Food for gay men: Afghan biscuits
A chocolatey celebration of the camels of Australia.
This is our recipe for Afghan biscuits.
I baked these for one of our recent events.
Gareth Johnson
Why are they called Afghan biscuits?
No one really knows. My mother makes these all the time and they're always popular, but they're included in a lot of recipe books in Australia and New Zealand - they're always called Afghans.
My theory is that they're somehow linked to the camels of central Australia.
From the 1860s to the 1930s, camels were imported to help support the development of central Australia. They were particularly useful for transport. Along with the camels came the cameleers - men who were experienced in handling camels.
The cameleers were all generally referred to as Afghans, although they were Pashtuns and Balochs from across the North-West Frontier Province of what was then controlled by the British Empire.
As modern transport eventually replaced the camel trains, the unwanted camels were either euthanised or released into the wild. Today, there remains a large population of feral camels roaming central Australia.
What's that got to do with biscuits? Well, the biscuits look a bit like camel humps. I'm guessing that someone in the Country Women's Association entered them into the baking competition - using innovative biscuits to celebrate aspects of Australian life was the kind of thing that the CWA did.
Anyway, they're Afghan biscuits and they're delicious.
Ingredients
This makes about 16-20 biscuits.
For the biscuit
- 200 grams Butter
- 1/2 Cup White Sugar
- 1 1/4 Cups Plain White Flour
- 1/4 Cup Cocoa
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla
- 2 Cups Cornflakes
For the icing
- 1 1/2 Cups Icing Sugar
- 1 heaped Tablespoon Cocoa
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon melted butter
- 1-2 Tablespoons Water
- Walnut Halves
Method
Make the biscuit
- Preheat oven to 180C.
- Prepare an oven tray with baking paper.
- Cream together the butter and sugar.
- Add flour, cocoa & vanilla and bring the mixture together.
- Stir through the cornflakes.
- Take tablespoon sized amounts and roll into balls spread evenly on the tray
- Lightly flatten.
- Bake for 12 minutes - they will be soft when they come out of the oven
- Allow to stand for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely
Make the icing
- Combine icing sugar, cocoa, vanilla, and melted butter.
- Slowly add the water a little at a time until the desired consistency is reached.
- Ice the biscuits and finish with a walnut half.
Gareth Johnson
Gareth Johnson
Gareth Johnson
