Melting Moments

One of my favourite recipe books from my childhood is a little book published by a flour company called Be-Ro. Although I have an up-to-date version, I still tend to go back to this battered old copy, taped together and covered in margarine and cocoa stains. Maybe partly because I looked just like the girl on the cover when I started using it!

  

One of my favourite recipes in the book is for some scrummy little biscuits called Melting Moments. I seem to remember it was my Dad rather than my Mum who used to make these ~ Dad made pastry and biscuits, Mum did cakes and dinners ~ but Lordy it was a long time ago, and I struggle to remember where I've parked the car in the morning these days, so who knows! I do remember that we never used coconut, always rolled oats. This was the 70's, and money was always tight, but I still make them that way now and I personally prefer the powdery softness of the oats. Here is the recipe from my vintage copy of the Be-Ro recipe book:



Regular readers won't be surprised to hear that I don't follow the recipe exactly, and this is a great example of how I tweak even the simplest recipes to suit my own tastes and techniques. For example, I always use granulated sugar for these biscuits, in fact I rarely use caster sugar in any recipes. In my opinion a single batch of this will only make about 10 biscuits, I usually make a double batch and just roll up walnut-sized balls rather than trying to divide the mixture as advised. As I mentioned earlier, I don't often use coconut, I sometimes don't even bother with the oats, and I almost never bother with the pieces of cherry ~ I find the little sweet burst of chewiness detracts from the meltingly crumbly texture. Bake these until barely golden, allow to cool a few minutes, then enjoy ~ I'm betting they'll soon become a family favourite of yours too!

Be-Ro still publish their recipe book today, although I'm no longer the cover girl ;-) You can get your own copy here.