When I was in primary school I used to take ‘shearing shed biscuits’ to school. Or pumpkin scones. I may have, on occasion, traded them with my best friend for chips. When I was really little until I was about seven my parents owned a sheep and wheat farm in central NSW and although shearing was probably only once or twice a year it seems to take up a lot of space in my early memories. Smoko was a big deal. I remember spending a whole morning making double batches of shearing shed biscuits, pumpkin scones and filling a blue esky drink holder thing full of ‘cottees’ cordial. Mum and I took all the Smoko to the shearing shed which was always well received by the shearers and then my toddler sister and I were allowed to run around the shed pretending we were sheep for half hour or so before it was time to clear out when shearing started up again. Shearing shed biscuits are actually jam drops and they were probably out of a 1980’s Country Womens’ Association (CWA) Cookbook. I still call them shearing shed biscuits and so do my ‘townie’ kids!
Shearing Shed Biscuits 250g Butter,cold,chopped 4 cups self raising flour 1 cup caster sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla essence 2 eggs 8 Tabs milk (160ml) raspberry jam Rub butter in flour until it resembles crumbs (or use food processor). add rest of ingreds. roll into balls. dip thumb in sugar and press hole in ball, fill it with jam. bake in hot 210oC oven for 10 mins.
Drover & Classer 