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Dessert

Cocoanut Tea Biscuits

Coconut tea biscuits are sweet biscuits made from sugar, glucose, water, and grated coconut.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Cocoanut Tea Biscuits

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Dissolve the sugar and glucose in enough water.

  2. Add the grated coconuts and stir constantly until the mixture reaches 240°F (medium ball stage).

  3. Pour the mixture onto a slab and spread it out.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll it out with a rolling pin and cut out biscuits using a biscuit cutter.

  2. Place the biscuits on double baking tins in a hot oven (400°F or 200°C) until the tops are brown.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Dissolves and cooks into a firm, sweet syrup that sets the biscuits.
Glucose
Stops the sugar from crystallising, keeping the mixture smooth and pliable.
Fresh grated coconut
Adds moisture, flavour and body to the mixture as it thickens.

The step that matters

Cooking the mixture to 240°F. Stirring constantly and reaching 240°F (medium ball stage) concentrates the sugar syrup enough for the mixture to set firm once cooled. Undercooked syrup stays sticky and will not hold its shape.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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