Last month a BUNCH of people talked about how their favorite use of golden syrup was ANZAC biscuits. And ANZAC Day was on April 25th, and in the comments of a post on Go Fug Yourself about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle attending ANZAC Remembrance services, more people talked about how much they loooooved these cookies biscuits.
ANZAC biscuits are associated with WWI, with the image of care packages going out and the kids at Gallipoli eating them in the trenches. Like so many things, the imagined history is not the same as the real history: the first recipe that we have for ANZAC Biscuits is from a 1921 cookbook – post WWI. They don’t contain things that will spoil quickly (so, no eggs) but there’s an awful lot of sugar for a wartime food.
I’m just saying.
ANZAC biscuits were often sold at bazaars and bake sales and such to raise money for the troops, and they’re not the same as the hardtack-like things apparently called ANZAC Tiles that maybe actually WERE sent to the front? That’s a post for another day.
Anyway, as you know by now, I really like starting at the beginning, so I hunted down the original 1921 recipe. The Wikipedia article mentioned that sometimes these biscuits have coconut in them (much to the disgust of some of the GFY commentariot). Now, I do not like coconut. The only good purpose for coconut is in Thai curry. Luckily, the original recipe did not require me to allow coconut in my house.
THIS IS A COCONUT FREE ZONE.
The original recipe from the St. Andrew’s Cookery Book is this:
“Four cups flaked oatmeal, 2 scant cups flour, I cup sugar, 1/2 lb melted butter, 2 small teaspoonfuls baking soda, 2 tablespoonfuls treacle or golden syrup, 2 tablespoonfuls boiling water. put dry ingredients in a basin; add melted butter with treacle and hot water; mix all together, bake in small pieces flattened out, in moderate oven.”
That’s pretty straightforward. There are verbs and everything.
I went with a 375 oven, because everything bakes at 375, and baked them until they were getting delicately browned- about 12 minutes.
“Small pieces flattened out” turned out to be “I can squish it comfortably in my palm.”
This shit is FUCKING GOOD. This is an oatmeal cookie I can get behind. It’s chewy but not too chewy and nutty and good. IT DOES NOT NEED COCONUT. (Look, you can if you want, but…) It’s super easy, super quick, pretty cheap, and FUCKING DELICIOUS.
How about y’all? Preaching the goodness of ANZAC biscuits last month? Where are you on the Coconut Divide?
Not a huge fan of desecrated coconut but can live with coconut flakes so use that in Anzac bikkies instead. Also not heaps of coconut in most recipes so taste not that strong.
ANZAC biscuits are the best. And even baking numpties such as myself can manage them.
*takes RHG’s share of coconut*
I’ll have to show this to my daughter. She is really into baking since her home and careers class.
Anzac biscuits are the best. It’s the only recipe that I know off by heart. Mine always have coconut because it’s delicious and Anzac biscuits have coconut in them – and instead of adding the bicarb in with the dry ingredients and melting the butter (or margarine, mum always used Fairy margarine) on its own, you melt the butter and golden syrup together, then add the bicarb to the boiling water and tip it into the golden syrup/butter so it foams up. Then you mix it into the flour/rolled oats/sugar/coconut, roll it into balls and squish them a bit with a fork.
I made them with my daughters on Anzac Day; the mixture is so delicious that it never yields a full batch.
But, but… “Don’t you know where coconuts come from?”
Actually that scene is one of the few times I sympathize with Mary in that movie. Coconuts are great, but those sweetened desiccated cardboard flakes have no business in my icecream
Wait, so are treacle and golden syrup the same? The image I picked up of treacle from books was more like extra chewy caramel or something.
“Treacle” is molasses to Americans. So, not the same as golden syrup.
I’ve heard of these but was always curious what they were! How many pieces of deliciousness did the recipe make?
They are good with and without coconut – I personally prefer them with coconut, but either way works!
Also, if you can’t access golden syrup, it’s possible to substitute in maple syrup. I use this recipe: https://queen.com.au/recipes/maple-syrup-anzac-biscuits/
I’ve learned to enjoy coconut if it’s unsweetened, very finely grated, and hasn’t been on the shelf for fifty years. There are several recipes I have where you make whipped cream-based frostings far enough in advance that the coconut will reconstitute and pass for fresh.
Still need to make ANZACs, but Afghan biscuits came into my repertoire a while ago when Rhys Ford blogged about Aussie and NZ cookies (recipe’s still on her blog). Easy as can be, equally good with or without walnuts on top. (I still hate powdered sugar, so I usually go with a straight chocolate ganache on top instead of the chocolate glaze…
Loath coconut flesh unless I’m scraping it from an actual whole coconut. It’s a texture and smell thing. I have issues with the beach due to the latter. My fellow coconut loathing co-worker compares it to toe nails, but I maintain that toe nails actually smell better. Every time some romance hero takes a deep sniff of his darling’s hair and smells coconut, I wince.
Regarding golden syrup–is it anything like Karo?
I love the taste and smell of coconut but do not like the texture of shredded. My husband absolutely hates coconut so I learn live without it. I’m more upset of having to give up chocolate and caffeine.
Biscuits look yummy.
My home is a coconut free zone. I can taste even small amounts in things and I Do Not Care For It. I’m going to make a batch of these to take to my parents though – my dad is an expat from NZ. But I have to buy butter. I do not have 1/2 lb of butter.
Black treacle is like American molasses, but the pale variety of treacle (aka golden syrup) is what I think most people mean when they just say “treacle”… as in Treacle Pudding.
