Sweet chestnut and chocolate biscotti

I have been out in NZ where it is autumn.  Sweet chestnuts were falling from the trees in the park around where my Mum plays croquet.  Eating chestnuts has never been a tradition with any of the Kiwis that I grew up with and it seems that they have over the years simply been swept up by the road sweeper and the bloke who mows the grass under the trees.

In recent years there has been an influx of itinerant workers from the Far East and they have brought with them some wonderful new food attitudes, including eating sweet chestnuts.  So the chestnuts are collected but it remained a mystery to most of the locals what you might do with a chestnut to make it edible.

So here we go.  I scrounged up a bag of them which amounted to about half a kilogram once boiled and shelled (see below), whizzed them to a damp powder in the blender and proceeded to make this recipe

http://en.julskitchen.com/dessert/chestnut-chocolate-cookies
And Juls presents it so much better than I do so follow the link.  Just one word of warning her recipe uses chestnut flour, what I produced was damp chestnut powder - the texture of the end biscotti was superbe but the mix was too damp to begin with and needed extra flour.  I also added pistachios to my mixture.

To shell sweet chestnuts, cut the shell on their rounded side and either bake them in an oven at 180 degrees C for about 20 minutes, or boil them for about 20 minutes, and then keep them hot while you pull both layers of the shells off.  Much easier to do it you can keep them warm.

No 43 - Cherry Almond Biscuits

Mothering Sunday - while my other half was entertaining 'sa mere et sa soeur' following his maginifient roast pork 'lunch', I took my turn at doing the dishes and turned the kithen to my own use to bake something a little bit special for a meeting at work tomorrow morning.  I needed to hunt out a biscuit recipe that I hadn't made before (for my personal challenge), and I've found this which fits perfectly with my current obsession for recipes with ground almonds.

And this one is really easy.

Cherry Almond Biscuits

200 g butter
90g caster sugar
1/2 tsp almond extract
25g ground almonds
200g self-raising flour
glace cherries

Melt the butter, stir in sugar and essence, sift in the flour and add the ground almonds. Mix the lot to a smooth dough,

then roll teaspoonfuls into balls and space them out on baking sheets (aim for 25-30).  Stick half  cherry on top of each, flattening the ball slightly. 

  Bake 15-20 minutes at 160 degrees C (fan oven)/180 degrees C (conventional).  Leave them 5 minutes on the trays before transferring them to a wire rack.  They are very buttery and will crumble if you move them too soon.

No 42 - Coffee Walnut Biscuits

There is a jar of aging instant coffee taking up space on the shelf above our kettle.  Neither of us drink instant coffee, and the only visitor who does (other half''s mother) insists on a particular brand - which isn't this one.  

Not being one to throw anything away unless it poses serious risk to health or digestion, and never having heard of or eaten a coffee flavoured biscuit, I decided a coffee flavoured biscuit was well over-due.

This week's biscuits (see previous post) seemed rich in chocolate (in particular), dried fruit of all kinds (but with a clear preference for cherries), nuts (for England), but no coffee.  So some research was called for.

It's quite simple really - take a basic biscuit recipe (butter, suggar, egg, flour and leavening, and add coffee - and some walnuts, I reckon, because coffee and walnuts go together like.... well like...coffee and walnuts.)


Coffee Walnut Biscuits

150g butter
100g brown sugar
100g golden caster sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
250g flour
75g chopped walnuts
1/4 tsp each baking powder & bicarb soda
2.5 tablespoons instant coffee dissolved in 1 TB hot water and 1 TB milk

Cream butter and sugars, add egg and beat well.  Sift in dry ingredients and add coffee mix, walnuts, and vanilla.  Roll into balls, space out on a baking sheet,  and flatten with the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar.

Bake at 160 degrees C (fan)/ 170-180 degrees C conventional, for 15 minutes.

A Baking Week

I've just had a week at home (some annual leave to use up, and my available funds committed to a trip home to EnZed in April), so I have spent it getting the allotment ready for Spring, cleaning up a topper dinghy and our old escort van which are both for sale, digging up my front lawn which was pure moss and not a great enhancement to the house, and BAKING.

