Freshly Baked Goods Friday: Pseudo-Kiwi Edition

For her English class, a Shiputzim daughter has to write a paper and do an oral report about a country. She chose New Zealand, and as I type these lines, she’s putting the finishing touches on the project.

Part of the assignment is to prepare a food, and after a bit of research, she decided to bake something called Afghan biscuits, which – according to the all-knowledgeable Chef Google – is a classic Kiwi cookie made with butter, sugar, cocoa, and cornflakes, and topped with chocolate frosting and a whole walnut.

The recipe seemed simple enough, but as is our wont here in TRLEOOB (=the real life equivalent of our blog), the Shiputzim daughter in question had to make a few substitutions.

First of all, seeing as how our mixer is pareve and all, she didn’t want to make the cookies milchig, and so there went the butter.

Next, she didn’t feel that it was worth the effort of making frosting – when we had a tub of chocolate spread on hand that was begging to be used.

And finally, we didn’t have any walnuts – whole or otherwise – and so she used some ground hazelnuts instead.

The result may or may not resemble authentic Afghan biscuits, but since none of us had ever heard of them before, I’m not sure that it really matters…

Pareve Afghan Biscuits

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup canola oil
• ¼ cup plus 2 TBSP sugar
• 1¾ cups flour
• 2 TBSP cocoa
• 2/3 cup cornflakes
• Chocolate frosting (given that this was just for school, we cheated and simply used chocolate spread)
• Ground nuts (to be more authentic, use whole walnuts instead)

Directions

Cream the oil and the sugar. Add the flour and the cocoa. Gently fold in the cornflakes.

Using a teaspoon, drop the cookies on a baking-paper-lined cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

Remove from oven, and let cool. Frost the cookies, and sprinkle some ground nuts on top (or place one walnut on each cookie).

Have you ever eaten, baked, or even heard of Afghan biscuits?

!בתאבון ושבוע טוב