Afghans afghans YUM!!

I have been a lucky loanee of Chelsea Winter's At My Table, so thought it was a good chance to try out a couple of her yummy recipes before returning the book (thanks Min!).  

Afghans are a childhood favourite for most kiwis, I think.  We almost all had them at some stage or another.  To be honest, I was never a huge fan.  The boys in my house now though are, so decided to whip a batch out.  These ones have cornflakes in them (not sure if that's traditional, or not, but I don't recall it from the days gone by) and it is, in my opinion, a HUGE plus.  I really enjoyed these.  I've eaten two today already.  

The recipe said it made about 18 biscuits, but I got about 25 or so, so filled the coffers for a couple of days!  

225 g butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence (I used golden syrup 'cause I was out of vanilla)
185 g flour
1/2 cup cocoa
3 cups cornflakes
1/3 cup desiccated coconut

ICING: 
1 cup icing sugar
2 tbsp cocoa 
1 - 2 tbsp boiling water
walnut halves, for decorating if you wish

1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees celcius.  Line baking trays.  
2. Cream butter and sugar until pale and thick.  Add vanilla and beat until combined.  
3. Beat in flour, cocoa and coconut.  Lastly, mix in cornflakes (best to do this with a wooden spoon, as mixture can get pretty hard for cake mixers to work with).  Don't worry if flakes get crushed up.  
4. Place golfballs of mixture on trays and press down with a fork or your hand.
5. Bake for about 12 minutes.  Cool for 10 minutes on trays before transferring to a wire rack.  
6. Stir icing ingredients together until a thickish paste is formed - best to do this when you're ready to ice, as it will continue to thicken and harden with time.  
7. When cooled ice the biscuits and decorate.