Afghan Biscuits – VeganMoFo Day 8

If you read the title of this post and thought “what on earth are afghan biscuits?” then, me too, reader, me too. Today’s VeganMoFo prompt is “If you dug straight down, where would you come out?” and being from the UK, roughly going straight down would take me to New Zealand, or near enough. Now, you all know I love baking, so I looked up baking recipes that come from New Zealand. One of the ones I came across, which is apparently a New Zealand favourite, was the Afghan Biscuit. A short chocolate biscuit, made with cornflakes, and a walnut on top.

Wait, cornflakes? In a biscuit? Well, I’ve had “cornflake cakes” before, but they’ve just been cornflakes mixed with melted chocolate kinda things. Never baked into an actual biscuit. I was really quite hesitant about this food, but decided to try it anyway.

You know, I am so glad I did! Wow, these are good. The cornflakes, that I was so hesitant about? They give an amazing crunch to the biscuit and pair perfectly with the cocoa and the soft icing on top.

The biscuits traditionally have half a walnut on top, which I did for half of my biscuits, but I know not everyone likes nuts, so I topped the other half with a chocolate button, which was also really tasty!

Afghan Biscuits

• Servings: 25 biscuits
• Print

Ingredients

For the Biscuit
• 150g vegan butter
• 110g sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 160g plain flour
• 25g cocoa powder
• 2 tbsp milk of choice
• 50g cornflakes

For the Icing

• 40g vegan butter, melted
• 225g icing sugar
• 15g cocoa powder
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 2tbsp water
• Walnut halves or chocolate buttons to top

Directions

Preheat the oven to 180C/355F
1. Cream together the vegan butter and sugar.
2. Add in the vanilla and milk, and mix to combine.
3. Stir through the flour and cocoa until well mixed.
4. Gently fold through the cornflakes until combined.
5. Place tablespoon size balls of the biscuit dough on a baking tray, gently flattening with the back of a spoon.
6. Bake in the preheated oven for 12 minutes, then leave to cool.
7. Once cooled, make the icing. Combine all the ingredients, except the walnuts and chocolate button, to make a thick but spreadable icing.
8. Top each biscuit with a spoonful of the icing, followed by either a walnut half or a chocolate button.
9. Leave to set, then enjoy!