Month: July 2022

Our high energy Dingle biscuits are made daily in giant batches – a nod to tradition they are still as wildly popular as ever. We’re happy to share our recipe for free but if you think it’s worth more than a giveaway, then perhaps consider donating a Sir Ed ($5 note) here…thank you, we’d really appreciate it!

The Dingle Biscuit Recipe

Ingredients:

                250gm Margarine

                8 tablespoons Golden Syrup

                ¾ cup Sugar

                1 ¼ cups Plain Flour

                1 ¼ cups Wholemeal Flour

                1 cup Rolled Oats

                ½ cup Coconut

                1 tablespoon Baking Powder

Method:

Place the margarine, golden syrup, and sugar in pot on stove and heat until all margarine has melted. Place all other ingredients in large bowl and mix thoroughly.

Combine wet and dry ingredients in large bowl, mixing well, and press into a large greased baking tray. If mix is too dry, add a touch of warm water.  Bake in oven @ 190C for 15mins – 20mins.

Cut while warm and let cool before packing.

Optional extras:   

Chocolate –  add ¼ cup cocoa powder

Raspberry –  add ½ cup of Raspberry jam to wet mix and whisk thoroughly just before adding to dry mix

Dried fruit –  add 1 cup of chopped dates, sultanas, raisins, and/or apricots to wet mix just before combining                               

Sunflower seeds can be added to any of the above, and any two flavours can be combined – enjoy!

While you’re waiting for the biscuits to bake, have you heard about ‘The Great Biscuit Disaster of 1974’?

The following extract is taken from Sir Graeme Dingle’s book ‘The Seven Year Adventure’…

“(…) The kitchen with its roaring oil stove seemed so friendly as the rain drummed on the windows at 9 o’clock one Monday morning.

The groups were all gone, leaving behind a scene of devastation and muddy footprints and I settled into making enough Tararua biscuits for a week. I fetched the ingredients from the pantry, weighed them out and poured it all into a ten-gallon pot. Then I came to a curious item. It read, “16lb golden syrup!” I thought, “Christ, sixteen pounds is a lot of golden syrup, but I suppose it must be right.” And seeing that I had decided to make a double batch I poured thirty-two pounds of the gooey stuff into the pot. It took a hell of a lot of stirring but eventually all was ready.

(…) Carefully I spooned the mixture into small heaps on a tray and put it into the oven. Ten minutes later I had a little peep.

“God what an unholy mess.” My little heaps had all married into one another and created one big sticky pool. Something had clearly gone wrong. I decided to wait for advice and went on preparing the evening meal.

(…) When Roie came in from the bush at 5pm I confronted her with the problem.

“How much golden syrup did you use?” she asked.

“Thirty-two pounds,” I said defensively. I knew as soon as I had said it how stupid it sounded. It should have been 32 tablespoons! The mixture was set aside to stand for the night. Tuesday morning after breakfast saw me back with the problem. Add more oatmeal and flour, I had decided. Well, easier said than done. I bolstered the other ingredients to double so that by Tuesday lunchtime I was surrounded by twenty gallons of Tararua biscuit mix. Still it didn’t work properly. By late afternoon I had added all the oatmeal and flour in the pantry and every bench was covered with pots full of the stuff. Still it didn’t work and I had to admit defeat with the kitchen in chaos, my mind and body shattered and the base resources for any further attempts exhausted. The local pigs ate well for a few days.