Lea Hogg

I spent  a day in the City with a great friend. My bake of today is topped with sugared almonds or Perlini and not a premature Easter recipe. We are celebrating  carnival week on the island and perlini are as much associated with Carival as is prinjolata.

Sitting in my favorite cafe with an espresso brings back memories of my childhood.  This was ‘the place’ to be seen, today it is a place to sit back and watch the world go by.

In the cafe is a display of more carnival sweets, just beautiful with reflections of grand chandeliers in the cabinet glass …..

And back home is my baking day. I am making small Afghan Cookies and instead of topping them with a traditional walnut, I use sugared almonds to get us into the Carnival spirit.

Afghan cookies are soft, easy to make, melt-in-your mouth EGG-FREE chocolate cookies, a classic in New Zealand and I adapted this recipe from Edmonds Cookery Book.

For 21 small cookies,

You will need :

170g butter
95g soft brown sugar
180g flour
3 1/2 tablespoons dark unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
60g cornflakes

Cream the butter and sugar. Add all the dry ingredients and mix.
Knead into a dough. Shape into small rounds.
Place on a tray covered with baking paper.
Bake for 10 minutes in a preheated oven at 160C.
Leave to completely cool.

And for the chocolate icing you will need:
1 cup icing sugar
3 tablespoons sifted dark cocoa powder
3 tablespoons water

Mix together, add rather water gradually and mix together until it forms a smooth paste.
Dip each cookie into the chocolate icing.
Top with two colored sugared almonds before the chocolate icing solidifies.
Leave uncovered to dry for a couple of hours.

And on a sunny day in Palace Square near the cafe, a St John’s Ambulance ceremony