The allotment hasn't needed any digging, the layer of seaweed suppressed the weeds, and a thick mulch on top of some two year composted stable waste has it looking very loved.  This year's potato bed is deep under straw and the seed spuds are chitting on the kitchen windowsill, where I have been able to watch over them while doing my daily baking.  I dug 7 biscuit recipes off the BBC Good Food website and resolved to make one batch a day.

So here they all are (clockwise from bottom centre)

Custard and White Chocolate Biscuits http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2198644/custard-and-white-chocolate-biscuits
A great tasting crisp biscuit, easy to make

Cherry Shortbread Hearts
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1104645/cherry-shortbread-hearts These are a bit of a challenge to make - you need to have a  lot of time to rub butter into flour.  I cheated and cut it in using the food processor.  It was virtually impossible therefore to bring the dough together without some extra wet ingredient (that isn't mentioned in the list of ingredients).  I used a few tablespoons of water.




Almond & Lemon Curd Biscuits
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/9839/almond-and-lemon-curd-buttons
A bit of work but well worth it; fabulous biscuits.



Chocolate Chunk Pecan Cookies
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/5720/chocolate-chunk-pecan-cookies
I accidentally cut a few corners on the assembly method for this recipe and it turned out to be the easiest (and possibly most luxurious) of this week's biscuits.  Crisp but with a bit of a tendency to crumble (and can be eaten straight from the freezer as my other half will attest).


Pistachio & Cranberry Cookies
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1759655/pistachio-and-cranberry-cookies
Despite the name, this is 'shortbread'.  It is a good shortbread too.  Leave it in the fridge for longer than suggested in the recipe and use a well sharp knife to cut the log.


Gooey Chocolate Cherry Cookies
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/9837/gooey-chocolate-cherry-cookies
The name says it all.  This one was voted favorite by a group of the other half's work associates.



Star Anise Biscuits
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/10212/star-anise-biscuits
They smell heavenly, - and have delicate flavour.  I made these ones small to have beside that special coffee.

No. 40 - Belgian Biscuits

These are probably no more Belgian than I am.  They seem to be an Australian and New Zealand thing, however in texture and with all their spices they are not unlike a lot of the biscuits that abound in Northern European countries.

By traditional they are round with serrated edges, iced with white and sprinkled with raspberry flavoured jelly crystals.  Jelly crystals are a bit hard to find here, where I note that jelly seems to be made from blocks of concentrated jelly rather than gelatine in granular form. 

They were a treat to make as a child; being allowed to spread one with jam and find another exactly the right size and shape to sandwich onto it, carefully swipe on a circle of white icing and decorate with a pinch of the jelly crystals.  The good thing about jelly crystals is the burst of intense flavour that they add.  Pink sugar provides the look, but it really lacks the zing.

This week I made them heat-shaped a.) because I’ve got heart-shaped biscuit cutters, and b.) because it’s St. Valentine’s Day on Thursday.

Belgian Biscuits

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

250g butter, softened

1 egg

2 1/2 teaspoons mixed spice

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 3/4 cups plain flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 Tb cocoa

Raspberry jam, white icing, and pink sugar or jelly crystals

Cream the butter and suggar, add the egg and beat well.... I read a version that goes - throw the softened butter, the sugar and the egg in the blender..... it seems to work equally well so do that.  Then sift in the dry ingredients and pulse until you have a dough-ball.

Tip it onto your bench with some sprinkled flour and squash it about a bit to make it all stick together, cut it into two, wrap the pieces in plastic film and refrigerate them for half an hour or so.

Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees C (fan oven) - 180 degrees C conventional and prepare two or three baking sheets.

Roll out the dough to about 5mm thick, cut it with a biscuit cutter and slide the biscuits onto baking sheet.  Bake 15-20 minutes and cool them on a rack. 

Stick the biscuits together with raspberry jam.  Ice them with white icing and sprinkle with pink crystals.

You can make pink sugar with 1/4 cup of granulated sugar, and a couple of drops of red food colouring - mixed well.

