[DanielCoffey]

Here's something a little different....

I had managed to get some Currants that had been air-dried on a Greek farm and made a good old fashioned British staple... Garibaldi Biscuits. The Currants are sun-dried and are WAY better than the Supermarket ones which I suspect are little more than chopped up Lego wheels. The Greek ones are much more expensive but are a real treat. The recipe works fine with commercial Currants of course and you could substitute Sultanas, dried Cherries or Cranberries if you chop them small.

It seems that Garibaldi Biscuits have been around for a bit over a hundred years and are almost exclusively known only in the UK, Oz and New Zealand. Since the wiki for them seems a little contrived I wondered if it was a late Victorian workman's biscuit from England that went out to Australia in one of the Gold Rush migrations? It predates the Ten Pound Poms a bit too much.

===

Recipe : Garibaldi Biscuit.

Ingredients : 300g plain flour, 75g castor sugar, pinch salt, 2 tsp baking powder, 125g butter, 75ml milk, 150g Currants, 1 small egg, 2 tbsp castor sugar.

Sift flour, sugar, salt and baking powder into a large bowl. Add butter and rub in to fine crumbs (or use food processor). Bring together with milk. Pat into rectangle, cover with clingfilm and rest in fridge for 20 mins. Preheat oven to 180C convection and prepare two baking trays.

Roll out pastry on well floured surface to approx. 25x40cm. Cover one half with even layer of Currants then fold pastry in half. Roll lightly back out to nearly original size. Prick with fork, brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with remaining sugar. Divide into 16 fingers and place 8 per baking tray. Will spread slightly.

Bake at 180C for 22 mins till lightly coloured, rotate trays at 15 mins.

[MrsPea]

 They look yummy, did they take long to do

[Growster...]

Those look fabulous!

We always have a packet handy at home and are still bemoaning the loss of the chocolate covered variety, but you could pop on a few chunks of the old Cadbury Plain...

[DanielCoffey]

They look yummy, did they take long to do

Apart from the rest in the fridge to firm up a little, no. It is a soft crumb once rubbed in and the milk brings it together like a soft pastry.

You could cook them a little longer at a lower temperature (say 160C Fan for 25 mins) but what you are aiming for is a light biscuit so that the Currants don't char. They did stay inside rather well.

[Aunt Sally]

Wow… they look fabulous. But I won’t be able to say for sure until I’ve tasted them. 

(please post them to ‘Aunty, Sunny Kent’)

[DanielCoffey]

The Royal Mail Address Finder doesn't reckognise "Sunny Kent" at the moment. It did have one location in "Rainy Kent" but I had to scroll a long way down through all the "Rainy Wales" addresses to find it.

[Aunt Sally]

Well I’ll just have to bake some myself.  Gary Baldy is Aunty’s very favourite with a delicious cuppa.

[wighty]

They've always been known as 'dead fly' biscuits in this house.  Mind you, the girls always called fig rolls 'old bones'.

[DanielCoffey]

Hmm... I didn't have a nickname for Fig Rolls but I did love them. Calling them "old bones" does make sense if you have ever casseroled Beef Rib.

[Growster...]

Actually, we always call them 'Gary Bl**ders', chez Turrets...