An Afghan is a traditional

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

biscuit A biscuit is a flour-based baked food item. Biscuits are typically hard, flat, and unleavened. They are usually sweet and may be made with sugar, chocolate, icing, jam, ginger, or cinnamon. They can also be savoury, similar to crackers. ...

made from

flour Flour is a powder made by Mill (grinding), grinding raw grains, List of root vegetables, roots, beans, Nut (fruit), nuts, or seeds. Flours are used to make many different foods. Cereal flour, particularly wheat flour, is the main ingredie ...

butter Butter is a dairy product made from the fat and protein components of Churning (butter), churned cream. It is a semi-solid emulsion at room temperature, consisting of approximately 81% butterfat. It is used at room temperature as a spread (food ...

, cornflakes,

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...

and

cocoa powder Dry cocoa solids are the components of cocoa beans remaining after cocoa butter, the fatty component of the bean, is extracted from chocolate liquor, roasted cocoa beans that have been ground into a liquid state. Cocoa butter is 46% to 57% of the ...

, topped with

chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cocoa beans that can be a liquid, solid, or paste, either by itself or to flavoring, flavor other foods. Cocoa beans are the processed seeds of the cacao tree (''Theobroma cacao''); unprocesse ...

icing and a half

walnut A walnut is the edible seed of any tree of the genus '' Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, '' Juglans regia''. They are accessory fruit because the outer covering of the fruit is technically an i ...

. The recipe has a high proportion of butter, and relatively low sugar, and no

leavening In cooking, a leavening agent () or raising agent, also called a leaven () or leavener, is any one of a number of substances used in doughs and batters that cause a foaming action (gas bubbles) that lightens and softens the mixture. An altern ...

(rising agent), 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

Despite its name, the biscuit's place of origin is thought to be

. A recipe in ''

The Timaru Herald ''The Timaru Herald'' is a daily provincial newspaper serving the Timaru, South Canterbury and North Otago districts of New Zealand. The current audited daily circulation is about 14,500 copies, with a readership of about 31,000 people. The pa ...

'' for "Afghans" (minus the icing and walnut) dates from 1934, and an otherwise identical "Chocolate Cornflakes" biscuit recipe, complete with icing and walnut, was in the same publication of the previous year. There are many theories in circulation about the origin of the name "Afghan", ranging from the

First Anglo-Afghan War The First Anglo-Afghan War () was fought between the British Empire and the Emirate of Kabul from 1838 to 1842. The British initially successfully invaded the country taking sides in a succession dispute between emir Dost Mohammad Khan ( Bara ...

to the biscuit's texture and colour being likened to the landscape of Afghanistan, while one theory suggests it was named after the traditional Afghan hat, the

pakol The Pakol or Pakul (, , , Pashto: پکول) is a soft, flat, rolled-up, round-topped men's cap, usually worn in eastern Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is typically made of wool and found in a variety of earthy colours, such as brown, black, grey, ...

. In the wake of the

George Floyd protests The George Floyd protests were a series of protests, riots, and demonstrations against police brutality that began in Minneapolis in the United States on May 26, 2020. The protests and civil unrest began in Minneapolis as Reactions to the mu ...

, the manufacturer of the commercially produced version of biscuit,

Griffin's Foods The Griffin's Foods Company is a New Zealand food industry, food company currently headquartered in Auckland and established by John Griffin as a flour and cocoa mill in the city of Nelson, New Zealand, Nelson in 1864.Afghan people Afghans (; ) are the citizens and nationals of Afghanistan, as well as their descendants in the Afghan diaspora. The country is made up of various ethnic groups, of which Pashtuns, Tajiks, Hazaras, and Uzbeks are the largest. The three main lan ...

. Although they acknowledged "there are other theories in circulation", this caused a debate over the name. The decision came amidst a wave of name changes in New Zealand over foodstuffs with names deemed

racist Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...

or otherwise culturally offensive by some. The biscuit was eventually renamed "Milk Chocolate Roughs" by Griffin's, which advertised the renaming with a new

slogan A slogan is a memorable motto or phrase used in a clan or a political, commercial, religious, or other context as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose, with the goal of persuading members of the public or a more defined target group ...

: "Same bikkie. New name." However, the name "Afghan" is still the one used by other companies.

Ingredients and recipe

According to the '' Edmonds Cookery Book'', a batch of 24 afghans is made by combining butter, white sugar, all-purpose flour, cocoa powder, and cornflakes. Tablespoon-sized balls of the mixture are formed, placed on a greased baking tray, and baked at for around 15 minutes. Once the biscuits are cooled, they are iced with chocolate icing and the half-walnut placed on top. The Edmonds recipe has changed over the years; for example, the 24th De Luxe (1987) edition of the cookbook only called for of sugar. Some variations on the recipe exist; crushed

Weet-Bix Weet-Bix is a whole-grain wheat breakfast cereal created and manufactured in Australia and New Zealand by the Sanitarium Health Food Company, and in South Africa by Bokomo. History Weet-Bix was developed by Bennison Osborne in Sydney, ...

may be substituted for cornflakes, for instance.

References

External links

"The way to a man's heart is through his stomach, so I'm baking President Bush some ANZAC biscuits."
Cartoon. Source
Tiaki, Alexander Turnbull Library

"I've been told Anzacs go very well with Afghans".
Cartoon. Source
Tiaki, Alexander Turnbull Library
{{Chocolate Biscuits Types of food New Zealand desserts New Zealand snack foods Chocolate desserts Biscuit brands

Name

Ingredients and recipe

See also

References

External links