Kolakakor, golden, crunchy and really quite moreish.
We’re trying to eat more healthily which means that we’ve stopped buying biscuits. One night when I really fancied something sweet with the after dinner coffee I grabbed my favourite old cookbook and looked for a biscuit recipe. I found kolakakor (toffee biscuits) and set out to make it. Of course, it’s a butter-based recipe, and we were almost out of butter. Never mind: I improvised with oil and the biscuits were just right. It was such a very simple recipe that I decided to play around with it a little to see what other flavours I could coax from the mixture. Here’s what happened.
Yes, we’re trying to eat healthily but these are not healthy biscuits. They are satisfying, though. Fast to make, delightfully home-made in texture and flavour and tasty.
Kolakakor – toffee biscuits
- 100 gr caster sugar
- 100 grams butter (or 100 grams vegetable oil)
- 1 tablespoon golden syrup (about 20 grams)
- 1 tablespoon vanilla sugar (or a splash of vanilla essence)
- 250 ml plain flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- The kola dough is softer and easy to handle.
- The kola dough is soft and pretty easy to handle.
- Cream sugar and fat. (If using oil, this takes second: just give it a good mix.)
- Add in syrup and vanilla sugar (or essence).
- In a separate bowl, mix flour and baking powder to distribute the baking powder.
- Add flour mixture to the fat and sugar mixture.
- Mix carefully. The dough should be soft, but hold its shape.
- Divide into three pieces and form each into a roughly thumb-thick roll on the baking sheet.
- Cook at 175°C (160°C in a fan oven) for 10-12 minutes. The rolls will flatten and spread somewhat. The biscuits should be golden rather than brown.
- Cut each strip into about 10 pieces while still warm.
- Let cool completely before eating.
- Keeps for a week in the cupboard, three months in the freezer.
Variation – treacle biscuits
I changed almost all the ingredients. The result was something quite different from the original: a lot less sweet, very crumbly indeed and really quite good with coffee. If you’ve got a sweet tooth, this might not be for you. The treacle and muscavado adds a dark, almost savoury note to these spiced morsels. They work very well with an acidic coffee.
- 85 grams muscavado sugar
- 80 grams vegetable oil or butter
- 20 grams treacle
- 1 teaspoon each of ginger and cinnamon
- 250 gr buckwheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- Cream sugar and fat. (If using oil, this takes second: just give it a good mix.)
- Add in the treacle and stir carefully.
- In a separate bowl, mix spices, flour and baking powder.
- Add flour mixture to the fat and sugar mixture.
- Mix carefully. The dough might not hold very well - the buckwheat mixture is quite dry. You can add a tablespoon or two of water, or use pressure to keep things together.
- Divide into three pieces and form each into a roughly thumb-thick roll on the baking sheet, pressing the mixture into shape.
- Cook at 175°C (160°C in a fan oven) for 10-12 minutes. The smaller amount of fat means that these won't change shape much at all.
- Cut each strip into about 10 pieces while still warm.
- Let cool completely before eating.
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