Last year a couple of friends and I decided to take advantage of some cheap flights into Wellington, New Zealand and have a mini break. My parents are from New Zealand and although I was born and raised here in Australia we do fly over fairly regularly. While I have been to New Zealand many times, being part of a large Croatian family, its always a whirlwind trip filled with fussing relatives, family events and not much sight seeing. So I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to see the beautiful country that is New Zealand. NO relatives!
We thought that since Wellington is so close to Martinborough wine country we would split up the trip into two parts. We hired a car and did two nights in Martinborough at the most amazing holiday house, The French Barn and then headed back to Wellington and spent 3 nights in the city.
Martinborough and its French Barn were so picturesque. A rustic little barn with all the mod cons, beautiful interior and perfectly manicured gardens, set in a gorgeous peacful little town in the middle of wine country… does it get any better. Well yes it did, as we stepped inside and explored the property, naturally I had to check out the kitchen first, I was delighted to see a piece of my childhood, a little piece of home, The Edmonds logo painted on the pantry floor. Genius.
The Edmonds Cookbook is described as the quintessential guide to traditional New Zealand “cuisine” and was first published in 1908. I think you would be hard pressed to find a New Zealand household that does not own this book. It is a great go-to book for the basics and we still own and use ours today.
After getting overly excited about the painting on the floor and trying to explain to my confused friends who didn’t really get what all the fuss was about, I thought about my favourite treat from the Edmonds cookbook that my mum used to make. Afghans.
It had been a while since we had had them, and sometimes you think your memory might have been fooling you, or that you just didnt have very good taste when you were 12, but the Edmonds Afghans didn’t let me down. So stop being confused and get excited, try these Afghans and let me know what you think.
Makes about 20 biscuits
200g butter
6 tbs sugar (we use raw, caster makes them a bit too sweet, but if you like is sweeter, by all means)
1 cup flour
4 tbs Dutch dark cocoa
1 cup cornflakes
20 walnuts
2 tbs butter
1 tbs boiling water
1 cup icing sugar
1 tbs cocoa
Dark chocolate, a couple of squares
Preheat oven to 180ºC.
Soften butter, add sugar and beat to a cream. Add flour, cocoa, and lastly the cornflakes.
Place spoonfuls on a lined oven tray and bake about 15 minutes.
While the cooked biscuits are cooling, combine butter, water, icing sugar and cocoa together with an electric beater. Melt the chocolate and add to icing. Mix well.
Once the biscuits are cool, ice and top with a walnut.
