Thursday, January 02, 2014

ANZAC Biscuits Are A New Weakness

The latest issue of Saveur arrived the other day and while I was thumbing through it I stumbled on a recipe for ANZAC Biscuits. It was something I had never tried and I just happened to have all of the ingredients on hand. Besides, I like to have a cookie with my afternoon tea and my Christmas baking efforts were nearly depleted. Minimonk put a dent in my biscotti supply and the Molasses cookies were gobbled up by various visitors. These bicuits/cookies are named supposedly a recipe for a long keeping cookie made by Australian/Kiwi wives and mothers for their soldiers deployed with ANZAC and since they have no eggs keep well not to mention it was wartime and eggs were rationed. They are surprisingly delicious and chewy with the oats and coconut. This is a keeper recipe and they go lovely with a cuppa.

They do use Golden Syrup (cane sugar syrup) which can be hard to find but you can substitute 2 parts light corn syrup and 1 part molasses and get close. Try and find the Golden Syrup if you can. It will be in the British foods section of your market...I think I got mine at Whole Foods.

ANZAC Biscuits

2 1/4 cups of rolled oats(old fashioned oats not instant oats)
2  cups unsweetened shredded coconut
1 1/2 cups of flour
1 cup of sugar
1/3 cup boiling water
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
10 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter
3 tbsp Golden syrup

Heat your oven to 350F. Whisk the first four ingredients together in a large bowl. Mix the baking soda in with the water. Melt the butter and syrup in a sauce pan and add the water mixture. Pour the wet into the dry and mix well to make a think dough. Using a 1 oz. scoop or 2 tablespoons drop the cookie mixture onto parchment or Silpat lined baking sheets and bake for 14 to 16 minutes until nicely browned(Mine took 14). Remove from oven and let cool on the pan for 2-3 minutes and then remove to cool on racks.

You should get about 2 dozen cookies.

Note: I had unsweetened shredded coconut(Bob's Red Mill) but it sometimes is hard to find. Though I haven't tried it I would imagined you could cut the sugar back a little and use sweetened coconut. Maybe 2/3 of a cup would do the job but not any less as the texture of the cookie would be affected.


2 comments:

karmanot said...

Got to try this recipe. It sounds rather close to Scottish oat cakes.

fallenmonk said...

Yeah, similar but typically Scottish oatcakes are not as short nor as sweet. I'll post my recipe for Scottish oatcakes in a bit so we can compare. Both are delicious and I really like oatcakes for breakfast with a little jam and butter. They make a good foundation for savory snacks at tea as well.