Saturday was wet and snowy and I spent the day out cutting birch off some common land with the Hampshire Conservation Volunteers;  a great day out despite the weather, a magnificent bonfire, and a piece of birch to take home for my wood-carving class, where I plan to make a kuksa (and possibly some wooden spoons for my kitchen).  Anyway as a result the baking was left until the last minute on Sunday and I was too rushed (and too lazy truth be known) to do some fancy flood icing on my themed biscuits.  Maybe I’ll save that for next year….but I doubt it.  They are not for sale and they’ll be consumed in an instant whether swiped or flooded with icing – so swiped it is.  They did however get royal icing because I’m a convert to its superior properties.

Gingerbread Christmas Tree

No 39 - Swedish Christmas Biscuits

About 10 years ago (om ti år siden) I lived in Denmark.  I like the tradition of having the Xmas celebration at night on 24th - we had already started doing that with friends when we lived in London.  In the dark it somehow seems much brighter and more celebratory.  The day-time version does drag on doesn't it...?      Long after I would like to go for a bike ride, or a walk, or just get outdoors.  You never want to go back outdoors after dark.

Anyway another of the Scandinavian Jule traditions I adopted came  from their range of baked goods.  I still make Christmas Cake (that's from my NZ background), and Christmas Puddings (that's for my UK life), and now I also make Peberkager as well.  The only difference is that not having any kids I don't make them big, and decorated with icing to hang on the tree.  This year however I did make a batch for a friend with 2 children and she reckoned her kids (all three of them she said - referring I suspect to her husband, who is a prodigous baker himself) would enjoy the process of icing them and hanging them up.

Swedish Ginger Christmas Biscuits

140 g butter

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup treacle

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp ground cloves

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla essence

4 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

icing to decorate

thin ribbon to hang them up

Melt the butter, sugar, treacle and spices in a saucepan over a low heat.  Cool

Stir in the egggs and vanilla.  Stir in the sifted flour and baking powder and make sure it is well mixed.  Divide the dough into 3, wrap each portion in a plastic bag and put it in the fridge for at least two hours.

Heat the oven to 180 degrees C (170 for fan ovens).  Line some baking trays with non-stick paper.  Roll out a portion to about 4 mm thick, cut out shapes and put them on the trays.

Use a piping nozzle to make a hole in the top of each one.  Bake for 5-10 minutes.  They should be firm but they will only be crisp once they have cooled completely.  Cool them on a rack.  Repeat with all the dough portions.

Decorate, thread with ribbon and hang them on your Christmas Tree.

No 31 Triple Ginger Biscuits

Following my love of things ginger I thought I'd share this one with you.  Biscuits and squares travel better on the bike than large delicate cakes....

Triple Ginger Biscuits

6 oz butter
1 up packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup treacle
2.25 cups of flour
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp baking soda
1.5 tablespoons minced fresh ginger root
1/2 cup chopped crystallized ginger

Cream the butter and sugar until smooth.  Beat in the egg and treacle.  Combine all the dry ingredients and sift them into the creamy mix.  Lastly add the fresh and cystallized ginger.

Cover the dough and for at least 2 hours (better over night).  I have found that rolling the dough into a log inside some plastic cling-film before refrigerating it, means that you can simply slice it and bake the slices next day.

However if you prefer, you can roll the dough into 1 inch balls, place them 2 inches apart on a baking sheet

Either way, bake them for about 10 minutes at 175 degrees C.

They don't go really crisp, and are great to eat warm.......

No 30 - Afghans

A tradition of some sort in NZ, no one seems to know why they were named thus, and I suspect they are just an excuse to eat chocolate icing and walnuts.  However they are easy, great to make with kids, and popular it seems (if my work mates are anything to go by).

Use unsweetened cornflakes, and mash them up a bit otherwise the mix can bea bit crumbly and the 'biscuits' don't hold together properly.

Afghans

6 oz flour
3oz sugar
2 oz cornflakes
1 oz cocoa
7 oz butter

Mix together, squash dessertspoonfuls into a rounded mound, bake in a moderate over (170-180 degrees C) for 16 minutes.  When cool, ice with chocolate icing and top with half a walnut.

(My colleague suggested using Nutella..... now there's innovation for you.)

Pictured with, or without, flash lighting.... the flash certainly makes them look more chocolatey.

