The Best ANZAC Biscuit Recipe

ANZAC biscuits are a famous recipe. You'll have no trouble finding an ANZAC recipe, but I think this particular one is the BEST. My husband Jeff (who tweaked the recipe until it was just right) entered these biscuits into the Melbourne Royal Show a few years ago, and won first prize. It was a novice category. Never mind about that bit. First is first!

I've annotated the recipe, illustrating ingredients and steps that I think are interesting.

Ingredients
1 cup plain flour (sifted)
1 cup white sugar
1 cup quick oats
3/4 cup dessicated coconut
125g butter
4 tablespoons golden syrup
4 tablespoons boiling water
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Method
Preheat the oven to 150C. Prepare some baking trays with baking paper or silicone baking mats.
Combine dry stuff in bowl (that's the first four ingredients).
Melt butter and syrup. Dissolve bicarb in water, then add to butter/syrup. Mixture will foam up.
Add foaming mixture to dry ingredients and combine thoroughly. Mixture should be firm enough to roll into a ball on a teaspoon. Place them on the tray with some room to spread.
Bake for 20 minutes at 150C.
Leave on the tray a few minutes before moving them to a cooling rack.

Mixing the dough

When you mix the liquid into the dry ingredients, you'll get a soft dough.











When you roll it up into balls, remember it will still be warm. Adults should cope just fine, but supervise kids. This is a great time to make a fuss over hand washing!

What happens in the saucepan

When you add the butter and syrup to the pan, of course it will all melt together nicely.














Stir it around a bit as it melts. Remember this mix is very hot - supervise kids closely.











When you pour in the water/bicarb mix, it will froth up ...














... a LOT - so be sure to use a big pan for the job!

Coconut

Dried, or dessicated, coconut is available in various levels of shreddedness. This is what we use, fine shredded coconut. You can toast it a bit before baking, to add some flavour, but don't overdo it!

Flour

The flour here is "Plain" flour. That gets called "all purpose" flour in some countries. Normal white flour, with no raising agents.

Syrup

The syrup we refer to here is Golden Syrup, easily available in Australia.

Measuring four tablespoons is a real bother. The syrup sticks to the spoon, and you have to dip it back into the jar with most of the syrup still clinging. Oh, don't get me started! A bit over quarter of a cup will be about the same measurement. You can warm the jar of syrup in the microwave to make it pour more readily, but don't overdo it - just a few seconds.

Did you know a Tablespoon is different in different countries? The Aussie tablespoon is 20ml. Here's a link to the Wikipedia entry on tablespoons for your information.




Mmm, that's syrupy!

Oats

We like "quick oats" rather than "rolled oats" because they are a little finer. We think they make the biscuits chewier.

You may prefer the look of big rolled oats in your biscuits - go for it!