Necessity is the mother of invention, and the Anzac biscuit is no exception. When the wives of soldiers were creating home baked goods to send in care packages to their husbands they needed the end product to go the distance. The lengthy, rough voyages of long distance transport at the time meant that the biscuits needed to have a long shelf life and some serious structural integrity.
Thus, the Anzac biscuit was born.
The biscuits were made mostly of dry ingredients with a long shelf life, they had a high sugar content and there were no eggs in the batter. These biscuits could survive the travel overseas in tact and in similar condition to when they left their Australian kitchens.
The recipes would have varied as the women shared their successes and failures in the experimental stages. This was a time when recipes were carefully handwritten and shared among friends and family. Those recipes that were shared among the women of the era are the foundations of the Anzac biscuits we enjoy today.
Recipes still vary and everyone has an opinion of what makes a “proper” Anzac biscuit. Should they be crunchy? chewy? or a little of both? I’ve played around with a few recipes over the years and this is the one that tastes the most like my Nanna’s Anzac biscuits. The combination of brown sugar and raw sugar gives the biscuits crispy edges with a chewy centre, just the way I like them.
Ingredients:
1 cup plain flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup desiccated coconut
¾ cup brown sugar
¼ cup raw sugar
100g butter
2 tablespoons golden syrup
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon bi-carb soda
Method:
Preheat your oven to 160°C.
Line two large baking trays with baking paper.
Pour the flour, oats, coconut and sugars into a large mixing bowl. Mix the dry ingredients together until they are well combined.
Cut the butter into small cubes and pop it in a small saucepan. Add the golden syrup and water to the saucepan and melt the ingredients together over a low heat. Once the butter has completely melted, add the bi-carb soda and stir until it starts to foam.
Pour the golden lava over your dry ingredients and stir until it is mixed through. There should be no dry patches of mixture when you’re done.
Use a tablespoon measure to scoop tablespoons of the mixture onto the prepared baking trays. You need to leave a good 4cm between the biscuits to allow them to spread.
Bake the biscuits for 15 to 20 minutes until golden. Allow them to cool for three to four minutes before removing them from the trays and cooling them on racks.
