Facts About Afghan biscuit
An Afghan biscuit is a traditional New Zealand biscuit made from flour, butter, cornflakes, sugar and cocoa powder, topped with chocolate icing and a half walnut. The recipe has a high proportion of butter, and relatively low sugar, and no leavening, giving it a soft, dense and rich texture, with crunchiness from the cornflakes, rather than from a high sugar content. The high butter content gives a soft melt-in-the-mouth texture, and the sweetness of the icing offsets the low sugar and the cocoa bitterness.
Name
The origin of the recipe is New Zealand but the name likely originates from 'Afghanistan brown' as a colour description, and the recipe has appeared in many editions of the influential New Zealand Edmonds Cookery Book.
Griffin's Foods, a biscuit, snack-food and confectionery manufacturer in New Zealand, sells Afghan biscuits. In June 2020, they announced they would rename the biscuits due to racist connotations, in particular with the Afghan wars.
Ingredients
Ingredients typically include flour, sugar, butter, cornflakes (or crushed Weet-Bix, or large rolled oats etc.), cocoa powder and walnuts.