Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Old school cookbooks and a biscuit recipe



I love new, glossy, beautifully photographed cookbooks. They are a joy to flick through and  I dream of cooking up the recipes inside. But, the trouble is, unless I make a list of long ingredients and go shopping, I don't end up making these recipes.
Living out of town, a quick trip to the shops just isn't going to happen. So I usually end up turning to those older, plainer types of cookbooks. Two that I own were ones my mother also owned - Women's Weekly Original Cookbook by Ellen Sinclair and The Commonsense Cookery Book. I also quite like the original Margaret Fulton cookbook. There is a newer revised edition, which I haven't checked out. The CWA cookbooks are also a classic, but I don't own one.
What I like about them is that you are quite likely to have the ingredients on hand for a lot of the recipes. Good, old fashioned cooking. You can even sneak some wholemeal flour into the recipes.
Here is a biscuit recipe that is lovely for an occasional treat. I first started making these when I was 14, and often make them for the kid's. From Ellen Sinclair's Women's Weekly cookbook.


Butter Coconut Crisps

125g butter
1 1/4 cups self raising flour ( I usually mix plain flour with baking powder)
1 cup sugar
1 egg
coconut

Melt butter. Sift flour and sugar into bow, add beaten egg and melted butter, mix thoroughly. Form into small balls the size of a walnut, roll in coconut, and place on greased trays, allowing room to spread. Bake in moderate oven 10 to 15 minutes.

5 comments:

  1. love old cookbooks too...the biscuits look great

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  2. I ADORE my old cookbooks and pick one or two up at antique malls about once a year. I love the "plain ingredients" recipes.

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  3. There is nothing quite like good old fashioned recipes :)
    Will get my homeschooler to try this recipe for baking today.
    xx

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  4. I love recipes like this one simple, old fashion and always turn out. I always have those ingredients and I don't buy SR flour either and always make mine with baking powder. Fancy recipes are nice for a treat but not always practical. Thanks for the recipe I'll give these a try for sure. xo

    P.S. The Martha Goes Green is a lovely cookbook, it's got sweets in it too and tried the vanilla cupcakes which came up a treat and it's Australian which I love too.:)

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  5. Giving this recipe a go tomorrow for a picnic playdate! Really excited!
    xx Stacey

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