An Old Favourite

When I was a child bran biscuits were always a staple in our house. Mum didn’t make them, but there was a wonderful bought bran biscuit that came in a yellow packet – I think the brand was kohi or something like that, which tasted pretty home made. I am not sure if you can still get them or not. As children we used to eat them with butter or with cheese. Sometimes I would eat them with peanut butter, as I pretty much love peanut butter on anything – pikelets, wine biscuits, crackers – anything!

Home made bran biscuits are really easy to make and are the perfect thing to have with cheese if you have guests coming over. I made bran biscuits a couple of weeks ago as a pre-dinner snack when some friends came over. They are easy to make – just mix, roll, cut out and bake. I like to make mine into rectangle biscuits, but you could cut them into rounds or whatever other shape you wanted to make. I served these with blue cheese and my home made quince paste (I had run out of blue cheese by the time I took the photo). They are delicious and if you haven’t tried them before, you should!

Last night for dinner we had boneless chicken thighs which I stuffed with breadcrumbs, sage and cottage cheese and wrapped in streaky bacon (loosely based on a recipe from cuisine magazine), with steamed cabbage tossed with fresh mint and roast kumara. Very delicious, but quick and easy.

Bran Biscuits (from the Edmonds book)

125g butter
¼ c sugar
1 egg
1 c bran flakes
1 c wholemeal flour
1 c plain flour
1 tsp baking powder

• Cream butter and sugar, beat in egg
• Stir in remaining in ingredients
• Roll out dough thinly, cut into shapes and bake at 180c for about 20 minutes