Arnold Circus Biscuits

At year-end, I compile a list of my favorite cookbooks of the year. (Quick aside: 2013 looks to be an outstanding year for cookbooks. Stay tuned!) In 2012, Margot Henderson’s You’re All Invited topped my best-of list, hands down. Henderson filled her cookbook with recipes from her catering business, Arnold & Henderson; and from her London restaurant, Rochelle Canteen. These recipes—whether fancy(ish) or simple—feel honest: straightforward food to enjoy during any celebration, whether a Christmas Dinner or New Year Party or even a quiet Date Night at home. Although published in Britain, the recipes in You’re All Invited should pose no real problem for American households. It’s a wonderful and gracious cookbook and I highly recommend it.

Being a dessert and tea-loving lot, my family particularly likes the Pudding and Cakes section of You’re All Invited. In it Henderson shares a recipe for Arnold Circus Biscuits, a version of a cookie called an Anzac biscuit in her native New Zealand. Anzac stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corp and the original rolled oat cookie recipe dates back to World War I. The wartime biscuit needed to survive long, slow journeys without spoiling, thus it contained neither eggs nor butter. Instead, the biscuit relied on ingredients not apt to spoil (in this case, oats, flour, coconut and sugar). Modern versions of the recipe still omit eggs, but many, including Henderson’s recipe, now contain butter.  Why does Henderson call her version Arnold Circus Biscuits? Perhaps because she located her catering business and restaurant in an old Victorian school—its old bike shed, to be specific—in East London’s Arnold Circus. So I think of the biscuit as her house cookie. Henderson’s recipe makes about 36 biscuits.

100g porridge oats

75g desiccated coconut

100g plain flour

100g caster sugar

50g demerara sugar

100g butter

50g golden syrup

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/fan 160º/350ºF/gas 4, and line 2 baking trays with baking paper.

Put the oats, coconut, flour and both sugars into a large bowl and mix to combine.

Put the butter into a pan and add the golden syrup. Heat slowly and stir with a wooden spoon until the butter and syrup have melted together. Put the bicarbonate of soda into a cup, add 2 tablespoons of boiling water and mix to dissolve. Pour the mixture into the pan. Stir with a wooden spoon, then tip into the dry ingredients and mix to a crumbly paste.

Take teaspoonfuls of the mixture and roll them into balls. Place them on the cold baking trays, leaving a space of at least 3cm between them because they will spread as they cook. Bake for about 12 minutes, until they have spread out nicely and are a dark golden colour.

Cool on a rack, then store in an airtight tin.

Notes

For those of you that don’t speak British, some clarification might be in order. Porridge oats are rolled oats. Desiccated coconut means flaked or shredded coconut. Plain flour, as opposed to strong (high-protein) flour and soft (pastry) flour, is all-purpose flour. Caster sugar means super-fine sugar. Golden syrup, practically synonymous in England for Lyle’s Golden Syrup, is cane sugar syrup. Bicarbonate of soda translates to baking soda. Three centimeters equals just over an inch. And, of course, colour means color.

Although these cookies boast a long shelf-life, I can tell you that they don’t hang around too terribly long in my household: we can put away a batch in a couple of days. They are perfect with tea or as dessert (or even for elevenses…just ask my dear wife).

Best Cookbooks of 2012

It’s time to look back over 2012 and share my picks for the five best cookbooks of the year. As with 2011 (here), my list contains a mix of books published in England and the United States. So, without any further ado, and in alphabetical order, I present the five best cookbooks of 2012.

The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz. Chelsea Green Publishing.

Edible Selby by Todd Selby. Abrams.

Every Grain of Rice by Fuchsia Dunlop. Bloomsbury Publishing.

SPQR by Shelley Lindgren and Matthew Accarrino with Kate Leahy. Ten Speed Press.

You’re All Invited by Margot Henderson. Fig Tree / Penguin Books

So why these books?

The Art of Fermentation passionately examines fermented foods and beverages (e.g., pickles, meads, beers, wines, breads, and cheeses). Katz’s book inspired me to look beyond vinegar-based pickles and to explore a broad range of fermented vegetables. As I write, I have a jar of lacto-fermented okra in the refrigerator and two jars of sauerkraut bubbling away on my kitchen worktable. In response to Katz’s infectious enthusiasm, I even purchased an authentic onggi from Adam Field Pottery to try my hand at kimchi. It’s only a matter of time before I start in on mead and rice beer…

Some might argue that Todd Selby’s Edible Selby isn’t really a cookbook at all. (What is it then? A style, travel or design book?) I get inspired every time I flip through this visually stimulating work and want to rush into the kitchen and cook something. (Isn’t that what a good cookbook should do?) Does it contain recipes? Well…yes, some. But I don’t think anyone will buy this book for its recipes. (In fact, some are pretty much impossible to read.) Buy this book to enjoy Selby’s incredible eye, sense of style and playful creativity. Edible Selby profiles chefs, bakers and other culinary artisans, including a slew of my food and wine favorites: Arianna Occhipinti, an outstanding young Sicilian winemaker; Russell Moore, chef at Camino in Oakland, California; Chad Robertson and Elisabeth Prueitt (here) of Tartine Bakery in San Francisco. And there’s even a section on Margot Henderson (of You’re All Invited fame, below) and her husband, Fergus Henderson (here) of St. John in London. Cookbook or not, it makes my list.

In Every Grain of Rice, Fuchsia Dunlop focuses on Chinese home cooking and basic kitchen techniques. Her previous cookbooks, Land of Plenty and Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook, present recipes from the Sichuan and Hunan Provinces, respectively. Every Grain of Rice covers home-style dishes from these and other regions across China. If you want a primer on simple and comforting Chinese food, I highly recommend this excellent book. Do try Ms. Dunlop’s recipe for Silken Tofu with Pickled Mustard Greens. (And yes, you can pickle your own mustard greens. It is really easy.)

As a follow up to A16, an excellent 2008 cookbook that interprets Southern Italian cuisine, SPQR presents its take on Northern Italian food. Matthew Accarrino, the chef of San Francisco’s SPQR restaurant, joins Shelley Lindgren on this new book. Working from classic Northern Italy’s food—think Ragù Bolognese from Emilia-Romagna and Sardines in Saor from the Veneto—Accarrino offers his refined, modern (yet respectful) interpretation of traditional dishes using local ingredients. Lindgren expertly covers the wines of Northern Italy. As a subscriber to SPQR’s wine club, I can personally attest to her incredible taste. SPQR’s pasta dough recipes deserve special recognition.

Last but not least, You’re All Invited takes The Grand Prize as my favorite cookbook of 2012. This delightful book features recipes from Margot Henderson’s work as a caterer for Arnold & Henderson and restaurateur at London’s Rochelle Canteen. The book is subtitled “Margot’s Recipes for Entertaining” and who could ask for a more gracious host. I want to cook everything in this brilliant work. I keep coming back to a couple of recipes in particular: Bacon and Egg Pie, which she describes as “an old school pie from New Zealand”; and Sausages and Parsley Liquor, a braise of naked (i.e., peeled) sausages served with mashed potatoes. Need to serve 4, 10, 20 or 30? Not a problem! Ms. Henderson has graciously scaled many of the recipes in her book. Perhaps the before and after photographs that grace the front and back of the book’s slipcover encapsulate the spirit of this collection: comfortably gracious and charmingly playful. Buy this cookbook!

If you decide to add any of the above books to your collection or to give them to friends or family during these holidays, please do consider buying your copies from a friendly, independent bookseller. If we don’t support them, they might just disappear! And where would we be then?!