No 29 Malt Biscuits

Long gap in there, no break from baking though.  There was all the biscuits, flapjacks, and toasted mueslei I did for the attempt by my work colleagues on the Welsh 3000's. (That had to be postponed because of high winds, and I will be in Norway when they re-run their attempt - The mueslei biscuits were consumed at work; and during our Round the Island Race last weekend.  Scarlet Jester got 7th in class and 85th overall.  We had a good day out).

The day after the Round the Island Race was extremely busy with catching up at the allotment, Portsmouth and District Bee Keepers Association summer lunch time barbeque, and a visit later from friends we hadn't seen for a while.  I managed a batch of Malt Biscuits for this challenge (my paternal grandmother's recipe: she of the shortbread), and a German Plum Cake to feed to my guests.

Apart from the 'cream the butter and sugar' instruction malt biscuits are easy to make, and popular with my baking testers.  The most difficult part might be sourcing 'extract of malt' - that's the stuff Kanga feeds to Roo as strengthening medicine in the Winnie-the-Pooh stories.  When we were children my bother got fed a spoonful of malt extract every day - as strengthening medicine.  I'm not exactly sure what it is meant to add to the diet, but I was extremely narked that I wasn't allowed to eat it.  That might be why I developed a taste for the stuff.  I always have a jar in the cupboard now.

Malt Biscuits

8 oz butter
1 and half cups sugar
3 tablespoons of malt extract  (use a hot spoon dipped in boiling water)
2 large eggs
4 cups flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
2 tablesppons of cocoa

Cream the butter and sugar.  Beat in the malt extract.  Ad the eggs one at a time and beat well aftereach one.   Sift in the dry ingredients and work the whole lot into a very stiff dough.

Turn it out on the bench, squash it around a bit to get all the crumbs to attach and smooth out the texture.  Cut the dough in half and shape into 2 logs which you roll in aluminium foil and put in the fridge for 6-8 hours.

Unroll the foil, slice the logs into biscuits about 0.5cm thick, and bake on greased trays (or baking papers) for about 15 minutes at 170 degrees C.

We used to eat these cold with butter on, but then Kiwis in those days would butter anything.  They don't need the extra butter, but if you are being decadent.......  Family favorite.

No 26 - ANZAC biscuits

This recipe came out of a New Zealand icon - the Edmonds Cookbook.  I have been told that in the early days of the book's existence (written to promote Edmonds baking products, strapline: "Sure to Rise"), the Edmonds used to send a copy to all newly engaged women.  I assume that they got the details from the engagements announced in the country's newspapers.

Generations of us have grown up with the Edmonds Cookbook, and more than one mother has deemed it an essential for a son leaving home to do so armed with a book of Edmonds' cooking wisdom.

My recollection of the copy at home was an A5 sized soft covered book  (a picture of the Edmonds Factory with its "Sure to Rise" icon on top, and the beautiful gardens it was also famed for in front), dog-eared and stained with years of baking spills, falling open at the Queen Cakes recipe.  (Since those days sprial binding transformed recipe books.)

ANZAC Biscuits

2 oz flour
3 oz sugar
2/3 cup rolled oats
2/3 cup desicated coconut
2 oz butter
1 Tb golden syrup
1/2 tsp Baking Soda dissolved in 2 Tb boiling water

Melt the butter and golden syrup together and add the soda and water.  Pour the wet ingredients into the mixed dry ingredients and stick it all together.

Drop teaspoonfuls onto a greased baking sheet and bake in a moderate over for about 15 minutes, until spread out and golden all over.

They range, depending on your mix, from a bit sticky in the middle and crunchy round the edges, to crunchy all the way across.  Take care as they can burn quite quickly after passing the stage of being 'ideal'.  For the English cooks out there - think slightly sticky hobnob.

No 24 - Spiced Date Triangles

Given that we were at No 14 when I let someone talk me into this blog, it has taken me a while to catch up with myself.  This is it - when this goes on-line I will be up-to-date and can concentrate in getting some photos together to illustrate some of the entries.  I never realized that this blogging business would require me to be so organized about baking.  Writing the recipes down has been the worst bit; I can't make all this up as I go along.  I have had to work out a measurement for some of the guesstimates I regularly use!

Here is a proper recipe and another one for those little biscuit things that go well beside a cup of 'sterk' coffee.

