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FROM DISMANTLING TYPEWRITERS TO CREATING TIERED CAKES, THERE WAS NOTHING THIS MOTHER COULDN’T DO.
WHEN YOU CAN completely dismantle a manual typewriter to clean it, then put it back together again, it’s safe to say you can turn your hand to almost anything. This is exactly what Florence Kleinschafer did while employed as an office worker at J & A Brown, a coal-mining company in Newcastle.
“This is just one of the funny stories our aunts told us about her,” says her daughter Caroline Sheen, 85, of East Maitland in the Lower Hunter Valley region of NSW. “Flo, as she was known, was a very gifted woman … truly she could create anything from anything. She sewed all our clothes, made hats and renovated furniture, as well as all the household chores needed to keep our family healthy and on the move.”
Born in Sydney in October 1901, Flo was the eldest of five daughters for Patrick Thomas O’brien and Caroline Hampton of Forbes. Patrick was a blacksmith, an occupation that saw the family move to many different places before settling in Maitland, where he set up his own coach-building business in Bulwer Street, just after World War I. In November 1927, Flo married Victor Kleinschafer, whose German family had moved from Gunnedah to Telarah, near Maitland.
Even though her father was often away searching for work during the Depression years, Caroline recalls a happy childhood, with a loving and caring mother who doted on her three daughters and two sons. “We all loved cooking days,” she says. “Afgan biscuits were an absolute treat. Rich and chocolatey with icing, and topped with half a walnut … they didn’t last long!”
Making the annual Christmas cake was another day the kids always looked forward to. It was mixed by hand in a large bowl that had been a washbasin in a previous life. “We stood around the table waiting for the egg beaters and the basin to clean out with a spoon — she always left a bit extra — not to mention the coins and trinkets in the Christmas pudding, wrapped in calico and boiled in the copper for hours.”
One of Flo’s most memorable culinary accomplishments was the feast she prepared for Caroline and her twin brother Peter’s joint 21st birthday. “There was a table of food, and I still have a picture of the magnificent tiered cake she made us, which was all the fashion at the time.”
While Flo passed away 56 years ago, a week after Caroline gave birth to her first child, her recipes remain a cherished family heirloom. “I still have her old recipe book, even though it’s falling to pieces now, with her handwritten recipes and [the] pages where I wrote in it as a child,” says Caroline.
AFGHAN BISCUITS
Makes 25
1¼ cups plain flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1⁄3 cup cocoa
200g butter, softened
¾ cup icing sugar mixture 2 cups cornflakes
25 walnut halves
ICING
1½ cups icing sugar mixture 2 tablespoons cocoa 1 teaspoon soft butter 2 tablespoons boiling water
Preheat oven to 180˚C. Line 3 large baking trays with baking paper. Sift flour, baking powder and cocoa together into a large bowl and set aside.
Using an electric mixer, beat butter and icing sugar until pale and creamy. Add flour mixture and beat until combined. Stir in cornflakes, mixing until well combined.
Using your hands, roll tablespoonfuls of biscuit mixture into balls. Place 3cm apart onto prepared trays. Using palm of your hand, gently flatten each ball. Bake, rotating trays halfway through cooking, for 18 minutes or until light golden. Cool on trays.
To make icing, sift icing sugar and cocoa into a bowl. Add butter, then gradually stir in enough boiling water until mixture is thick and glossy.
Using a warm knife (dip a butter knife in hot water, then dry), spread a heaped teaspoonful of icing on top of each biscuit. Top each with a walnut half. Store in an airtight container.
SHARE YOUR FAMILY FAVOURITES Do you have a recipe that has been passed down through generations? Send it to us, the story behind it and a copy of a photograph of the relative who passed it on. Remember to include a telephone number. Email austcountrystyle@bauer-media.com. au or send a letter to Heirloom Recipe, Country Style, PO Box 4088, Sydney NSW, 1028.