Christmas Biscuits (Cookies)

These Christmas Biscuits (Cookies) were a hit with my daughter due to their bright colours !

Here is the first of one of the many festive, Christmas-ey recipes I will be putting on the blog in the month leading up to Christmas.

Although I try to keep my recipes as simple as possible, I must admit that at Christmas time that all goes out the window as lots of the things I prepare require some effort and more time in the kitchen. But I don’t mind, as Christmas only comes along once a year, & it’s worth it !

This recipe comes from the South African book simply titled “Cookies” & published by “Pick ‘n Pay”, a major supermarket group.

I’ve also listed this recipe under “Toddler Fun” as these are great to make with your kids – they love to ‘paint’ them with you ! These were a hit in my daughter’s school lunchbox last week, too.


Christmas Biscuits (Cookies) (from “Cookies” published by “Pick ‘n Pay” South Africa)

75 gm Butter
50 gm Icing Sugar
finely grated rind of 1 small lemon (I use lime as the green gives a more ‘festive feel’)
1 Egg yolk
175 gm plain Flour, plus extra for dusting
pinch of Salt

To decorate :
2 egg Yolks
Red & Green food colouring

In a large bowl, beat the butter, icing sugar & lemon (or lime) rind together until pale & fluffy. Beat in the egg yolk, & then sift in the flour & a pinch of salt. Knead together to form a smooth dough. Wrap in clear film & chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 190’C/375’F/Gas Mark 5. Lightly grease 2 baking sheets. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough to 3 mm thick. Using a 6 cm fluted cutter, stamp out as many biscuits as you can, with the cutter dipped in flour to prevent it from sticking to the dough. Transfer the biscuits to the prepared sheets.

For the decoration, mark the biscuits lightly with a 2.5 cm holly leaf (I used a star) cutter & use a 5 mm plain piping nozzle for the berries. Chill for 10 minutes, until firm.

Put each egg yolk for the decoration into a small cup. Mix red food colouring into one, & green food colouring into the other. Using a small brush, paint the colours onto the biscuits. (I also pressed silver cake decoration balls into some of mine). Bake for 10 – 12 minutes, or until they begin to colour around the edges. Cool slightly on the baking sheets, then transfer to a wire rack.

Paul's Ginger Biscuits

Paul's Ginger biscuits (pictured left) - they tend to be quite hard, so are great for dunking !

This is my Mum’s recipe and she has been making it since we were children !

She got the recipe from Paul - a friend of hers in the then Rhodesia (current day Zimbabwe) as he used to make them on a regular basis. I guess in the late ‘60’s/’70’s a man baking biscuits regularly was not a common occurrence, so everyone had to have his recipe ! It was long before television and the male celebrity chef/Jamie Oliver type phase (move over Delia !)

Hold on, but Wooty was around then, wasn’t he ? Does anyone remember Wooty ?!


Paul’s Ginger Biscuits

200 gm Margarine (or Butter)
200 gm Sugar
1 Egg, beaten
200 gm Syrup
1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
600 gm Flour
2 tbsp ground Ginger (powder)
pinch of Salt

Cream the margarine (or butter) & sugar. Add the beaten egg and syrup & then the dry ingredients and mix well. Roll into small balls and pat down with a fork. Place on a greased baking tray in a preheated oven of 180’C/350’F/Gas Mark 4 and bake for 20 minutes.

Fresh Orange Cookies

These low fat orange cookies are delicious with a nice cuppa tea ....

Here is another recipe taken from the book “Cookies” which is published by ‘Pick & Pay’, South Africa. It is listed in the low fat section of the book and caught my eye as it contains fresh orange juice and rind, and I have quite a lot of oranges in the house at the moment.

My husband (who doesn’t really have a sweet tooth at the best of times) absolutely raved about these cookies – in fact, they were a hit with the entire household and even the dogs enjoyed them ! (Yes, my dogs are spoiled - I know !)


Fresh Orange Cookies

½ cup low fat Spread/Margarine
1 cup caster Sugar
2 Egg yolks
1 tbsp fresh Orange juice
grated rind of 1 Orange
1 ½ cups plain Flour
½ tsp Salt
1 tsp Baking Powder

Cream the low fat spread/margarine & sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks, orange juice & rind, and continue beating to blend. Set aside. In another bowl, sift together the flour, salt & baking powder. Add to the orange mixture & stir until it forms a dough.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap & chill for 2 hours, then roll into balls, press down with a fork & place on a greased baking sheet (about 2 ½ - 5 cm apart) & bake at 190’C/375’F/Gas Mark 5 for 8 – 10 minutes, until golden brown.

