No 35 - Chocolate Coconut Macaroon Square

Really easy -

Chocolate Coconut Macaroon Square

Melt 150g chocolate in a bowl over boiling water  - or in the microwave.

Line a baking tin (11" x 9" or similar size) with buttered baking paper (butter side up)

Spread the melted chocolate in the tin and put it in the fridge to set again.

Beat 2 eggs until thick,
add 4 oz caster sugar and beat until the sugar is dissolved. 
Fold in 6 oz of dessicated coconut and a tsp of vanilla essence.

Spread the coconut over the chocolate and bake at 135-145 degrees C for about 30 minutes.

Cut into squares while still warm, but leave in the tin until completely cool.

OK - looks a bit weird on the bottom because I melted dark and white chocolate together....

No. 34 - Peppermint Square

This one is a bit too much like the last one - never mind.  One of my favorites as a kid - just because I liked eating sweetened condensed milk straight from the tin (there is always more in a tin that you need for any one thing....)

Peppermint Square

4 oz butter
4 oz sugar
1 egg
6 oz flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 dsp cocoa

Cream the butter and Sugar and add the egg.  Sift in the dry ingredients and spread the soft dough out in a sponge roll tin.

Bake at 170-180 degrees C for about 20 minutes.

Topping - to be poured on while the base is still hot

2 oz butter
2 TB sweetened condensed milk
2 oz icing sugar
peppermint essence (I use the essence bottle cap full, it's probably about a teaspoon)

When all that is cool and set, ice with chocolate icing.  Cut into Squares.

No 33 - Keamish Square

I have no idea about the name....  I googled it and it appears to be a surname.  So I assume that sometime in the history of this recipe it was first published or promoted by a Mrs Keamish....

Keamish Square

4 oz butter
4 oz sugar
1 egg
6 oz floour
1 dsp cocoa
1 tsp baking powder

Cream the butter and sugar, beat in the egg and sift in the dry ingredients.  Spread in a greased pan about 8" x 10" (or so), and bake about 20 minutes at 170-180 degrees C.

Spread it over with raspberry jam while it is still warm.  (In this one I used Oregon Grape Jam - which is very dark coloured.)

Topping:

4 oz butter
2 oz icing sugar
1 tsp gelatine - in 2 TB boiling water
Cream the butter and icing sugar, add the dissolved gelatine and beat until creamy.  Spread on top of the jam and when set, cover with chocolate icing.

Cut into squares when the icing has set.

 

No 18 - Sydney Special

Sydney Special

Another recipe that came I believe from one of those 1960’s community cookbooks.  It was a good one for kids to start their baking experience with.  You don’t have to strain an arm beating sugar and butter to a fine creamy paste.  As a kid my heart always dropped when the recipe opened with: “Cream the butter and sugar….”  That muscle in my upper arm, just below my shoulder, could begin to ache just contemplating that instruction.

Sydney Special

1 cup flour
1 cup coconut
1 cup cornflakes
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cocoa
5 oz melted butter

Mix, press into a sponge roll tin and bake at 180 C for 15-20 minutes.  Finish with chocolate icing and a sprinkle of desiccated coconut.  Cut into squares (about 24).

No 22 - FTC Square

 FTC Square (uncooked)

In 1979 when I left home to joint he NZ Forest Service, vast tracts of man-made pine forest marching across the NZ landscape were still owned by the State.  I started work for the government.  Our training was carried out in Rotorua where resided the main research and educational facility for production forestry in NZ.  The Forest Training Centre had one of those (even then) old-fashioned institutions – the tea lady.  The tea-lady is an endangered species.  Ours was delightful.  She served tea from an enormous enamel pot propelled from room to room on a trolley; and she supplemented her wage by baking and selling alongside the tea a few biscuits or squares.  There was one variety each day.  She came from the Keep it Simple School of Catering  - you either bought it or you didn’t.  Mind you, she knew what would sell, and most remarkably, gave me some of her reipes.  So I’ll share this one with you.

Note: In New Zealand we have a malted wheat flake ‘biscuit’ which we eat as a breakfast cereal that goes under the brand name ‘Weetbix’.  In some other parts of the world these things exist with spelling variations, but a recognizably similar name.

