Anzac Biscuits

Let’s Bake!

Preparation

We will use the egg recipe. This uses NO water at all.

Dry Ingredients:

1 1/2 Cups Rolled Oats (or Bircher Muesli etc.)

You may use good quality Oates, or optionally pre-bake the oats for about 5 minutes+ in the baking tray.

1 Cup Sugar (or a little less to be less sweet)

1 Cup Self Raising Flour

(You may use any brand, but for a more interesting bake, find a good quality heavier flour. This is more expensive. The Lotus brand flour is an example.)

1 Cup Coconut

1 Teaspoon of Baking Soda

(This is the blue & white coloured Bi-Carb box you find in the supermarket.)

Pinch of Salt

Mix the dry ingredients together.

Wet Ingredients:

125 gr. Butter (unsalted) at room temperature

(A few seconds in the microwave can soften the butter quickly. Do not melt.)

1 Egg

1 Tablespoon Golden Syrup

Place these ingredients into the bottom of the mixing bowl.

Empty the dry ingredients on top of the wet ingredients in the bowl.

Mix by hand, or stir by large spoon, or slow electric mixer, but do not over mix.

Variations:

150 gr. Butter

1 Cups S.R. Flour, and 1/2 Cup “00” Plain Flour

Some Vanilla

English Lyle’s Golden Syrup or CSR syrup. Lyle’s is hard to find but has more of a toffee flavour.

Other types of Oat mixes

Some brown sugar in place of some of the white castor sugar.

A Tip:

If keeping desiccated coconut in the cupboard for a long time, put it in the fridge so it does not go rancid. This is also a good way of keeping the lighter colour of dried apricots longer. Use a quality brand of coconut so that it has the taste.

Baking

You can keep your hands from being too sticky by having some flour at the side to cover your hands, and a fork.

Gather a small amount of the mix, and lightly roll into a ball between the palm of your hands. A golf ball size is too large. You can make larger sizes for larger biscuits, but you can only bake fewer at a time.

If you have used too much moisture, you can intuitively tell, so add more flour to the mix.

Have baking paper on the baking tray. Put about 12 rolled portions onto the tray.

(Fold the paper to fit the length of the tray, or the oven fan blows the paper over the top of the biscuits, preventing you from seeing how they are browning.)

Flatten the biscuits with a fork, creasing them, and pressing firmly. Keep a reasonable thickness. It will feel right. Touch the base of the fork into the spare flour before flattening the next couple of biscuits, so it does not stick. You can use your fingers to help keep the sides of the biscuit in place while pressing it down.

The oven must be pre-heated.

Bake at 180 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes. You will learn what the timing is for your oven. Bake till golden brown.

Remove and let sit a little, then use a spatula to lift each biscuit to a wire tray if you want to re-use the tray for the next batch. Biscuits can stay in the tray, but at some point you take them out so there is no moisture gathering under them.

If the biscuits are a little under cooked, they can go back in when they have cooled a short time, or at a lower temperature as the oven cools down. For instance, you could bake all the biscuits, then put them all together any way you like into the same tray for the oven cooling down period. This takes more effort though. I would not recommend more than 20 minutes at the lower temperature. The biscuits will crisp up over time – you have to learn how to double bake or dry the biscuits in a very low temperature or when the oven is hot but switched off. Too dry and the biscuits will not be as good. Do not put them into a tin or biscuit jar until fully cooled down or moisture will soften them.

The biscuits may be fully crisp or softer in the center, depending on the bake, and moisture.

Similar double baking can be used for other biscuits such a cornflake biscuits.

Alternatives

The supermarkets make tasty Anzac biscuits, but they are usually under cooked and soft. You can bake them a little in your own oven to crisp them up.

But what about lighter biscuits, using the same or similar fillings.

The method for a lighter biscuit mix is to add some cornflour, but this needs some care as it works well with a little. ONe can also try some icing sugar in the mix to replace some or all of the sugar. Sugar texture effects the biscuit, such as raw granules compared to fine sugar. I think butter is key, as can be an egg, but not an egg with Anzac biscuits.

It is quite nice to add the juice of half a lemon with some biscuits and a little golden syrup. You can experiment wth the kinds of syrups on the market shelf. A bit of coagulation of the mix with lemon is okay.

If you have made biscuits their full golden brown colour, it is not advisable to continue heating at a lower temperature as they go too dark.