New Zealanders need no introduction to this household recipe book. The Edmonds Cookery Book. Those from further afield wont recognise this as being a Kiwi Icon. Edmonds was THE recipe book. The book you took with you when you left home, the book given to you when you headed off to University or flatting, or when you got married. It’s a Kiwi Classic, and so is the recipe I chose, Melting Moments.

Time has marched on (I sound like my dad) and I’d say it’s probably time some of the recipes had another ‘test’. Though the book I have is neither the original edition, or the latest edition. Perhaps there’s been another test since the 25th Anniversary Edition.

These lot were from the first tray that I put. The recipe stated 180 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes. I admit I’ve not made these biscuits for a very long time, despite the page looking like it’s been visited many times. But 20 minutes at that high heat for a biscuit that shouldn’t colour much?

I put them in for only 15 minutes and turned the tray half way through.

This is what I got when I was baking the second tray with my back to the oven getting the third tray ready.

You can see the colour difference between the first batch (those on the far left and top right) and the second tray. Lots of colour, too much colour.

Oops. So the third tray went in for 15 minutes but when I turned the tray half way through I turned the heat down to 150 degrees to avoid the over baking.

I pulled the frosting I made last week for the Orange Cupcakes, from the freezer this morning (yes it had frozen solid) to use as the filling for these biscuits. The recipe says to put the biscuits together with Raspberry jam and icing. The jam would have made the biscuits slide a lot when holding them plus Raspberry and Orange wasn’t a flavour combination I wanted to try.

Should anyone not be familiar with Melting Moments, they are more like a shortbread type biscuits. Traditionally you would roll them into balls and use a fork (you’ll probably need to regularly flour it) to flatten them a little before putting them into the oven to bake.

The cornflour in the recipe makes these crisp and delicate. And they remind me of my childhood, it’s the type of biscuit that we would make on a fairly regular basis. You’ll find most supermarkets also making Melting Moments from the bakery. They are usually quite a lot larger, and put together with an icing coloured pink. I can’t explain why. But I can’t pooh-pooh the idea, after all, I’ve put these together with orange icing, which is coloured, wait for it, orange

I would never buy Melting Moments from the supermarket, but I’d make these again. Having learnt now that 15 minutes is most likely plenty of time, turn them half way through baking, and don’t be afraid to turn the temperature down to something like 160-170 degrees. You don’t want these light and crisp biscuits to brown.