of those baby silicon fish slice type tools, was maybe $4 or $5 – and it is so good for moving dough biscuits without warping their shape). Bake for about 10 minutes, or  until golden brown, and slightly darker around the edges than in the middle. Leave them to cool on the trays.


I just iced them with plain white icing (icing sugar, lemon juice and hot water); you could use a royal icing with egg white if you wanted something a bit fancier.

The mother-to-be in our office was over the moon about the afternoon tea! We sipped tea, and talked about how different her life will be in another month… and clucked over the tiny hats, booties and clothes as she unwrapped them. Awwwwwwwwwwww.

Cranberry, Orange and Almond Biscuits

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I’m not very experienced at concocting my own recipes, but I seem to have stumbled on something special here. I wanted to make some cranberry and white chocolate cookies. Kind of because I wanted to open the packet of white chocolate buttons and eat some. But I rummaged through the pantry and we were out of white chocolate buttons. Probably because last time I made something with white chocolate, I ate the rest of the packet. Sigh.

I was still determined to use cranberries. I wanted to make an oaty cookie of some sort, and this was the result.

I’m not sure whether it was the cranberries, orange, almonds or vanilla, or by their powers combined, but these may be the best smelling biscuits I have ever come across. The whole kitchen filled up with a sweet smell, and you could even smell them through the container the next day at work. Recommended!

Cranberry, Orange and Almond Biscuits

1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 cup wholemeal flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/4 cup cranberries, roughly chopped
1/2 cup blanched slivered almonds, roughly chopped
1 tsp finely grated orange rind
100g butter
2 Tbsp golden syrup
2 Tbsp hot milk
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla essence

Preheat the oven to 180 (c), and line 2-3 baking trays with paper.

Mix together the flours, sugars, oats, cranberries, almonds and orange rind, and set aside. Place the butter and golden syrup in a medium saucepan. Stir over a low heat until the butter and syrup melt together. Dissolve the baking soda in the hot milk, and add to the butter mixture. It will foam up a bit – stir it over the low heat until it’s well mixed, then pour it over the dry ingredients.

Mix together to form a crumbly dough. Form heaped teaspoonfuls into small balls and place on (cold) baking trays. Bake for 12 minutes, or until golden. They won’t be firm when you take them out of the oven. Leave them to sit on the trays for 5-10 minutes before transferring to a rack to cool. Makes about 40.


Vintage Cooking: Jam Drops

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My family is very good at hoarding stuff treasuring our possessions. I am very glad that among our treasures are my grandmother’s and great-grandmother’s handwritten recipe books. These two ladies lived and worked on farms in Otago, and their recipe books are typical of the times. My great-grandmother’s cooking dates mainly from the 1920s-40s, and my grandmother’s from the 1950s-70s. I also have my mum at the end of the phone, and my Nana at the end of an email – so plenty of handed down cooking inspiration!

Some of the recipes are family favourites that I remember from when I was small; others I’m unfamiliar with. I’m working through the books and planning on trying some of the more tempting and interesting recipes, updating them where they need it, and posting them on this blog. So stay tuned for a little nostalgia. By the way, I’d love to hear your favourite old-fashioned recipes, so leave a comment or drop me a line :)

These Jam Drop biscuits are my lovely Nana Coll’s recipe. She calls them ‘plain biscuits’ – I think because this biscuit dough can turn its hand to just about any task you assign it. These jam drops are very easy and quick to make, and very cute. They’re not over-the-top – just a good, reliable treat with a nice cup of tea.

Nana Coll’s Jam Drops

8 oz butter
8 oz sugar
1 egg
12oz flour
1 tsp baking powder
small amount jam (I used last week’s Plum & Blackcurrant  Jam, but raspberry is the standard)

Preheat oven to 140(c) with fan bake (160 without). Line two trays with baking paper.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and beat again. Add sifted flour and baking powder, and mix to a dough. Roll into small balls (I don’t believe in biscuits the size of CDs), and flatten a little with the back of a soup spoon. Using the handle end of a wooden spoon, make small indentations in the top of each biscuit (dip the handle in flour often to stop it sticking). Spoon a small amount (about 1/4-1/2 tsp) of jam into each indentation.

Bake for 20 minutes, rotating trays halfway through. Dust with icing sugar to make ‘em pretty :)