FTC Square

9 crushed Weetbix

1 cup desiccated coconut

4 oz  melted butter

½ tin of sweetened condensed milk (called Highlander in NZ, Carnation in UK)

1 cup of mixed fruit (fruit cake mix)

¾ TB cocoa

Mix all that up and press it into a lined sponge roll tin (about 8” x 12”).  Ice with lemon or orange icing. 

It improves with being stored for 2-3 days.

No 9 - Louise Cake

Something of a misnomer as it’s more a square than cake, but the base is a ‘short-cake’ consistency and the topping easy to assemble.  Known as ‘lousy-cake’ by my family, the sweet meringue and coconut topping sets it apart from other hard-iced squares.  Now that I work with Louise I have dropped the ‘lousy’ and the cake didn’t last long at work.  Back home, the shearers never sent any back from morning and afternoon teas either.  I believe it came out of a Journal of Agriculture cookbook (NZ) in the 1960’s.

Louise Cake

5 oz butter

2 oz sugar

2 egg yolks

10 oz flour

1 tsp Baking Powder

Cream butter and sugar, beat in egg yolks, add sifted flour and leavening.  Roll the paste out 1/3" thick on a teflon baking sheet, top with raspberry jam and cover with meringue and bake on a moderate oven for 20-25 minutes.  Cut into squares.

Meringue

2 egg whites

4 oz sugar

2 oz desicated coconut.

Whip egg whites until stiff, then fold in coconut and sugar.

No 8 - Ginger Crunch

Ginger Crunch

I’ve always associated this square with my father.  I seem to recall that when I was child he called it his favourite.  (He did like ginger and I’ve certainly inherited that from him.)  It might just have been the encouragement a father gives to a child proudly presenting their newly baked offering.  And certainly this is easy enough for a child to make.  I love the contrast of the hard crunchy base and the smooth sweet gingery top.

Have the topping ready for when the base comes of out of the oven and cut it while it’s still warm.  Cold, it will shatter and fall to pieces under knife.  (it definitely passes the motorbike test.)

Ginger Crunch

4 oz butter

4 oz sugar

7 oz flour

1 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Ginger

(2 oz chopped preserved ginger)

‘Mix in the usual way’ -  Cream butter and sugar, add the preserved ginger (if using) sift in dry ingredients.  Press the mix into a sponge roll tin, bake at 180^o C for 20-25 minutes.

Topping: Melt together  2 tablespoons of butter, 4 tablespoons icing sugar, 2 tablespoons of golden syrup,  1 tsp ground ginger.

Pour this over the warm base.  Cut while warm.

No 2 - Sarah's Flapjacks

Flapjacks

This recipe came from Sarah G.

What little yacht racing I still participate in these days is usually on a yacht called ‘Scarlet Jester’ as she campaigns Hamble or Warsash Winter and Spring series regattas on the Solent.  Enthusiastic crew are sometimes in short supply but we are never short of sustaining sandwiches and one of Sarah’s comforting cakes.  (The skipper knows where his best interests are.)  Sarah is a superb baker and a confirmed advocate of the Aga.  Her kitchen is always a welcoming place full of colour, warmth and excellent food.  She is generous with her recipes but I have never produced anything as good as what she pulls out of that Aga.  Maybe it’s the circumstances in which it is consumed but these are the best flapjacks I’ve ever eaten.

Flapjacks

8 oz butter

8 generous tablespoons of golden syrup

6 oz sugar  (make a couple of those ounces light muscavado or golden sugar)

16 oz rolled oats

4 oz mixed nuts

4 oz sultanas

½ level tsp salt

Set the oven at 175 ^o C (that might be a bit less for the fan oven people).  Grease a 7 ½"  x 15" tin or used a Teflon sheet (don’t use ordinary grease-proof paper).

In a large saucepan on low heat melt the butter and syrup.  Remove from heat and add sugar, oats, nuts and sultanas, and salt.

Turn it all into the tin, and cook for 30-40 minutes until golden brown. 

Leave it to cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then cut into squares.  (Cut them while they are in the tin and still warm or they will fall to bits.)  Put them on a wire rack to cool.


Flapjacks and photo by Maryan Schuringa