Anzac Biscuits

I was sitting shivering in the aircraft hangar that is my daughter's venue for learning circus skills, when I was offered a treat by another bystander.  This nanny to two youngsters who hail from a rather affluent inner eastern suburb, kindly offered me organic popcorn flavoured with manuka honey.  It came in a small foil package.  I tasted one and laughed when I read the packaging.  In fact, I couldn't stop chuckling, thinking about how brazen this type of marketing aimed at parents who are perhaps time poor but want their children to eat 'healthy' snacks which are conveniently packaged.  I was actually appalled.  And besides being poor value for money and environmentally unsound, they were so bland!

If you want a healthy snack, make it.  Anzac biscuits are easy to make, moorish and provide fuel for growing children so they can engage in energetic activities like swinging on trapezes and walking on stilts.   I would be untruthful if I said that they are convenient because one batch doesn't last more than 2 days in our household!

This recipe is from one of my favourite cook books, Belinda Jeffery's Mix and Bake.   These are the chewy kind not the crunchy, just the way I like them.  The only point of difference in the recipe is that I added more coconut.  Makes 24 - 30.

1 cup rolled oats (not quick cooking oats)
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup plain flour
3/4 cup castor sugar
125g unsalted butter
2 tablespoons golden syrup
2 tablespoons boiing water
1.5 tsp bicarb of soda
1 tsp vanilla extract


1. Preheat oven to 160 degreesC.  Line 2 large baking trays with baking paper and set aside.  In a large bowl, thoroughly mix oats, coconut, flour and sugar.

2. Put the butter and golden syrup in a small saucepan and warm them over a medium heat, stirring occasionally till the butter has melted.  Remove the pan from the heat.  Add the boiling water and bicarb of soda and stir them in briefly as the mixture froths.  Pour this buttery liquid into the dry ingredients adding the vanilla.  Quickly stir the two together until they are thoroughly combined.

3. Roll the resulting sticky dough into walnut-sized balls, then flatten them slightly and sit them at lest 5 cm apart (as they spread quite a bit) on the prepared baking trays.  You might need to bake these in batches. 

4. Bake for 16 - 20 minutes or until the biscuits are deep golden brown but still soft, then remove them from the oven.  (To ensure the bisuits cook evenly, rotate the trays from shelf to shelf halfway through the baking time.)  Leave them to cool on the trays for a few minutes, then carefully transfer them to wire racks to cool completely.  Store in an airtight container.