Since I was a kid, one of my favourite bikkies (aka biscuits or cookies if you’re American) has been the Afghan. With the combination of chocolate icing, chocolate base, and cornflakes, it’s a biscuit that always goes down a treat. Admittedly, as a child I did always pick off the quintessential walnut wondering why adults always try to ruin a good thing, yet now I can embrace each and every Afghan bikkie in all its glory.

Despite travelling a fair bit throughout my formative years, it wasn’t until I lived in the UK at the age of 18 that I realised that not everyone knew what an Afghan biscuit was. Imagine my shock as I realised my beloved family members had grown up devoid of this chocolatey-cornflakey delight! Not to fear, the culinary neglect was soon remedied as I quickly whipped up a batch. The result was a resounding confirmation of my beliefs – this really was a biscuit worth celebrating.

Recently, I have returned to my mother’s homeland, and once again I found myself baking Afghan biscuits to feed family and tend to pangs of homesickness. As I presented my most recent batch, one confused Mancunian asked me a question – so why are they called that? Afghans? It was a great question, and it was one I could not answer without some assistance – so I turned to ol’ faithful Google.

Here’s what I found; essentially, nobody knows definitively why they are named ‘Afghans’. I’ll present all the proposed theories below and you can decide (with some gentle persuasion) which explanation you think might fit:
1. The name could refer to the First Anglo-Afghan war. At first glance you might be thinking that this sounds feasible; another staple bikkie – the Anzac – is related to our troops, so why not this one too? However, having read an article about the conflict it seems a little odd to connect this war with the biscuit for myriad reasons. Firstly, the war took place from 1838 – 1842, anyone who knows anything about NZ history will know that we were a little occupied (literally) at that time to be getting involved. Secondly, there is no mention of biscuits, chocolate, cornflakes, or Aotearoa NZ in the article about the war, although there is reference to a Lord Auckland. Thirdly, the first known appearance of the Afghan biscuit recipe in The Timaru Herald newspaper wasn’t until about a century later. Personally, I would consider the link between this war and the biscuit tenuous at best.
2. The name may refer to a style of hat called the Pakol. Traditionally worn by men in Afghanistan and northern Pakistan, the pakol is typically hand-woven from wools in shades of brown, black, white or red. It’s a flat cap that, if you catch it at the right angle, could provide inspiration for the name of a flat, brown biscuit. Notably, these hats grew in popularity among the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan around the end of the 19^th/beginning of the 20^th century, about 30 years before the recipe turned up in print. It’s also likely relevant that there was an increase of people from Afghanistan moving to Australia around the 1920s – 30s to help with camel farming. These cameleers were probably wearing their traditional clothing, including pakols. So, by appearances and timing it seems that we might be getting a bit warmer with this theory.
3. The third suggestion of name origin is a bit more grim; it has been posited that perhaps ‘Afghan’ refers to the colour ‘Afghan brown’ a once-popular dye colour that possibly relates to the darker skin tone of some people from Afghanistan. Undoubtedly, if this is where the name comes from then that is disappointing. However, what I will say is that, while many kiwis were likely to be openly racist at the time (1930s), it does seem like an obscure and specific ethnicity to target. I’m not saying it’s not possible, but I would simply expect racists to opt for lower-hanging fruit. Nevertheless, in 2020 Griffins’ Foods renamed their version of the biscuit ‘Milk Chocolate Roughs’ because of this potential link to racist origins. Other brands within New Zealand and all recipe books I have seen have otherwise continued with the name ‘Afghan’.

Okay, so some pretty random and questionable contenders there. I personally am going to opt for option number 2 and consider each batch I bake from here on out an ode to the useful and beautiful pakol.

Now, this article would be remiss without a recipe included. For those of you who have not tried an Afghan bikkie in NZ, I implore you to make your own version. Some quick notes before you do so; firstly, I find that almost every recipe available calls for an inordinate number of cornflakes. I am a cornflake girl through-and-through yet 2 cups of cornflakes in a recipe that realistically only yields 12-15 biscuits seems slightly mad to me and I prefer to eyeball the cornflakes per batch. As any good baker (or person with common sense) knows, always start with less than you think you may need – you can always add more. Secondly, no matter what any recipe or headstrong kiwi may try to tell you, you are well within your rights to make Afghans WITHOUT the walnut. In fact, the original recipe did not include walnuts, so you can tout yourself as a traditionalist and leave it at that. Similarly, you are at liberty to shape your biscuits however you like; often you’ll find them in bakeries in a flatter form (more resembling the pakol), however I tend to make mine a bit taller as it provides a bit more chew in the middle – this is totally a preference thing! Finally, what I have found is that Afghan biscuit recipes tend to wildly overestimate how many biscuits you are going to get from their mixture. I vividly remember using a recipe growing up that stated it made 24 biscuits and yet I consistently made 12 – I wasn’t making gigantic biscuits either! This could possibly be partially attribute to the slightly chunkier form my version took, but something to be aware of beforehand so you don’t worry that you have forgotten an ingredient.

I’ve adjusted the recipe below, originally taken from Chelsea Sugar, to reflect some of the points noted above. I’ve also included several measurements because I hate trying to do maths while I’m covered in flour.

Prep and bake time should amount to about half an hour but don’t forget to allow at least another 20 minutes for the biscuits to cool after baking before icing can commence!

Ingredients:

Biscuit

• 200g butter, softened (approx. 7oz)
• ½ cup caster or raw sugar (113g or approx. 4 oz)
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 ¼ cups standard flour (188g or approx. 6 ½ oz)
• ¼ cup cocoa powder (20g or approx.. 1 oz)
• ¾ cup of cornflakes at least

Icing:

• 1 heaped cup icing sugar (140g or approx. 5 oz)
• 1 Tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 Tbsp butter, softened
• 1-3 Tbsp boiling water
• Walnut halves – only if you want!!!

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees bake. Line a large baking tray (or two if you want flat bikkies) with baking paper.
2. In a large bowl, combine butter, sugar and vanilla essence until light and fluffy
3. Sift in flour and cocoa and stir until combined. Mix in cornflakes.
4. Roll mixture into balls and place on tray. Press down lightly with a fork
5. Bake for 10 – 20 minutes. The chunky version of the biscuits will look slightly cracked on the top and you will be able to tell that they are cooked at the edges. Flatter biscuits will be firm to the touch when cooked. Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack after a couple minutes to cool completely
6. Only ice once the Afghans are COOL!!! Nothing worse than watching your icing melt and run down the side of your biscuits.
   Make icing by combining icing sugar and cocoa, then adding butter and one Tbsp of boiling water. Continue adding more boiling water as needed, a little at a time, until icing is a spreadable consistency. Ice ya bikkies and chuck on a walnut if you’re feeling wild.

Now that I’ve fulfilled my white woman potential by publishing a recipe with a story at the top, I’ll leave this here – I hope you will enjoy a true delicacy of Aotearoa NZ.