Squashed Fly Biscuits

OK, so they're not actually called 'squashed fly' biscuits, but it is how they were universally known in our house growing up - and it's clear to see why. Strangely, it never put me off eating them, and still doesn't. Garibaldi biscuits (on page 158 of Delia's Cakes) are named after Giuseppe Garibaldi, an Italian general who played a key part in the history of the country, although despite my best efforts at Wikipedia research, I can't fathom why exactly the squashed fly biscuit bears his name. Answers on a postcard please.

On to the recipe itself. A pretty simple one with not many ingredients. In fact, I made these for no reason other than fancying a biscuit and having none in the house. With plenty of currants leftover from last week's Dundee Cake, I sought out a recipe to use them up. The recipe basically involves making a simple biscuit dough, then rolling it out into a big rectangle, sprinkling half of it with currants, then folding it over and rolling it out again, thus capturing the currants inside. The most difficult part was trying to keep the dough in a rectangle, but I just about managed it.

Delia suggested cutting the biscuits into rectangles 7cm x 3cm. I had to get my ruler out for this, but I followed the measurements pretty strictly to find that I only managed to get 15 biscuits where I was supposed to get 24. My rolling clearly needs some work.

They baked in just the time she said - only 12 minutes, and 5 minutes later I was kicking back with a cup of tea admiring my handiwork. All in all, a pretty successful bake, although next time would roll much thinner. The sprinkling of sugar on top gives them a nice crunch, although they are pretty crunchy anyway with the nice chewy bonus of the currants. I didn't have any eggs in, so used a bit of milk on top before sprinkling the sugar, and have to say it worked absolutely fine. Squashed fly - worth a try.