@PamG
No, golden syrup is made as part of the refining process when making sugar cane into sugar – so it’s different to corn syrup. I think Karo is an American thing; I’ve never used corn syrup and only heard of it when I started finding American recipes on the internet.
I’ve been eating coconut this whole time? It’s even in the Edmond’s Cookbook.
The trick is to cook them quite well so they are a bit caramelised and chewy. As an Australian I would say the ones in the picture look undercooked.
Oh these look good. I never ate them when I lived in New Zealand as they always had coconut but I might try them. My favorites were the Afghan cookies which I’ve only ever seen in New Zealand and Australia, a chocolate shortbread cookie with cornflakes in it.
@Amelia – as a fellow Aussie I agree that the pictured bickies look a little undercooked, but looking at the recipe the proportions are a bit different from the ‘modern’ version(s) of the recipe. I like my Anzacs on the chewy side and belong to Team Coconut. For those of you interested in trying them at home, go to http://www.taste.com.au, search for ANZAC biscuits and you will find a number of different recipes and some more pictures.
I’ve never heard of either ANZAC or Afghan biscuits and feel so left out. Evidently I will be checking out recipes but am also in the no-coconut camp.
One question: why is ANZAC in all capitals?
@kitkat9000,
ANZAC is the abbreviation for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. They served in WW1, including in Gallipoli. Anzac Cove on the Turkish coast is where they landed during the battle.
Anzac Day (usually not in all caps) was originally a day of remembrance for them, I believe, but in both countries it has since expanded to be a general memorial day for all war veterans.
I’m totally with you. I love Thai coconut curry but hate all other forms of coconut. I can taste it when they sneak it into cookies or candy. People still talk about the face I made several years ago when I tried a dairy-free ice cream made from coconut milk that “doesn’t taste like coconut.” Glad to see I’m in good company. When the coconut milk is boiled for the curry though, it changes the flavor. If cooking it yourself, the key is to make sure that it comes to a boil throughout all the coconut milk.
I am a big fan of coconut. It needs to be reasonably fresh, though! Dried coconut gradually loses some of the more delicate flavors, plus it contains oils that can get rancid.
I agree with the other commenters that the biscuits in the photo look a tad under – I like to try to get them crispy on the edges but just a little chewy in the middle. Chilling the mixture helps get the perfect consistency. My biscuits are also a lot flatter than those shown.
Plus I LOVE the coconut. It makes the recipe so easy! The one I love has 1 cup each of flour, sugar, coconut and oats, so suuuuuper easy to remember. (I also tend to be slightly over generous with the golden syrup, soooo good.)
As an Australian I agree with the others: the biscuits look a tad undercooked. There are many permutations involving coconut or not, and crispy or chewy. Yes, the bicarb should be added to boiling water and then added to the butter so it foams. Golden syrup is delicious in every way.
The biscuits sent to Gallipoli were hard tack, recipe here https://www.awm.gov.au/learn/schools/resources/hard-tack.
When I was teaching we made them, special holey pattern and all, and they lasted the rest of the year withough going moldy, and school ends at Christmas time.
I like coconut, but eschew choc chips, ginger, lemon etc.
Happy ANZAC bikkies!
It’s basically the same recipe as Uk flapjacks, only over here we bake them in a tin and cut them up into squares once they’ve cooled. I usually put raisins in mine. Sometimes dried apricots too.
Today I learned “flapjack” is another casualty of the transatlantic English language barrier.
As is often the case, Wikipedia has it wrong. A friend of mine, Allison Reynolds, who is a food historian has just spent several years researching the Anzac biscuit and written about its true origins in her new book, Anzacs: the power and spirit of an everyday national icon (Wakefield Press). I also write about food history and the first actual recipe to appear in print with the title, Anzac Biscuit, as far as we know, was published in 1917. It is nothing like the biscuit as we know it today – it’s made with rice flour, and comprises two halves joined together with raspberry jam and topped with a smear of lemon icing. I had a lot of fun updating the recipe for modern cooks and tracing the history of the woman who contributed it to a war funding raising cookbook, as part of Tried Tested and True, published in April by Allen & Unwin.
Forgot about another trick: if you’re making coconut ice cream, for instance, toast the coconut fairly deeply and steep it in the ice cream base while it chills, but be sure to strain it before you put it in the machine. (I’d imagine the same would go for a custard or something like that.) All the flavor will go into the base, and the shreds will pretty much be useless. (You can always put new shreds on top when you serve.)
I agree with Amelia – ANZAC biscuits have got to be chewy (not too chewy though). My favourite recipe, which my Nan showed us how to make, is from the Country Women’s Association (OMG, they do the best sponge cakes too), thoughtfully reproduced by ABC radio: http://www.abc.net.au/radio/recipes/anzac-biscuits/8929636
Being from the U.S., I had never heard of these. So, let the experiments begin! We started with the 1921 recipe here only we didn’t have light golden syrup, so we used 3/4 tablespoon of agave nectar and 1/4 tablespoon of molasses. Our results were pretty good, but we did cook one batch a bit longer and definitely preferred those. They were tasty and I hardly got any because my husband gobbled them up. Next up is a modern recipe with coconut which I toasted after reading some of the reviews. We’re still making the same light golden syrup conversion until we can get out hands on the real stuff. I am not a coconut lover, but I don’t hate it either, and I have to say, that I think I prefer this batch with the coconut. I thought the flavor would be overpowering, but it really isn’t. It’s just a light added nuttiness, but I suppose if you hate coconut, you probably wouldn’t like it. I suppose next will be working with the difference between chewy and crunchy. Thank you for the introduction to ANZAC biscuits!