Wednesday, January 12, 2005

Cookie Commission

On Monday I got a call at work from someone who wanted to commission me to bake a batch of cookies for his step dad's birthday. He offered to give $60 to our Tsunami Relief Fund (an amount which will be doubled due to our employer kindly matching all donations until this Friday), if I was up for the challenge. To make it more interesting, he told me his step dad, living in the US, is actually English. This gave me a perfect excuse to bake a British-centric batch of biscuits. Hence, last night, I was busy creating Flapjacks, Garibaldis, Ginger Nuts and All-butter Shortbread. Briefly, the result looks like this:


Click on photo to enlarge

Slightly more detailed posts about these cookies, complete with recipe links, might be published sometime in the future. Maybe Garibaldi's, which we renamed Squashed Fly Biscuits when we were kids, need a little further explanation! (Do they exist in the US?). I had my work cut out for me yesterday because as well as making all these biscuits, I was whipping up a batch of Potato Fennel Soup with Rosemary Scones for a Soup Kitchen we're having at work today for another one of our Tsunami fund raising schemes. I think I might need a little bit of a lie-in once this week is over...

Head here to find links to the recipes I used for Garibaldi's, Butter Shortbread, Flapjacks & Gingernuts.
Cookie Commission

7:15 AM  

11 Comments:

  • At 12/1/05 07:30, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    That's fabulous Sam! Your love of food put to great use for a worthy cause. Brilliant! And what a happy coincidence, I had potato fennel soup for lunch yesterday--purchased at my neighborhood bakery--in fact, I have 1/2 pint left in the fridge for today's lunch. It was so good (never had it before until yesterday). Do you have a recipe for yours? Viv

     

  • At 12/1/05 10:46, Blogger Nic said…

    Garibaldi's *do* exist here, they're just very uncommon. And always imported. I actually just picked some up at Trader Joes this week. They're made by Arnott's and imported from Australia, but are labeled as "Orchard Fruit Apricot Cookies". Go figure.

     

  • At 12/1/05 11:08, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Hey Sam,

    I read your blog everyday and I think you are the best. I'm actually inspired to start my own food blog that I am really enjoying.

    Anyway, just wanted you to know that there are strangers out there reading and enjoying your stuff.

    Thanks
    (spicetart)

     

  • At 12/1/05 11:53, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    'I've seriously got to ask what is a 'nosh'? '

    oy!

    you should post the recipes. never heard of any brit baked goods except muffins, crumpets, scones, and shortbread. i don't think most people have.

     

  • At 12/1/05 12:11, Blogger Sam said…

    Thanks for the comments everyone!

    Viv - I have a book recipe for the soup but I didn't follow it exactly so I'll try post it up when I have a spare moment. We'll see what people think of it at lunchtime.

    Goonieheart/Anonymous - here is the dictionary definition for "nosh" which has slightly defferent shades of meaning in the US/UK

    nosh
    noun
    1 {C or U} UK OLD-FASHIONED SLANG
    food or a meal:
    - They serve good nosh in the cafeteria.
    2 {U} US INFORMAL
    a small amount of food eaten between meals or as a meal:
    - I'll just have a little nosh at lunchtime, perhaps a hot dog.
    nosh
    verb {I} INFORMAL
    to eat:
    - US We noshed on a burger before the match.

    Nic - do the cookies you bought contain apricots then? I was always under the impression a Garibaldi was strictly currants?

    Spicetart - thank you! Let me know once you have a blog or do you already have one - i've noticed a few new local ones recently and I am not always clear who they belong too. And of course, you don't seem like a stranger cos I read you on Chowhound!

    Anonymous - yes, despite their bad reputation from the past, Brits can actually be quite handy in the kitchen and their diet is more varied than you might imagine.
    For the ultimate British Cookie (Biscuit) information I suggest you visit this site called "A nice Cup of Tea and a Sit down" where you should be able to find info about the cookies I've mentioned.

    I will be posting links for the recipes of all of those cookies in time. Right now I have a large posting backlog and I will have to catch up a bit. Might have to switch to 2 posts a day to get through them all. As soon as I can, I'll try and get the onfo on my site. Keep watching thi space!

     

  • At 12/1/05 12:13, Blogger Sam said…

    Oops - here is the link for the Nice Cup of Tea and sit Down biscuit Site which was a broken link in the previous comment.

     

  • At 12/1/05 14:02, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I love Garibaldi's... also known as raisin biscuits in the states. I feel like I've seen them at the store recently, but they can be ordered online from the Vermont Country store (www.vermontcountrystore.com). And I'd love to see your recipe for them... yum yum!


    Take care,
    Samantha

    thesamanthafilesATgmailDOTcom

     

  • At 13/1/05 06:04, Blogger Niki said…

    Those orchard fruit apricot biscuits from Australia must be the export name. Here in Oz they're called Snack Right Fruit Slice, and come in a variety of fruits, including apricot - but most commonly sultana. Arnotts have started marketing them as their "health food" item, even though they've never been considered to be before!! It's just cos they don't have chocolate on them, I reckon. "Biscuit without chocolate??...oh, that's gotta be rabbit food!" lol!

     

  • At 13/1/05 08:45, Blogger Nic said…

    I noticed that they changed the name of the Arnott's biscuits when they imported them. I quite like the Mango Passionfruit Fruit Slices, but that's because I love passionfruit. And I'm pretty sure that Arnott's considers anything less fattening than a Tim Tam to be health food.
    But back to the "Fruit Cookies", which list raisins, apricots, apples and pears as ingredients, but no currants. I LOVE currants, but they're quite difficult to find here in the US. There must be a raisin industry conspiracy.

     

  • At 5/6/05 17:00, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I LOVE it that somebody else called the raisin cookies "fly cookies". I came online looking for a source for Sunshine Raisin Biscuits which we used to get regularly about 15-20 years ago.

    We've been looking for them in stores for a couple of weeks with no luck so I came searching online only to find out that Sunshine was bought by Keebler and the cookies were discontinued.

    I'm grateful to find a recipe for these (and to find out that they have a name other than Fly Cookies.) I will be making them for Father's Day.

     

  • At 31/7/06 01:36, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    As a child in NC, my brothers and I called them Squashed fly pies, too. It is a quote from a children's book.

     

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