Orange And Pistachio Biscuits/Cookies

I eat a lot of Corn Thins these days.  Much to my surprise recently, I read the ingredients list and found they are 99% corn (organic maize) and 1% salt - and that's it!  So no wonder they work really well in these biscuits.  Mr P. and I changed our eating habits last year, including giving up the demon drink, and we've both lost about 10 kg (22 pounds) in weight.  Who knew no booze and lots of Corn Thins would do the trick?:-)  

And not much dairy or red meat here either.  Who can believe we have packets of quinoa and brown rice (I mean together!) in the pantry, lots of seeds and nuts, tubs of hummus, and copious amounts of almond milk in the fridge?  I think aliens have taken over my kitchen, my friends.  But no no, none of the devil's work - KALE!!  I leave that to the cows, and the hipsters.  This recipe comes from a magazine called Taste, and it's actually an ad for Corn Thins.  Very clever of them I think.

looks like Dory is about to hoe in :-)

I made these on a recent Sunday, which turned out to be hectic!  Mr P. had gone off early to help friends check out a house in the neighbourhood that they were thinking of buying.  It's a hundred and twenty years old, and needs a lot of work.  And they bought it!  Yay!  They migrated here from Iran several years ago, and have settled in and started a family.  Our friend/neighbour popped in for coffee too, so it was all go.  So it was birthday cake galore, then we headed down to a sick friend's place to deliver some of these biscuits.  Then it was home to Zoom with Sydney friends.  Phew!  What a day of it we had.      

Makes 22 biscuits (or 30 wee ones):

ingredients:

For the biscuits/cookies:

1 packet (150g./5.3 oz) Corn Thins Original

180 mL (6 oz) flavourless oil (like sunflower or safflower)

150g./ 5.3 oz brown sugar (dark or light)

3 large eggs (take 'em out of the fridge to warm up a bit)

120g./4.2 oz almond meal

100g./3.5 oz wholemeal flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla paste or extract

the zest from 2 oranges

the juice from those 2 oranges (divvied up - one lot for the biscuits and one lot for the icing - see below)

a pinch of sea salt flakes

a handful (2-3 Tbs maybe) pistachios, finely chopped

1-2 Tbs mandarin dust, very optional - tee hee

For the icing:

20g./a big ⅔ oz butter, melted

100 mL/3.5 oz orange juice (from one of your oranges above)

200g./7 oz icing sugar mixture (see notes)

Method:

Turn on your oven to 160C/320F fan forced to heat

First blitz the Corn Thins in a food processor till you have a fine powder-like crumb

Put the oil and the sugar into a large mixing bowl and beat on medium speed for 5 minutes - use electric beaters or a stand mixer

Beat the eggs into this mixture one by one

To this mixture, add the Corn Thin crumbs, the almond meal, the flour, the baking powder, the vanilla, the orange zest and the salt, and give it all a big beating

Add the juice of one of the oranges, and beat till just combined

Now grab 2 baking trays, line them with baking paper, and roll the dough into balls (I used my gloved hands) - the recipe says 30, but I only made 22!  Each of my balls weighed around 40 grams/1.4 oz

Place the balls of dough on the trays, flatten the tops with a fork if you wish, (I patted mine flat in my gloved hands), and bake for 22 minutes all up, changing the trays around from bottom shelf to top shelf after the first 11 minutes

Let them cool completely on the trays, while you make the icing

Whisk all the icing ingredients together (it was runny and there was lots), spoon over the cooled biscuits, then sprinkle on the pistachios (and mandarin dust if using)

Notes:

I measured the juice from one orange, which equalled 100 mL (mm, how handy was that)

Icing sugar mixture is a combo of powdered sugar and cornflour

My cousin sent me a tin of mandarin dust for my June birthday so I was keen to try it out here = yum!

gather your ingredients

our charming Persian friend helped with the blitzing

oil and brown sugar whisked together

chuck in the rest of the ingredients

into the oven at 160C/320F for 22 mins.

out of the oven to cool

whisk the icing till smooth

iced and pistachio'ed and dusted 

mandarin dust

our lovely Persian friends - we ate birthday cake!

Dory just can't help herself :=)

© Sherry M.