Garnish with some finely grated orange rind if you like.

Makes around 30 cookies.

Rosemary Biscuits (Cookies)

I did not have any cream cheese in the house to secure the rosemary flowers onto each biscuit - so I simply 'balanced' them on top !

Why do we call cookies biscuits in this part of the world ? I’m not sure ! A cookie is the same thing as a biscuit to us, but I know that in other parts of the world a biscuit is not what we would call a cookie. (Are you with me ? Am I making any sense yet ? Good !)

This cookie/biscuit recipe is quite unusual, so I wanted to feature it on the blog. The recipe originates from a book published by “Pick ‘n Pay” (which is one of South Africa’s large supermarket chains) which is simply called “Cookies” (which jumped out at me as we don’t actually call cookies “cookies” in Africa so why not call the book “Biscuits” ? But anyway ….)

So, this is the – slightly unusual - recipe for savoury biscuits made with fresh rosemary leaves. They are great served with cheese and would work well served as part of a cheese and biscuit platter after a nice meal. Thyme would work equally as well in this recipe. (Don’t be put off by the addition of the curry powder, as you really can’t taste it at all and if anything, it actually enhances the flavour of the biscuit.)

Rosemary Biscuits (Cookies)

2 cups Plain Flour, plus extra for dusting
½ tsp Baking Powder
½ tsp Curry Powder
pinch of Salt
6 tbsp Butter, diced
2 tbsp finely chopped young Rosemary leaves
1 egg Yolk
2 – 3 tbsp cold Water
Milk, to glaze
2 tbsp Cream Cheese
Rosemary flowers

Put the flour, baking powder, curry powder & salt in a bowl. Rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the rosemary, egg yolk and sufficient water to mix to a firm dough. Chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180’C/350’F/Gas Mark 4. Roll the dough thinly on a lightly floured surface & cut rounds using a 5cm/2 inch fluted cutter.

Transfer to a large baking sheet and prick with a fork. Brush with milk to glaze & bake for 10 minutes, or until pale and golden. Cool on a wire rack.

Spread a little cream cheese on to each biscuit and secure some rosemary flowers on top.

Scotch Fingers

These Scotch Fingers store well & are also a great lunchbox filler

I adore oats. I eat oatmeal every day for breakfast and it helps to keep me full until lunchtime. Sometimes I even add a grated apple and some cinnamon as I am cooking it, which makes it even tastier. I often have a bowl of oatmeal as a mid afternoon snack, too … well I know that probably sounds a little odd (!!) but then it’s better than tucking in to the biscuit barrel, I suppose ! So you see, I can’t resist a recipe that contains oats … (although I wouldn’t go so far as to add it as a thickener to vegetable soup - as the tin suggests)

These are similar to my recipe for Crunchies but are not as sweet or hard (teeth breaking ?) as those.

These are more like a softer bar and are great for kids – and also for school lunch boxes !


Scotch Fingers

1 cup rolled Oats
1 cup Flour
¼ cup Sugar
3 tsp Baking Powder
½ tsp Salt
¼ cup Milk
¼ cup Honey
1 ½ tbsp melted Butter

Mix the oats, flour, sugar, baking powder & salt together. Then add the milk, honey and melted butter & blend well. Roll quite thinly onto a floured surface and cut into fingers. Place on a greased baking tray and bake at Gas Mark 4 /180’C/350’F for 15 - 20 minutes. Once done, dust with some caster sugar whilst still hot.

Chocolate Shortbread Cookies Recipe

These Chocolate Shortbread Cookies can also be sandwiched together with sweetened cream & served with berries on the side as an alternative - and delicious - dessert !

As you can tell by now, I have more of a sweet tooth than a savoury one and I love to bake more than I love to cook. If I could bake every day of my life, I would be a happy girl ;)

So, here’s my favourite chocolate shortbread cookie recipe to brighten up your Monday …. now pour yourself a nice cuppa tea and … enjoy !


Chocolate Shortbread Cookies Recipe

225 gm salted Butter
½ cup Icing Sugar
2 cups Flour
4 tbsp Cocoa Powder
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Vanilla Essence (or equivalent amount of Vanilla Extract)
4 tbsp Milk

Cream the butter & icing sugar together and then add the rest of the ingredients. Blend well and lightly knead into a dough. Roll out very thinly on a floured surface. Cut into rounds and prick each round a few times with a fork before baking. Bake on a greased baking sheet at 190’C/375’F/Gas Mark 5 for 20 minutes.

