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Sidebar: whenever I post recipes I find myself really audience conscious, which is weird. I think it comes from the fact that I spend a lot of time converting online recipes into NZ measurements and NZ brands and NZ names (butter in grams not sticks, vanilla wine biscuits not graham crackers, icing sugar not powdered sugar) - not to mention plain old unit conversions.
Anyway. What do you do when you have a box of stale cornflakes in your cupboard? Make afghans, obviously. My research revealed (where "research" = a google and straw poll of the two non-Kiwis on IM at the time; Fairfax would be ashamed, even) that if you eat afghans overseas, you don't call them that. According to one of my flatmates, afghans are a kiwi way of making shortbread more interesting. I don't know if that's true or not, but I hate shortbread and I love afghans, so who knows? Anyway, afghans are a chocolate biscuit (cookie) with cornflakes in them. They are yummy and really easy. Since they're apparently an NZ thing, I thought I'd better go with the classic Edmonds Recipe Book Afghans and Chocolate Icing.
Biscuits
200g butter (a bit less than 2 sticks - 1 stick of butter is around 110g), softened
1/2 C sugar (NZ cups and US cups are theoretically different, but I've never bothered converting a US recipe so I can't see why y'all should.)
1 1/4 C flour
1/4 C cocoa
2 C cornflakes
1. Preheat to 180 C (360 F).
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Sift flour and cocoa together and stir or beat into butter and sugar.
4. Fold in cornflakes. Note: this is impossible. These are not exactly light and fluffy ingredients. Wash your hands thoroughly and get in there - probably snobby cooks worry about keeping their cornflakes whole or something but seriously, I just crunch it all up in there until the cornflake pieces are evenly spread out in the mix.
5. Pressing the mixture together, spoon mounds or balls onto a baking tray and flatten with a fork (they should be quite thick anyway.) Bake for 10-15 minutes.
This produces a semi-savoury biscuit; I prefer them smaller. Since they are quite savoury, wait till they cool and ice with chocolate icing.
Chocolate Icing
2 C icing sugar (powdered sugar)
2 tablespoons cocoa
1/4 C butter
1/4 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 tablespoons boiling water
walnut halves (optional)
1. Sift icing sugar and cocoa into the bowl.
2. Add butter and essence - a note about the butter: you shouldn't melt it, but softening it a little will make your life easier.
3. Gradually add boiling water, mixing constantly, until the desired consistency is achieved. Really great icing will eventually harden on the afghan, so for that you want as little boiling water as possible.
Spread this on the biscuits after they've cooled, and decorate with a walnut (classy!)
Mine turned out pretty well, although not exactly what you'd call pretty (generally afghans aren't). But they're tasty!
Anyway. What do you do when you have a box of stale cornflakes in your cupboard? Make afghans, obviously. My research revealed (where "research" = a google and straw poll of the two non-Kiwis on IM at the time; Fairfax would be ashamed, even) that if you eat afghans overseas, you don't call them that. According to one of my flatmates, afghans are a kiwi way of making shortbread more interesting. I don't know if that's true or not, but I hate shortbread and I love afghans, so who knows? Anyway, afghans are a chocolate biscuit (cookie) with cornflakes in them. They are yummy and really easy. Since they're apparently an NZ thing, I thought I'd better go with the classic Edmonds Recipe Book Afghans and Chocolate Icing.
Biscuits
200g butter (a bit less than 2 sticks - 1 stick of butter is around 110g), softened
1/2 C sugar (NZ cups and US cups are theoretically different, but I've never bothered converting a US recipe so I can't see why y'all should.)
1 1/4 C flour
1/4 C cocoa
2 C cornflakes
1. Preheat to 180 C (360 F).
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Sift flour and cocoa together and stir or beat into butter and sugar.
4. Fold in cornflakes. Note: this is impossible. These are not exactly light and fluffy ingredients. Wash your hands thoroughly and get in there - probably snobby cooks worry about keeping their cornflakes whole or something but seriously, I just crunch it all up in there until the cornflake pieces are evenly spread out in the mix.
5. Pressing the mixture together, spoon mounds or balls onto a baking tray and flatten with a fork (they should be quite thick anyway.) Bake for 10-15 minutes.
This produces a semi-savoury biscuit; I prefer them smaller. Since they are quite savoury, wait till they cool and ice with chocolate icing.
Chocolate Icing
2 C icing sugar (powdered sugar)
2 tablespoons cocoa
1/4 C butter
1/4 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 tablespoons boiling water
walnut halves (optional)
1. Sift icing sugar and cocoa into the bowl.
2. Add butter and essence - a note about the butter: you shouldn't melt it, but softening it a little will make your life easier.
3. Gradually add boiling water, mixing constantly, until the desired consistency is achieved. Really great icing will eventually harden on the afghan, so for that you want as little boiling water as possible.
Spread this on the biscuits after they've cooled, and decorate with a walnut (classy!)
Mine turned out pretty well, although not exactly what you'd call pretty (generally afghans aren't). But they're tasty!
