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Esurientes - The Comfort Zone

Monday, November 22, 2004

IMBB #10: Caramel Cornflake Christmas Cookies

aka - Alliteration Biscuits!


Christmas cookie (or, more accurately, biscuit) swaps are non-existent here in Australia, but they sound fantastic. The making, swapping and eating of biscuits accompanied by warm drinks and Christmas carols sounds wonderful. I am a Christmas fan, but as a busy musician during the Christmas period, I often have to rush my shopping and cooking time. On the upside, I do get to sing a whole lotta Christmas music covering hundreds of years of composition.....starting from about this weekend!
As everyone knows, Christmas occurs in high Summer here and is more a time of sweating over the traditional English-style roast dinner in the heat of the day, or accepting our climate and serving a cold seafood buffet. We do both, one in the afternoon and one at night. Last year I embarked upon a large project of baking Lebkuchen, from a recipe which completely cleared out my spice cupboard. They were excellent biscuits, but my main memory is of having to set up two fans either side of me, to keep the dough and my hands cool enough to actually work!

Although I really wanted to make something much more involved and...well...elegant...for this IMBB entry, lke Nigella's pistachio macaroons,I maganimously asked two men to whom I'd be serving these biscuits, and they both requested (independently, and with great enthusiasm!) cornflake cookies. A memory of their childhood? I wasn't too upset really, as I hadn't made cornflake cookies for years and am always happy to bake when I know people will enjoy the end product.

So, to find a cornflake cookie recipe. I thought, in keeping with the retro theme that I'd turn straight to the Big Mummy of Australian cookbooks of the 1970s: The Australian Women's Weekly New Cookbook. Every household seems to have one of these still floating around. The pictures are of the execrable "look! We now have colour photos!" variety - all khaki greens, and lurid orange, with the food presented very messily on fussy coloured plates. Certainly not appetising. However while the savoury dishes are now quite dated, the baked goods and traditional cakes chapters are still as useful as ever, and I found not one but THREE cornflake cookie recipes.

The one I choose made a chewy cookie, somewhat like a baked Honey Joy. They didn't include any flour and were much more delicious than I expected. Needless to say, once I overcame my reluctance to give them away and eat them all myself, they were received with great enthusiasm and have all disappeared! They are incredibly easy to make, and will be very well received by grown men and others alike.

Christmas Caramel Cornflake Cookies

Caramel Cornflake Cookies (for Christmas)
from Australian Women's Weekly New Cookbook 1978

125 g (4 oz.) butter
1/2 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
1/2 cup castor sugar
1/2 cup dessicated coconut
3 cups cornflakes, lightly crushed
1 egg
1/2 cup finely-chopped mixed nuts

Melt butter over low heat; add sugars; stir until well combined. Add coconut, lightly crushed cornflakes, lightly-beaten egg and nuts; mix well.
Place teaspoons of mixture on lightly-greased oven trays; press mixture together with fingers. Bake in moderate oven (~180 C) 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Leave on tray a few minutes; remove with spatula; cool on wire rack.
Makes approx. 35.


12 Comments:

  • And I can confirm that they are AWESOME! (They didn't see the end of the weekend over here) :)

    - Kita!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11/22/2004 08:10:00 pm  

  • I know! I've been requested to make them again...and again... :-)Yummy things.

    By Blogger Niki, at 11/22/2004 08:23:00 pm  

  • Niki - these cookies sound great -- I'm so glad everyone enjoyed them so much. Thanks so much for sharing it and for joining in on the cookie swap, IMBB # 10!

    Jennifer - http://www.domesticgoddess.ca

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11/22/2004 11:15:00 pm  

  • This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    By Blogger Cerebrum, at 11/23/2004 03:22:00 am  

  • Oh Niki, so sorry, that was me panicking and accidently deleting my comment! Just wanted to let you know your site is great and will definetly keep lurking around here! (and if you get your comments send to your e-mail address you know the rest!:-))

    Nice cookies, I'll have to try them one day - I don't think I've ever had cornflakes for anything other than breakfast...

    By Blogger Cerebrum, at 11/23/2004 03:37:00 am  

  • Hi Zarah Maria - thank you for your lovely comments! I'm certainly looking forward to the next Sugar High Friday, and am currently considering what to make.
    Incidentally, I was fairly recently in Denmark, and stayed with some students in Copenhagen. It very quickly became my favourite city during that trip and I can't wait to return!

    By Blogger Niki, at 11/23/2004 04:41:00 pm  

  • hi Niki,
    congrats on your new blog!
    and I just love cornflake cookies (a must-have for any Chinese New Year).
    I've never had a chewy version before, but anything from Australian Women's Weekly is good... I'll be giving this a go : )

    Renee
    www.shiokadelicious.com

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11/23/2004 05:52:00 pm  

  • hey niki! how fantastic to find that you've joined the foodblogging community! will definitely step by very often! the cookies sound delicious and as soon as my bandages have come off, i will be making some of my own - can't wait! johanna

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11/23/2004 10:33:00 pm  

  • Niki - these sound and look delicious! I think long ago I might have had some corn flake cookies, but I'm not sure. It's definitely something I'll have to try in the future!

    P.S. - congratulations on your new blog - I like it very much!

    By Blogger Cathy, at 11/24/2004 12:49:00 pm  

  • Oh wow - I tried these last night, and they were fabulous indeed! I'm not much of a cookie fan - I think it's all that flour that puts me off - but these were.. incredible. I really had to stop myself after having had three, and I shoved the remainders into the freezer for later indulgence. Thanks for sharing such a great recipe! I'll make these over and over again - and so easy, too!!

    Anne in Sweden

    By Blogger Anne, at 11/25/2004 06:27:00 pm  

  • Anne, thank you for your comment! It's quite funny that a biscuit I wasn't very keen to make, becuase it didn't feel "sophisticated" enough has proven to be so popular. I guess it just reinforces the advertising line of Kellogg's Cornflakes over here: "The simple things in life are often the best"!
    But I do agree that they are really, really yummy!

    By Blogger Niki, at 11/25/2004 06:34:00 pm  

  • Hi these were great, but mine ended up tasting remarkably like crunchy nut cornflake cereal because of the `crushed nuts` that I used! Can you let me know what nuts you used?

    Every one loved them!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7/07/2006 11:34:00 pm  

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