Last Christmas James bought me the fabulous Primrose Bakery cookbook and to my delight one of the recipes inside was for Afghan Biscuits, I hadn’t seen, heard or eaten these biscuits for years.
When I was thirteen my first job was in a cake shop at the bottom of my road, called Cake Craft run by a guy from Australia. I use to ice the cakes and make the sandwiches. One of the things he use to make was these traditional Australian biscuits, Afghan biscuits and I loved them. Full with lots of coco power and covered in 70% coco icing and topped with a walnut.
So when I saw the recipe in the book it was the first thing I made and they tasted just as great as I remembered.
Biscuits
200g unsalted butter, at room temperature
75g golden caster sugar
175g plain flour, sifted
25g cocoa powder, sifted
50g cornflakes
Buttercream Icing
90g 70% coca dark chocolate
60g unsalted butter, at room temperature
70g icing sugar, sifted
1 tsp semi-skimmed milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
4 walnuts to decorate
Preheat oven to 180c/gas 4. Line a baking tray.
Cream the butter and sugar together with an electric hand mixer, until pale and fluffy. Gradually add the flour and cocoa powder and beat again. Stir in the cornflakes with a spoon.
Put approx 2 tablespoons of the mix in neat piles on the baking tray, leaving a little space in between each one, and flatten them slightly with the back of a fork.
Bake for 15 mins, or until firm to the touch. Allow to cool slightly on the tray before transferring to a wire rack.
To make the icing melt the chocolate until smooth and a pouring consistency. In a separate bowl beat the butter, icing sugar, milk and vanilla together until smooth. Add the melted chocolate and beat until thick and creamy with and electric mixer. If it looks too runny keep beating – this will thicken it up and improve the consistency.
When biscuits are completely cool, ice with a spatula and decorate with walnut halves.