Spiced Date Triangles

2/3 cup (110 g) chopped pitted dates
1/4 cup (60ml) golden syrup
1 TB water
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp ginger
1 tsp mixed spice
1.75 cups (260 g) plain flour
1 cup (125 g) ground almonds
1/2 cup (100 g)firmly packed brown sugar
125 g butter, chopped
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 egg whie lightly beaten
1 Tb cinnamon sugar
3/4 cup (60 g) flaked almonds

Combine dates, syrup, water and spice in a pot and simmer for 2 mins; cool.

Combine sifted flour, ground almonds and sugar, and rub in the butter.  Add the egg and the cooled date mixture, stir well, knead gently and using a piece of foil to wrap it in, shape the dough into a long triangle (big Toblerone comes to mind).

Refrigerate it for 1 hour and then slice about 5mm thick, place them on greased oven trays, brush with egg white and sprinkle with almond flakes.

Bake about 12 mins in a moderate oven (that's 170 to 180 deg C)

Makes about 55.

No 25 - Friesland Dumkes

I've been away from home for three weeks.  While I've been away we've finally reached the top of the Council's list for an allotment, I did some motorbike touring in Nederlands, and I attended a course on Managing Maritime Emergencies at the Smit (salvage) facilities in Rotterdam.  Great course - I recommend it to anyone in a relevant industry.

I met some really great people, and had a fairly comprehensive look at Rotterdam.  I'll reserve my comments on Rotterdam as my impressions were unfairly blighted by rain quite a bit of the time.  Touring in the rain - particularly on a motorbike - doesn't have a lot to recommend it.

Before the course we spent a weekend in the north to go to the World Superbike racing at Assen.  Assen is a lively place, great Saturday market, nice outdoor bars, good mix of the old and the new.  In fact we arrived the day they opened their 'arts' complex - theatres, library etc.  Interesting installation on the steps outside - pillars with some sort of proximity trigger that makes them light up and make surreal sounds when you get close to them.

We stayed in Appelsha.  Like most establishments in Continental Europe when they serve you tea or coffee you get a little biscuit on the side.  Nowhere in Nederlands that week did I get one of those per-packaged factory models of biscuit.  They were all the 'specialty' of the house.  Commendable.  I fell in love with the Dumkes that accompanied that first much needed cup of tea on arrival at Appelsha.

So I looked up Freisland Dumkes on the internet and this is what I got:  (the ones I've made taste great, but I might have been a bit more generous with the size than the 'dunkers' that were served with tea)

Freisland Dumkes (thumbs)

150 g butter
150 g dark brown sugar
 2 eggs
250 g flour (sifted) with a pinch of salt
100 g hazelnuts (chopped finely)
1 tsp anise seed - crushed
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger

Heat the oven to 150 deg C.  Cream the butter and sugar, beat in the eggs one at a time untiil foamy.  Sift in the flour and add the nuts and spices.  Knead the dough until smooth, roll it out about 1cm thick, cut into strips 2cm x 4cm and bake on a greased (or teflon) sheet until browned.

I think you are meant to press them with your thumb when they come out of the oven - to make a thumb impression, but I skipped that step.  I'm sure they taste the same without the markings - and as I have been struggling all this weekend to dig buttercups and docks out of a waterlogged allotment, my hands are looking a bit stained at the moment (which might have added unwanted flavour to the Dumkes).

I'm about to go and do a second lot of baking today.  My motorbike had been in need of a carbs rebuild, a job which has been sorted out beautifully this week by the hardworking and extremely decent blokes at Chas Bikes in London.  The least I can do I drop off some sultana biscuits on my way back into London on Tuesday morning.  My gratitude is immense.  The bike still perfomed acceptably at speed but the effort of nursing it through towns and filtering at lower speeds was really beginning the wear me down last week.

No 23 - Peanut Biscuits

OK - I did a bit of a clean out in the recipe book.  This is something that I have meant to try out for a while.  It came out of a 1994 Australian Woman's Weekly pullout that my Mum had in her stash.  There was a bit of a clear out when I was home last year and I rescued this to try some of the interesting looking Sweet Things.

