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Belgium Biscuits March 12, 2007 When we renovated our home in Wellington a few years back, I remember the joy of a new kitchen. The sons were still at school and in a perpetual state of hunger and I got a lot of pleasure using my new oven and baking batches of biscuits, squares, fruit loaves, cakes. Not sooner were the cake tins full than the marauders would descend on the pantry. I would see a boy sliding past me with a fistful of baking, trying desperately to look invisible. When the lads left home the bakery closed, apart from the odd food parcels I would despatch to the needy offspring. The Spouse and I didn’t need ("need" being totally different from "want") biscuits and cakes. However, with sons temporarily back in residence, I’m back in business. Having bought a new cake mixer and food processor last year, I’ve been eager to give them a good testing. I asked each son what he would like me to bake. James said the brownies I’d been baking recently were “pretty good” so I decided on a repeat as I wanted to test the recipe with margarine instead of butter. They were obviously a hit as earlier today I found James in the kitchen with a fistful of brownies, trying desperately to look invisible. Nothing changes… Ben put in his order for Belgium biscuits. These have been part of growing up for generations of Kiwi kids. My mother used to make them when I was small. In fact she still does. The recipe comes from New Zealand's famous Edmonds Cookery Book. The biscuits are made from a spiced dough, cut into rounds. After baking these are sandwiched together with jam and the top iced with pink icing then sprinkled with red jelly crystals. But on reading the recipe I discovered no mention of jelly crystals. The instructions say to decorate with a piece of angelica or cherry. I don’t recall ever seeing them with cherries or angelica. Maybe an angelica- or cherry-deprived desperate housewife hastily scoured her cupboard for a substitute and hit on a packet of raspberry jelly and that became the new gold standard. However, Aussie jelly crystals don't seem to be as garish as the Kiwi ones. Unusually wimpy, I'd say.... Because it was a fairly warm day when I was making these biscuits and rolling out the dough was going to be a bit of a messy challenge, I opted to form it into a log, wrap it in plastic wrap and place it in the fridge till it was quite firm, then slice it into rounds. Much easier. Here is the original recipe. I used all flour though the rice flour does give a nice texture.
Belgium Biscuits 125g butter Cream butter, sugar and spices together. Add egg and beat. Mix in dry ingredients. Knead on a floured board. Roll out thin, cut into rounds. Bake on greased trays 15 to 20 minutes at 180C. Put together with raspberry jam and ice the top of each biscuit, decorate with a piece of angelica or cherry.
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