Tea for two? Four actually!

We had arranged for a little friend and his mama to come to play yesterday but unfortunately the mama felt she was coming down with a cold so thought she’d better not come, seeing as Maia’s still ‘in recovery’ (how very grateful I am to thoughtful friends!). What to do to console a little one who was looking forward to a playmate? Baking! So we made some Anzacs and had a very nice afternoon tea.

A few years ago I realised that I had lovely old china crockery but that it was kept shut up in the cupboard for ‘best’. I decided there and then that we should use it more often, and even put it in the dishwasher, because surely it’s better of being used and maybe damaged than being relegated to a stuffy cupboard! And I have to say the tea really did taste better out of these old china teacups. I don’t usually use a tray mat but happened to find this one in the kitchen drawer and again thought I really should use it. Note the use of a gravy jug for the milk – must remember I need a pretty little jug when next at a car boot or jumble sale! It was so good yesterday that we have just repeated the whole process again this afternoon with the remainder of the biscuits.

The recipe for the biscuits comes from Edmonds Illustrated Cookbook. Edmonds is something of an institution in New Zealand so what better way to get into the psyche of my new country than by baking? It’s a book I use a lot and now have it in England with me. The Anzacs recipe is a very easy and quick failsafe recipe for biscuits.

Makes 18 biscuits

½ cup plain flour
½ cup sugar
¾ desiccated coconut
¾ cup rolled oats
75g butter
1 tbsp golden syrup
½ tsp baking soda
2 tbsp boiling water

Mix together flour, sugar, coconut and rolled oats
Melt butter and golden syrup
Dissolve baking soda in the boiling water and add to butter and golden syrup
Stir butter mixture into the dry ingredients
Place level tablespoons of mixture onto cold greased trays
Press out with a fork
Bake at 180°C for 12-15 minutes or until golden