Peanut Biscuits


125 g butter
1/4 cup (60ml) crunchy peanut butter
1/2 up (110 g) caster sugar
3/4 (150g) firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg
1.5 cups (225g) plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
3 x 40g scorched peanut bars finely chopped


Cream the butter, sugar and peanut butter.
Beat in the egg.
Add the chopped peanut bars and sift in the dry ingredients.


Shape the dough into a log about 5cm across, roll it in foil and chill it for an hour or until firm.
Cut into 1cm thick slices and bake about 12 minutes at 170-180C.  Makes about 30.

I don't know exactly what scorched peanut bars are - I used small Snickers Bars. 

These are wow.  I might even try for a photo.  Watch this space.....

No 5 - Lemon Biscuits

Lemon Biscuits

Drawing up my list of things to bake, I realized that I had nothing flavoured lemon; quite remarkable really as despite an extensive veg garden when growing up, we grew no fruit except a lemon tree.  There was an ancient pear tree in the orchard of the ‘old house’ on our farm (the house by then a grain store and tractor shed), whose pears were sparse and hard, but no apples, no plums, none of the fruit trees which could easily have graced our growing space. 

I suspect the lemon tree was more a gardening challenge than an enjoyment or culinary necessity.  We must have been beyond the southern limit of where they happily thrive and I don’t recall its lemons making it into anything other than the ginger beer.

So my recipe book had nothing lemon, but I was sure there must be such things a lemon biscuits; so I resorted to the internet.

I chose this one: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/267608/lemon-biscuits

It seemed a bit odd that it had no leavening and only 2 egg yolks.  The biscuits were a bit ‘lemon shortbread-ish’ but of all the things I’ve produced for work (I’m up to 17 in this challenge but have been baking for these cake-testers for years), this is the one that has had the most repeat requests.

I’ve also subsequently tried it with 1 egg instead of 2 yolks; it doesn’t work well so find another use for the whites and stick to 2 yolks.

No 3 - Sultana Biscuits

Sultana Biscuits

Newly married, my mother acquired this recipe from one of those books compiled by the ladies on the church committee, or the school committee, or some local sport or community club, and sold as a fund raiser (embellished with ads from local businesses).  It’s origin is lost in the mists of time; it has become a family recipe and is now made in quadruple (yes 4x) batches with the baked biscuits being stored in the freezer in 2 litre ice-cream tubs.

They seem to be the most popular things she bakes and are eaten straight from the freezer with morning and afternoon teas; and sometimes by the handful by opportunistic grandsons.  One such, calling by one day and finding no one in the house, but the door open, left a note and decided before departing to conduct a raid on the freezer.  He was caught at the door leaving with both hands and his mouth full of Sultana Biscuits.

Sultana Biscuits

4 oz butter

4 oz sugar

1tablespoon golden syrup

1 dessertspoon milk

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 tsp Bicarb Soda

Handful of sultanas

8 oz flour.

Melt together butter, sugar, syrup, milk and vanilla.  Get it hot but not boiling.  Ad the soda.  Let it cool and add the flour and sultanas.  Roll into balls and put on a baking sheet, press them down a bit (just remember they will spread out a bit more).  Bake in a moderate oven 15-20 minutes.

No 7 - Narna's Shortbread

Narna’s Shortbread.

Narna, my paternal grandmother, made shortbread that set the standard by which I’ve judged shortbread ever since.  The secret ingredient is the condensed milk.  OK it is no secret now but in NZ we use ‘Highlander’ sweetened condensed milk.  Its addition seems to have the effect of adding crispness to the end result.  (Mum puts it in the chocolate chippy biscuits for the same reason.)

This recipe is meant to be shaped into a log, chilled, then sliced and pricked with a fork before baking.  Narna shortcut that by simply rolling it out, cutting it into squares and personalized it by stabbing each piece 2 or 3 times with the end of a spoon, making characteristic curved marks on each one.

Grandad, always the joker and storyteller, had it that these weren’t spoon marks at all but in fact the nail on her big toe.  The kids didn’t mind and the family shortbread has enjoyed curved decoration ever since.

Narna’s Shortbread

8 oz butter

5 oz castor sugar

1 tablespoon of (sweetened) condensed milk

12-14 oz flour

1 tsp baking powder

Pinch salt.

