Crunchy cereal biscuits (knarskoekies)

If you like crunchy biscuits, you will most probably love these cereal biscuits as much as we do.

This is a slightly adapted version of a recipe published in the Afrikaans "Idees" magazine.

Makes about 48 biscuits.

Ingredients

  • 140 gram butter, softened
  • 1 cup (210 gram) sugar
  • 1 large egg, lightly beaten
  • 1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla extract
  • ½ teaspoon (3 ml) ground cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon (1 ml) salt
  • ½ teaspoon (3 ml) baking powder
  • 1¼ cup (170 gram) flour
  • 1 cup (100 gram) dried coconut
  • 1 cup (100 g) oats
  • 1 cup popped rice ("Rice Crispies" in South Africa; "Ricies" in NZ)

For decoration, use either:

  • about 5 glazed cherries, roughly chopped, or
  • hundreds and thousands, or
  • chocolate sprinkles

Method

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C.
  2. Beat the butter, sugar and egg together until creamy.
  3. Add the vanilla extract, salt and cinnamon and mix in well.
  4. Sift flour and baking powder over the mixture.
  5. Add the dried coconut and oats and mix.
  6. Add the Rice Crispies or Ricies, and knead gently into the mixture.
  7. Roll the dough into small balls and place on baking sheets. (You can roll these balls through extra Ricies, for extra crunch.)
  8. Flatten the balls of dough slightly with a fork.
  9. Decorate each flattened ball with glazed cherry pieces or hundreds and thousands.
  10. Bake for about 15 minutes. They should be done when they start to change colour.
  11. Allow to cool on the baking sheets and transfer to cooling rack. Cool completely before storing them in an air-tight container.