Masi Samoa

Despite their dull and tasteless appearance, Masi Samoa, or Samoan coconut biscuits, are packed with flavour, particularly butter and coconut. Eggs, coconut milk, flour, baking powder, butter, vanilla essence, and sugar are used to make these flaky shortbread biscuits. They should be let cool after being removed from the oven, and then eaten plain or with butter and fruit jams. Masi is best served with a nice cup of Samoan cocoa on the side.

Ingredients:

120gm butter (4½ oz), 2/3 cup white sugar, 2 eggs, 200ml full coconut milk (7 fl oz), 1 tsp vanilla essence or extract, 4 cups flour, 3 tsp baking powder, a pinch of salt

Instruction:

1. Heat the over up to about 180˚C (350˚F)
2. Cream the butter and sugar together well.
3. Add the eggs one at a time mixing well.
4. Here comes the magic, add the coconut milk and vanilla, again mixing well.
5. Now mix in the dry ingredients (flour and baking powder).
6. The dough may still be a little sticky, so a little more flour may be needed.
7. Cover your kneading surface with a generous amount of flour so the dough doesn’t stick in and knead until it’s a nice and even consistency.

8. Pinch about a third of the dough and roll out onto lightly floured baking paper.
9. Roll out the dough until it’s about ¼” (6mm) thick, and cut into 3″ (75mm) squares. I find dipping the knife in flour every so often helps to keep it from sticking to the dough.
10. Then just pick up your baking paper at the edges and place it onto your over tray and cook for about 25 minutes, or till just golden brown (a little browner than they appear in the photo above) The squares when cooled should be quite hard, not soft like biscuits, and have a nice “snap” when broken.