(Narna’s notes then  simply say ‘Mix as usual’.)  So cream the butter and sugar, add the condensed milk then all the dry ingredients.   Mould the dough into a sausage.  At this point I wrap it in cling film and chill it for a few hours.  Then slice it and cook it at about 130 ^o C for 15-20 minutes.  It shouldn’t change colour.

No 6 - Grandma's Ginger Biscuits

My Grandmothers Ginger Biscuits

For reasons I will never completely understand because I was born after it was all over, NZ had rationing during and after WWII.  They must have had butter and eggs coming out their ears but their recipes reflect a period of austerity, ingredient substitution and ‘make-do’.  (Maybe it was the sugar they lacked.)

We loved these ginger biscuits and no one could make them like Grandma.  My mother, her own daughter, reneged on making them, claiming the ‘never come out like Mum’s’.  Grandma’s were always baked in an old coal range that virtually never went out and kept Grandma’s farmhouse kitchen a stifling place in the height of summer, but cosy and welcoming in Winter.

For birthdays, Grandma would send each of us a Golden Syrup tin (the biggest ones are/were the same size as the big ones here now – so not an enormous portion) full of her ginger biscuits, and we were ‘made up’ as the saying has it.  Today our quantity expectations seem to be so much bigger.  I hesitate to give friends just a Golden Syrup tin full, and Mum bakes for her grandchildren in multiples of 2 litre ice-cream packs.

Ginger Biscuits

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 cup golden syrup

3 big cups of flour

1 tsp soda

1 tsp ginger

Melt the butter, syrup and sugar.  Sift in the dry ingredients.  Roll into balls and put on a greased baking tray, and bake in a moderate oven for 15-20 minutes.  Good made with lard and butter and a tablespoon of vinegar. 

No 1 - Denise's Mueslei Biscuits

Mueslei Biscuits.

Rather unusually I started my Odyssey with a new/newish recipe gleaned from the internet.  The inspiration for the search had been agreeing to join a team of work colleagues taking on the 3 Peaks Challenge http://www.thethreepeakschallenge.co.uk/ to raise money for the Ronald McDonald House at Guy’s Hospital – right next door to where we worked.  I wanted a high energy, no-holds-barred biscuit such as might sustain and fortify flagging (city type) hill walkers.  Mueslei is full of sustaining stuff and I had a packet of some commercial brand languishing in the breakfast cupboard at home.  (I make and prefer my own concoction, so my partner’s attempts to cater for my breakfasts, although gratefully received, were going to be ‘re-assigned’.)

I have no idea now where the recipes came from and at any rate I cobbled 2 or 3 of them together by trial and error to produce the favoured end result.  So apologies to anyone who thinks they recognize their recipe behind this.

The really important part of cobbling up a mueslei biscuit is to know what is (or isn’t) in your mueslei mix, what you want out the other end of the process, and what suitable additions and substitutes inhabit your pantry. I had a basic mueslei, wanted lots of slow release carbs , a dangerous dose of fat and flavour, and had a cupboard full of dried and glacé fruit, nuts, seeds, and spices .  Make them to suit your own taste.  I happen to like adding preserved citrus peel and some crystallized ginger, lots of cinnamon, cloves and allspice, and raisins.

Basic Mueslei Biscuit:

2 cups of mueslei

1cup flour

I tsp cinnamon

cloves, mixed spice, allspice, or nutmeg to taste

¾ cup brown (or raw) sugar

2 tablespoons  golden syrup

125 grams melted butter

1tsp Bicarb Soda dissolved in 2 tablespoons of boiling water.

Variations:

½ cup desiccated coconut, handful raisins or other dried fruit, sunflower or pumpkin seeds, or flaked nuts, zest off two oranges (or some preserved citrus peel like you would put in Xmas cakes), chopped crystallized ginger.  Replace the golden syrup with honey, or use wholemeal flour ....... anything else you enjoy in your mueslei or your biscuits.

Put spoonfuls on a greased baking tray (or baking paper) and bakes at 180^o C
(160 ^o C if you have a fan oven) for about 15 minutes.

They survive hikes up mountains and commutes on motorbikes, but get consumed fairly quickly.