Biscuits
Pretty, iced biscuits will always be popular, but don’t forget the plainer kinds. They are good for filling the tins at home and they’ll still taste and look good after a week – sometimes even two. Biscuits are small, simple treats, they don’t require expensive ingredients and they don’t take long to make. Ignore those rows of packaged biscuits in the supermarket and make your own – they’ll taste much better than bought ones. And don’t forget the morning mantra: A cup of tea without a biscuit is a missed opportunity.
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Oat Crispies
I think I must have inherited my mother’s liking for a slightly sweet biscuit with apricot jam and a slice of sharp, cheddar-style cheese on top. When I first tried this recipe from the Andersons Bay Mother’s Club 'Favourite Family Recipes', where it appeared below the Nougat Bars, I thought the biscuits were pleasant but not particularly memorable. Then I tried them with cheese and quince paste and rapidly revised ...
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Stuffed Monkeys
I had often noticed this recipe – and its slightly off-putting name – in my mother Paula’s copy of the 1945 Women’s Institute Home Cookery Book, since it is on the same page as Sponge Drops which I make regularly. But it hadn’t occurred to me to try them until the sister-in-law of my friend Margaret Sadler told me that she had made them for many years and are a ...
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Afghans
Very chocolaty, firm rather than crisp, with a slight cornflake crunch and crowned by a pale half-walnut pressed into a shiny cushion of chocolate icing – Afghans have got it all. Cornflakes were popular in New Zealand by the 1910s and are found in many homely recipes since thrifty housekeepers did not dash out to buy special ingredients for their family baking, they relied on using what was at hand. ...
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Hokey Pokey Biscuits
Not quite as toothachingly sweet as the honeycomb toffee they are named after, these crisp biscuits do have the slight fizz on the tongue created by baking soda combined with golden syrup. They are light and pleasant and undemanding and with the addition of some chopped chocolate – my sister Fiona’s inspired embellishment – they are very hard to resist. I’ve given the traditional recipe here, but add ¾ cup ...