I am interrupting my Middle Eastern mezze theme because it is Anzac Day in Australia (just).
For the benefit of my UK readership, ANZAC stands for Australia and New Zealand Army Corporation and Anzac Day is a day of rememberance in both countries held on 25th April each year to honour soldiers who fought at Gallipoli, Turkey in WWI and, more recently, others who have fought and died in military service.
As for the biscuits,
It has been claimed the biscuits were sent by wives to soldiers abroad because the ingredients do not spoil easily and the biscuits kept well during naval transportation. Today, ANZAC biscuits are manufactured commercially for retail sale. (Wikipedia)
This recipe is from the quintessential New Zealand cookbook, Edmonds Sure to Rise Cookery Book. In Kiwi Milestones, Ron Palenski writes that for several generations of New Zealanders the book was “as much a part of New Zealand kitchens as a stove and knife”.
The book is regarded as a well-known example of kiwiana, that is, a kiwi cultural icon. These are by definition quirky and kitsch, which also happens to be a good description of most of the recipes in the book. New Zealand cuisine has come a long way since those days, but I still keep a copy for the chapter on cakes and biscuits; these will never date.
Edmonds, at least the copy I have, is old school so it provides the recipe in ounces rather than grams. I have provided the conversion for those on metric only.
Happy Anzac Day!
Ingredients
4 oz (113.5g) flour
6 oz (170g) sugar
1 cup desiccated coconut
1 cup rolled oats
3.5 oz (100g) butter, plus extra for greasing the baking tray
1 tbsp golden syrup
½ tsp bicarb soda
2 tbsp boiling water
Method
Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease a large biscuit tray with butter.
Mix together flour, sugar, coconut and rolled oats in a large mixing bowl and make a well in the centre.
Melt butter and golden syrup together in a large saucepan. Dissolve Bicarb soda in the boiling water and add to the butter and golden syrup to create a frothy syrup; do this while the butter and golden syrup mix is still hot to maximise the froth.
Pour the frothy syrup into the well you made in the dry ingredients and fold into the mixture.
Use your hands to shape the dough into thick cylindrical biscuits, approximately 4-5 cm wide and 2.5 cm high; they sink a little and spread out when they cook, so you will end up with biscuits approximately 5-6cm wide and 1.5cm high. Take this into account when placing them on the biscuit tray.
Bake for 15-20 mins (be careful, they burn quite easily).
