Home Made Romany Creams

When I lived in South Africa, life was so different.  We would always play outdoors in large groups of friends. We were never bored. The only rules our parents enforced was to stay in a group (safety in numbers) and to come in before it became dark.  We never had time to stop, food was grabbed from the kitchen of which ever of our homes we were closest to, and there were ALWAYS home made biscuits.  One of my favourites were Romany Creams. Delicious chocolatey biscuits with coconut... yum.  A hand full of biscuits and a glass of milk  kept the games from ending in quarrels.

My children do not eat biscuits... strangely.  It's not that I limit the sweet things they eat, in fact I do not mind if they eat chocolates or cakes. They just have not really developed a sweet tooth... definitely not something I instilled in them.  Yesterday I felt a little nostalgic and thought these biscuits would be great to bake with my children as a holiday snack.

Here is the recipe if you would like to try them:

Ingredients:

1/2 LB butter

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 cup cocoa

pinch of salt

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups of flour

3/4 cup of sugar

2 1/2 cups of dessicated coconut

Cream the butter and sugar until they are light and fluffy. Add vanilla extract. Sieve dry ingredients and add to the butter, add coconut. Mix into a soft dough. Roll out on a floured board. (approximately 5mm thick, too thin and it will crumble) Roughen the surface with a fork by making crossed lines. Cut with a biscuit cutter and place on a greased baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes in a preheated oven on 180 degrees. When they are cold, sandwich with melted chocolate of choice. I recommend something not too sweet as it makes the biscuit sweeter.  

In case you are wondering... my children enjoyed baking them. However only my 13 year old ate some.  They are stood in a tin and will probably be offered to guests on the weekend. Enjoy...