You can sprinkle some caster sugar over the cookies as soon as they come out of the oven if you like.

I have also pressed the cookie dough into a greased baking tray and cut it in to squares once baked, and on other occasions have rolled the dough into balls and pressed them with a fork to flatten slightly before baking.

Custard Biscuit Recipe From '70's Rhodesia

These dainty biscuits are great served with tea

As promised, here is the first recipe which I tried from one of the old “Connoisseur Cooking” supplements which I told you about recently.

This particular recipe comes from the July 1971 supplement. This 8 page booklet was a weekly advertisement supplement to the Sunday Mail in what was then Rhodesia (present day Zimbabwe).

This recipe featured on the back page and was included in a section called “Cookie Corner”. Recipes included “Bachelor Buttons”, “Chocolate Chip Cookies”, “Custard Biscuits”, “Brownees” (not ‘Brownies’ as we know them !), “Ginger Biscuits” and “Greek Vanilla Crescents”.

The opening paragraph reads “Stock up the cookie jar with a scrumptious selection of crunchy biscuits – which will keep the family happily munching ….”

So, here is the recipe which I tried for Custard Biscuits -:

Custard Biscuits

1 cup plain Flour
2 level tbsp Custard Powder
4 level tbsp Caster Sugar (I used brown sugar as I had no caster in the house)
2 level tsp Baking Powder
113 gm Margarine
1 beaten Egg

Icing :
3 – 4 tbsp Icing Sugar
Lemon Juice
Jam for sandwiching together

Sift together the flour, custard powder, caster sugar and baking powder. Rub in the margarine. Add the egg & knead to a smooth dough. Roll out to approximately ¼ inch thick and cut into small rounds. Bake on a well greased and floured baking sheet at 190’C/375’F/Gas Mark 5 for about 15 minutes until golden. Cool, sandwich together with the jam and ice the tops with the icing sugar and lemon juice mix.

I made these really small and opted not to ice them, but did sandwich them together by simply brushing them with a little melted strawberry jam. When my daughter said “Mummy, please can I have another scone ?” it made me realize that they do, infact, look a little like miniature scones !

School Lunchbox Crunchies

A nice cuppa tea and a Crunchie, anyone ?

One of the schools I used to attend as a child, published an annual cook book which was sold to raise school funds. Parents were encouraged to submit their favourite recipes for inclusion in the book, and I have hung on to my copy all these years - although at this stage, it’s a bit tattered and battered and the cover is missing.

Here is a favourite recipe of mine which I have adapted over the years to make my own (I made these earlier this week to include in my daughter’s school lunch box) -:


School Lunchbox Crunchies

1 cup Flour
2 cups Oats
1 cup Rice Crispies
¾ cup Brown Sugar
2 tbsp Honey
225 gm Margarine
1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
Salt – to taste

Melt the margarine, sugar and honey together until the sugar has dissolved. Then add the bicarb & beat until foamy. Add to the sifted dry ingredients. Press flat in a baking tray & bake at 180’C/350’F/Gas Mark 4 for 20 – 30 minutes.

Gingerbread Men

Run, run as FAST as you can .....!

My toddler loves baking and “helping out” in the kitchen. I’m encouraging her to do this, because this is how I grew up and I really want the same for her – for her to grow up knowing, and loving, food.

The other afternoon she asked me if we could pleeeeeze bake something. So I asked her what she’d like to bake and she replied “Gingerbread Men !” So, here is that recipe -:

Gingerbread Men

150 gm Margarine
½ cup Sugar
1 Egg
250 gm Syrup
4 cups Flour
1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
Pinch of Salt
2 heaped tsp ground Ginger
½ cup Milk

Cream margarine & sugar. Add egg & then the syrup. Add sifted dry ingredients, alternating with the milk. Mix well to form a stiff dough. Roll out and use a gingerbread man biscuit cutter to press out the shapes. Decorate with whatever you have on hand (sweets, chocolate chips, raisins) to make the eyes, nose, mouth and buttons. Bake at 180’C/350’F/Gas Mark 4 for 10 – 15 minutes.

(When we put them in the oven to bake, my daughter shouted “Don’t run away now, Gingerbread men !!” )

Chocolate Peanut Butter Biscuits

If you look carefully, you can see the peanut flecks through all the chocolate - yum !

