I sent my husband to the supermarket for biscuits and he returned with a nice selection including Garibaldi Biscuits. To our horror, we realised that the kids had never seen, let alone tried Garibaldi biscuits. In order to fill this gap in their culinary education, we described this favourite teatime treat and told them that they are also known as squashed fly biscuits. They found this hilarious and after trying them they were an instant hit. As all good things come to an end, we finished the packet (not really surprising in a household of five!) and we had three rather sad children. Ophelia and I hit the kitchen to have a go at making some ourselves.
This is a very tactile recipe for kids. Ophelia loved rubbing the flour, butter and salt together to make fine crumbs. She was talking to it, telling it that she was tickling it and listening out for it laughing. Then there came mixing and flattening it out with her hands before attacking it rolling it out with a rolling pin. More raisins than I can count were diverted into her mouth rather than the recipe, so we did have to replenish them. My main thought was at least this time she wasn’t trying to guzzle a mixture with raw eggs!
Our biscuits definitely didn’t look professional, but Ophelia was rather insistent that she wanted to do as much as she could by herself. This didn’t affect how yummy they were, only that ours were somewhat thicker than your average shop bought Garibaldi. They disappeared in less than 48 hours and there have been requests to make more for our biscuit tin.
To make Garibaldi Biscuits you will need:
- 110g self-raising flour
- Pinch of salt
- 25g margarine
- 25g caster sugar and an extra 2tbsp for sprinkling
- 35g raisins
- 2tbsp milk
- Egg white
- Preheat the oven to 180°c fan and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
- Measure out the flour, salt and margarine and place in a single bowl. Rub together to create fine crumbs.
- Add in the sugar and milk and mix together to form a firm dough. We used both a wooden spoon and our hands to do this. Ophelia would have chosen to only use her hands given half the chance!
- Flour your surface, and pat the dough into a flat shape. Roll it out to a rectangle. Ours was 15cm by 20cm. If it is bigger, then your biscuits will be thinner.
- Sprinkle the raisins on half of the rectangle.
- Fold the half without the raisins onto the other half and gently pat down. I folded it over and Ophelia patted it down.
- With a table knife or child safe knife, divide the mixture into 6 rectangles and cut with a sharp knife. Older children may be able to do this themselves. Cut each rectangle in 2.
- Brush the biscuits with some of the beaten egg white and sprinkle with caster sugar.
- Bake in the centre of the oven for 12-15 minutes until golden. Cool on a wire rack and store in an airtight container.
This recipe appeared in Penguin New published on 4 September 2020 and Soar Valley Life September/October Issue 2020.
