Afghans

The biscuit bake off resumes again after a slight pause. Today, I baked afghans. Afghan biscuits tend to polarise baking connoisseurs; people either love or hate them. Aside from the walnuts on top (which I personally like but know many people who pull it off before eating the biscuit), I think the biggest problem is that afghan biscuits tend to be overcooked, leaving a burnt aftertaste. With that in mind, I set out to bake my first ever batch of afghans.

One of the best things about baking biscuits is eating raw dough. How is possible to taste so good? I must have eaten the equivalent of a full afghan in mixture alone. Yum! So, how big is a 'mound' of mixture? Certainly smaller than the ones I made - I ended up with 15 medium sized afghans (plus the raw one I ate), meaning that we'll only eat them one at a time instead of two at once. Yeah, right!

Afghans

Ingredients

• 200 g butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 1/4 cup cocoa
• 2 cups cornflakes
• chocolate icing
• walnuts (optional)

Method

1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Sift flour and cocoa. Stir into creamed mixture. Fold in cornflakes.
3. Spoon mounds of mixture onto a greased oven tray, gently pressing together. 
4. Bake at 180°C for 15 minutes or until set.
5. When cold, ice with chocolate icing and decorate with a walnut (if desired). Makes 24. 

Afghan biscuit