I have posted a fairly similar version of this recipe before. It is one of my favourite recipes from my Grandma’s collection, and often I adapt it to suit what types of ingredients we have or to try some new ingredient I have found.
More recently, I wanted to play with the ingredients to alter to final texture of the biscuit. The type of sugar you use will determine whether these ANZAC biscuits are crisp and crunchy or softer and chewier. I like to try gain some kind of middle ground between these two opposites, by using a combination of caster sugar and raw sugar. If you like a more chewy biscuit use a combination of caster and brown sugar.
I also found coconut chips in a deli a while back, and they are great in this recipe. The bigger chunks of coconut give the biscuits a litter more substance and highlight the coconut amongst all the other ingredients just that much more. Any coconut will do, but it’s nice to try something different every once in a while!
I am posting this recipe again, not just because of my adventures in experimenting with it. It is of course ANZAC Day tomorrow, and a very significant one at that. I’ve said before that the main way I tend to mark these kind of significant holidays or events is with food. Not to lessen the significance of the occasion, but to mark it in my own way. I’m not one, especially on this occasion, for immersing myself in it all too much. Being a modern history major and the relative of some who have served and are currently serving, often makes the connection of the day a little too overwhelming for me.
So I bake, look through family photos and reflect on the lives of those to whom this Day has real significance.
Ingredients:
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup raw sugar
3/4 cup coconut chips
1 tbsp golden syrup
110 g unsalted butter
1 tsp bi-carb soda
2 tbsp warm water
Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 150 degrees Celsius and line three large baking trays with baking paper.
Mix the oats, flour, sugar and coconut in a large bowl. Melt the golden syrup and butter on a medium-low heat, then mix the bi-carb soda and warm water together and add to the butter. The butter mixture should froth a little.
Take the butter mixture off the heat and add to the dry ingredients and mix together.
Place teaspoon sized balls of the mixture on the trays, leaving room for the biscuits to spread. Bake for 10 - 20 minutes, or until golden.
Makes approx. 32 biscuits.
