A disclaimer up front: I can’t claim any credit whatsoever for this recipe, my co-worker Rachel posted about it at work and I asked if she minded if I re-posted the recipe here!
With Anzac Day just past, another thing from this time of year is Anzac biscuits:
The Anzac biscuit is a sweet biscuit, popular in Australia and New Zealand, made using rolled oats, flour, sugar, butter (or margarine), golden syrup, baking soda, boiling water, and (optionally) desiccated coconut. Anzac biscuits have long been associated with the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) established in World War I.
As mentioned above, my co-worker Rachel posted her own recipe that’s based as closely as possible on the really early Anzac biscuit recipes, and I made them last night and they’re amazing.
There’s two recipes, one is the pre-1920s version without coconut, and the other is with coconut and more sugar. I made the pre-1920s one as Kristina can’t eat coconut. The method is identical, just the ingredients differ.
I should also point out that they should go a lot flatter than in the picture above, but I cheated and microwaved the butter and golden syrup in the microwave rather than heating it on the stove, so the mixture didn’t stay warm and it didn’t end up spreading.
Ingredients
- 1 cup plain flour (all purpose flour)
- 1 cup rolled oats (not steel cut or quick oats)
- 1 cup sugar (part white sugar, part soft brown sugar)
- 3/4 cup desiccated coconut
- 115g salted butter
- 1 tablespoon golden syrup
- 1.5 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
- 2 tablespoons of boiling water
Pre-1920s recipe without coconut
- 1 cup plain flour
- 2 cups rolled oats
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 115g salted butter
- 2 tablespoons golden syrup
- 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- 2 tablespoons of boiling water
Method
- Preheat your oven to 170˚ degrees (no fan).
- Combine dry ingredients in a bowl.
- Melt butter and golden syrup slowly in a small saucepan.
- In a jug, dissolve bicarb soda in boiling water.
- Pour boiling water and bicarb into the butter and syrup. It will foam up. Add it immediatley to the dry ingredients.
- Mix everything together just enough to combine. The mixture should be sticky. Don’t let it get cold.
- Roll into teaspoon sized balls, and place on a baking sheet, spaced at least 10cm apart – they will spread a lot.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes. Your oven time may vary.
- Remove from oven, and cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes.
- Transfer to wire rack to cool.
- Store in an airtight container. They’ll keep for months.