Anzac biscuits

Ingredients

• Rolled oats150 g
• Flour150 g
• Desiccated coconut100 g
• Brown sugar150 g
• Butter150 g
• Golden syrup3 tbsp
• Bicarbonate of soda1 tsp
• Boiling water2 tbsp
• Salt1 pinch

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Mix the oats, flour, coconut, sugar and salt in a large bowl.

   6 min

2. 2

   Melt the butter with the golden syrup over a low heat, without letting it boil.

   8 min

3. 3

   Dissolve the bicarbonate in the boiling water and pour it straight into the butter mixture; it foams up.

   3 min

4. 4

   Pour the foaming mixture into the dry ingredients and stir until even.

   5 min

5. 5

   Roll walnut-sized balls and set them on a tray with generous gaps between them.

   10 min

6. 6

   Flatten each ball with your palm to a centimetre thick; they spread further in the oven.

   5 min

7. 7

   Bake at 160 °C for twelve to eighteen minutes and cool them on the tray rather than a rack.

   22 min

About the dish

There are no eggs in the dough on purpose: the biscuits were baked to be shipped to soldiers by sea, and without eggs they did not spoil on the way. It is a logistical recipe rather than a dietary one.

The bicarbonate is slaked in hot water and poured into the melted syrup. The fizzing mixture gives the biscuits their openness — without it the reaction does not happen and you get a dense slab.

Crisp or chewy is a question of oven time. Twelve minutes gives chewy, eighteen gives crisp, and Australians argue about it in earnest.

Worth knowing

• — Cool the biscuits on the tray. Hot, they are soft and break if you try to lift them; ten minutes later they set on their own.
• — Leave generous gaps between the balls. The biscuits double in width, and on a crowded tray you get one continuous slab.
• — Golden syrup can be replaced with honey and a spoon of treacle, but the flavour changes. It is the syrup that gives the caramel note an Anzac is known by.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

180 kcal

Protein

2 g

Fat

9 g

Carbs

23 g

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• Lamingtons — Cubes of sponge dipped in chocolate icing and rolled in desiccated coconut.
• Australian meat pie — A hand-sized pie with a thick beef filling: shortcrust base, puff lid, tomato sauce on top.
• Grilled barramundi — A whole fish on the grate with lemon myrtle and lime, part in foil and part over direct heat.