The other night after supper, I was sitting watching TV when I heard a distinctive “clink” sound coming from the kitchen – it was the sound of my husband lifting the lid of the biscuit jar which I have sitting on a counter there. The “clink” sound was followed by the words “Ahhhhhh ………. no …………….. what …… no chocolate biscuits, then ?!” (Seeing as we haven’t had chocolate biscuits in the house for ages now, I gathered that this was a hint !) Then yesterday morning over coffee, he asked me outright “What about those chocolate biscuits you promised, then ?” I was just about to say “I never promised anything of the sort !” (being the beginning of the week and all good intentions with the diet, etc) when my toddler started jumping up and down in excitement “Mama ! Mama ! Baking ! Yes, let’s make biscuits for Daddy !”.

So, yesterday afternoon was spent baking chocolate peanut butter biscuits. I have no baking margarine in the house at the moment, so had to use a recipe that contains oil, instead. (Also, the high fat content in the peanut butter used in this recipe helps …)

I got this recipe off the internet ages ago, and have adapted and changed it beyond all recognition. In fact, I’m pretty sure that the original version contained margarine and no oil ? I do know, that at some stage I halved the oil and made the balance up with milk (which works very well).

I should also mention here, that in Africa ‘biscuits’ are to us what ‘cookies’ are to American readers. (Same thing, just different names !) I promise that they taste the same !

We are blessed here in Tanzania with an abundance of locally made pure peanut butter which is made simply with .... peanuts (and sometimes a little salt). In this recipe I have used slightly crunchy (unsalted) peanut butter, as I find the flecks of peanut show up nicely against the dark chocolate of the biscuit dough.

Needless to say, my husband was happy to come home last night and find a full biscuit jar sitting on the counter …. and there are not many left this morning !

Chocolate Peanut Butter Biscuits

1 ½ cups Flour
¼ cup Cocoa Powder
½ tsp Salt
1 tsp Baking Powder
¼ cup Sunflower Oil
¼ cup Milk
½ cup Peanut Butter
1 cup Sugar
½ tsp Vanilla Essence
1 Egg

Sift the flour, cocoa powder, salt & baking powder together. In a separate bowl, mix the oil, milk, peanut butter, sugar, vanilla essence & egg together until well blended. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, and mix well. Roughly shape the dough into rounds and squash with a fork on a greased baking tray, and bake at 190’C/375’F/Gas Mark 5 for 10 – 12 minutes. Makes around 30 biscuits.

Sweet Valentine Biscuits & Safari's

Sugar Biscuits - complete with bouganvillia decoration ;)

Hubby is away "on safari" (the term used here when anyone goes anywhere - be it to town for the day or on a month long trip to the Serengeti and beyond). So he is spending Valentine's night at a delightful sounding guest house called "Liquid Gold". (Yep, that's right - that really is the name of the guest house !)

He will be tucking in to a delicious Valentine's dinner of bacon, cheese and chutney rolls with "Chinese savoury crackers with chives" (what it says on the box !) and some coffee and biscuits for dessert - I always pack him plenty of food for his trips away as he refuses to eat at any local establishments due to the hygiene factor. (I am quite happy to eat Tanzanian "street food" but hubby prefers to play it safe).

So I will be making up for the bacon rolls, with a slap bang Valentine's meal for him once he returns.

My dinner tonight consisted of oatmeal porridge (yum !) because quite honestly, I can't be bothered to cook when hubby is away and the toddler had spaghetti bolognese (frozen meal I made a few weeks ago) and salad. So, seeing as I could hardly post a recipe for oatmeal porridge, and in keeping with the Valentine's theme - here is a recipe for "Sugar Biscuits" which I made last week -:

Sugar Biscuits

1/2 cup Margarine

1 cup Sugar

1 Egg

2 tbsp Milk

1/2 tsp Vanilla Essence

2 1/2 cups Flour

2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Salt

Cream the marg and sugar. Add the egg, milk & vanilla essence and blend well. Add the sifted flour, baking powder & salt. Mix well. Roll out thinly (about 3mm thick) & cut in to desired shapes. Place on greased baking tray and bake at 190'C/375'F/Gas Mark 5 for about 10 minutes.

Makes about 60 biscuits (depending on how much raw dough is eaten by assistant toddler/s)

Warning - these are "dunk in your tea or risk breaking your teeth" biscuits as they are quite hard. But delicious (and well worth a chipped tooth or two)