Book Review: Marysville Relief Cookbook and road test Milo Biscuits

In case you aren't Australian or have been living under a rock lately, Marysville in Victoria suffered devastating fires that destroyed the majority of it's township and many many lives in February 2009.

A local, Heather Samsa decided to put together for the locals, a cookbook to achieve a couple of things:


- Have a cookbook to provide for those who were starting over without any of their cookbooks, and provide an inspiration for those who had lost everything, to start again with kitchen therapy.
- I suspect, give herself and others something positive to focus on during and in and the aftermath of the devastation.
- Raise money for the Marysville resident's relief (Currently it is in it's second run - $10 from each sale going straight back to the town, of which $400 has already been given, $200 to the Primary School and $200 to the Tourist Association)

A very worthy cause.

There are many recipes, contributed by many and divided by categories:
soup/pasta/eggs/chicken/lamb/pork/seafood/beef/noah's ark/vegetable/dessert/jam

There is also highlighted throughout, microwave recipes I assume specifically targeting residents in temporary accommodation, which I am sure, has been extremely helpful.

Cost:  $30.00 (plus postage)
ISBN:  9780646527604
Purchase here

Pros:  Some family favourites, lots and lots of recipes.  More suited to home basic cooking, so if you have a basic repertoire, this would be fantastic, also good for holiday or camping type cooking.  It's obviously for a worthy cause.
Cons:  No photos of the actual recipes, and if you're looking for something new and exciting, maybe not for you.  I tested two recipes, and the first one was an unmitigated flop (Saucy Lemon Pudding).  First of all there was an ingredient in the process that wasn't in the ingredients list (150ml of milk), it took a long time to prepare, and turned out like lemon butter on toast. That said, the omission will be corrected in the next print, and maybe it's just my taste?  Heather when I bought this to her attention, was super quick in responding too, which was great.

Today's roadtest recipe is relatively easy, and not so time consuming.  A good lunchbox treat!

Milo Biscuits:  Made 48


Ingredients:
Biscuits
185gr butter, softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup milo
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/4 cup self raising flour
water

Icing
1 cup sifted icing sugar
2 tb butter, softened
2 tsp milk
2 tblsp milo

2 extra tbsp milo to sprinkle at end.


Method:
Preheat oven to 170 degrees c
Cream butter and sugar together, then add egg - ensure all well combined.

Add milo, plain and self raising flour and water and mix until forms a stiff dough.

Roll into balls (about size of a 20c piece) and then place on greased trays, and then slightly flatten.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until browned on top.

Allow to cool on cooling rack whilst you prepare the icing.

Mix milk and margarine together, add the milo and combine well.  Add sifted icing sugar and keep stirring until it becomes a smooth consistency.  Drizzle over biscuits (I did this on the cooling tray with some aluminium foil underneath to capture the fall out) and then sprinkle top with milo.

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