Simple biscuits two ways – mixing up recipes

Kolakakor, golden, crunchy and really quite moreish.

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

Kolakakor
 
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This simple recipe comes from Vår kokbok, a classic Swedish cook book. Mine's the 20th edition and it's been stuffed full of pieces of paper with other recipes on them. I really should sort them out at some point. With butter, they have a stronger toffee flavour than they do when made with oil, but they are good either way. I think these biscuits go particularly well with a cup of tea.
Author:
Recipe type: Biscuits
Cuisine: Swedish
Serves: 30
Ingredients
  • 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.
Instructions
  1. Cream sugar and fat. (If using oil, this takes second: just give it a good mix.)
  2. Add in syrup and vanilla sugar (or essence).
  3. In a separate bowl, mix flour and baking powder to distribute the baking powder.
  4. Add flour mixture to the fat and sugar mixture.
  5. Mix carefully. The dough should be soft, but hold its shape.
  6. Divide into three pieces and form each into a roughly thumb-thick roll on the baking sheet.
  7. 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.
  8. Cut each strip into about 10 pieces while still warm.
  9. Let cool completely before eating.
  10. 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.

Simple biscuits two ways - mixing up recipes
 
Preparation time
Cooking time
Total time
 
A less sweet, more crumbly version of traditional kolacakor, these biscuits are great with coffee.
Author:
Recipe type: Biscuit
Serves: 30
Ingredients
  • 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
Instructions
  1. Cream sugar and fat. (If using oil, this takes second: just give it a good mix.)
  2. Add in the treacle and stir carefully.
  3. In a separate bowl, mix spices, flour and baking powder.
  4. Add flour mixture to the fat and sugar mixture.
  5. 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.
  6. Divide into three pieces and form each into a roughly thumb-thick roll on the baking sheet, pressing the mixture into shape.
  7. 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.
  8. Cut each strip into about 10 pieces while still warm.
  9. Let cool completely before eating.

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About Caroline von Schmalensee

Cooking, eating and drinking is fun as well as necessary. I do food for fun and I write for a living. Good food makes the world a more delicious and satisfying place. Good writing, meanwhile, can make the world a less confusing place.

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  1. Pingback: Baking i | hanne's blog

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