Next Sunday is ANZAC Day, the 25th of April, and so I have baked ANZAC Biscuits. Not cookies, never cookies. It is against the law to call them cookies. Really. I never bake any kind of cookies, I always bake biscuits!!
I have baked two kinds on ANZAC Biscuits: one with coconut and one without. I like the one without much better, it must be like the recipe my mum used to make. The recipe tastes too salty for me, perhaps more salt was added to preserve the biscuits?? They do need some salt though.
One year my class researched and found out that in actual fact Hard Tack biscuits were sent to the troops. These biscuits were also know as ANZAC Tiles or Wafers. We cooked some, and ANZACs as well, and then pinned them to the wall in a plastic bag for weeks and weeks. The hard tack was still hard and edible. The ANZACs looked reasonably OK, but we were loath to eat them in case they were bad!!
The method/cooking time is the same for both biscuits, so I will list the ingredients for both recipes and then the Method.
ANZAC Biscuits - recipe with coconut makes about 36- 125g butter
- 2 tbspn Golden Syrup
- 1 tbspn boiling water
- 1 tspn bicarb soda (Baking Soda in the US I think)
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1 cup plain flour
- 1 cup desiccated coconut
- 1/2 cup caster sugar
- 1/2 tspn salt (recipe says 1 tspn)
ANZAC Biscuits- without coconut (my preferred recipe) makes about 16
- 90g butter
- 1 tspn Golden Syrup
- 1 tbspn boiling water
- 1 tspn bicarb soda
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1/2 cup plain flour
- 1/2 cup caster sugar
- 1/4 tspn salt (recipe says 1 tspn)
METHOD - preheat oven to 175*C
- Gently melt butter in a pan and then add the Golden Syrup and stir. Remove from heat.
- Put the bicarb soda in a small bowl and pour over the boiling water. Add immediately to the butter mixture. It will foam up slightly.
- Place all the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly. Make a well in the centre.
- Pour the butter mixture into the dry and then mix till combined. You have to mix well, because some flour and oats always hides at the bottom.
- Roll into tablespoon sized balls and place on a lined tray and press down gently with the back of the fork. The second recipe was wetter and so I just scooped out with a tablespoon full and rolled lightly. These also spread, so I only put 8 on the tray and that was perfect.
- Bake for 16 minutes, swapping trays halfway through. Check at 12 minutes just in case.
- Cool on trays for 5 minutes especially for the second recipe, they need to cool and 'set'
- Store in a sealed container.
