I got a rather enthusiastic response to my recipe for Afghan biscuits last week. As I said, they are New Zealand’s famous biscuits. This week I thought I would balance it out with Australia’s famous biscuit, the ANZAC biscuit. We cannot let April 25th, ANZAC Day pass without a batch of these delicious treats.

Edmonds Cookery Book was where my Afghan recipe came from. My Kiwi friend Amy sent me a copy of the recipe a few weeks ago. What’s really exciting is that when she came to visit me for my hens party last weekend, she also gave me a wonderful Birthday present – the cook book!

It’s full of some fabulous recipes (and a few odd old ones, spam anyone?) and one of them is ANZAC biscuits. I thought it would be very fitting to try a recipe from a NZ cookbook. The result was a delicious biscuit with a crunchy outer and soft, chewy inside and not too sweet. They’re a really easy biscuit to make and because they’re packed with oats, they’re not too unhealthy either.

Start the biscuits by mixing up the sugar, oats, coconut and flour in a large bowl.

Melt the butter and golden syrup together. I just gave them a zap in the microwave. Be careful not to put it on for too long or you will have a very unpleasant mess to clean up. Pour the boiling water over the baking soda and mix them together until the soda has dissolved.

Pour the soda into the butter mixture.

Then pour all the liquid in with the dry ingredients and stir it all together.

The recipe said to spoon tablespoons of dough onto the tray. When I tried to do this it all fell apart so I rolled it into balls instead.

About 5 minutes into baking I opened the oven and realised they weren’t spreading but were baking in big ANZAC ball biscuits. I quickly whipped the tray out of the oven and flattened them all with the back of the spoon.

So please note that they don’t spread or change shape in any way so however you put them in the oven is how they will come out baked. Bake them at 180C for 15 minutes or until they are golden.

Leave the baked biscuits to rest on the tray for 5 minutes.

Then transfer them onto a wire rack to cool completely.

The recipe doesn’t say how long they keep for but if you know the story of ANZAC biscuits, they keep for a while. The recipe came to be because the ladies wanted to send baked goodies over to the soldiers in the war. They needed to be something that was going to survive the trip and still taste good when they arrived and so the ANZAC biscuit came to be. The name is after the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.

So next Wednesday, ANZAC Day, bake up a batch of ANZAC biscuits and think about and give thanks for all those brave soldiers who risk, have risked or have lost their lives to keep us safe. Lest we forget!

So what about you? Do you like trying new recipes for old favourites or do you stick to the tried and tested versions?

Today is also my little sister’s Birthday. Happy Birthday little sis!!! x

ANZAC biscuits

Yield: 20

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Ingredients

• 1/2 cup plain AP flour
• 1/3 cup caster (superfine) sugar
• 2/3 cup shredded coconut
• 3/4 cup rolled oats
• 50g (1.7oz) butter
• 1 tbsp golden syrup
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tbsp boiling water

Instructions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C(356F) fan-forced and line a baking tray with baking paper.
2. In a large bowl, mix up the flour, sugar, coconut and rolled oats.
3. Melt the butter and the golden syrup together in the microwave until they're smooth.
4. Pour the boiling water over the baking soda and then add them to the melted butter and golden syrup.
5. Tip the mixture into the dry ingredients and stir them all together.
6. Spoon tablespoons of mixture onto the lined baking tray leaving 2cm between each one. Flatten them to about 1-2 centimeters thickness.
7. Bake the biscuits for 15 minutes or until golden.
8. Leave them to rest on the tray for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
9. Store in an airtight container. ANZAC biscuits will keep for at least a week.