Friday 26 February 2010

anzac cookies

It was a bit out of the blue but I baked a batch of Anzac cookies last night (it just seemed like the celebratory thing to do after sorting out some of the curlier stuff at work). Mum seemed a bit surprised as I usually don't bake on a weeknight but didn't ask too many questions as she carried on with what she was doing. For me, baking is something I enjoy and I enjoy it even more when I'm calm and relaxed (and unfortunately, there's been very few moments of calm in the last couple of weeks!)

Anyway, since I've pulled Bill Granger's 'Sydney Food' off the bookshelf, I haven't quite been able to let go of it. The fact that it sits conveniently on my table means I'm constantly flicking through and bookmarking recipes to try and this happens to be another one of them.

Preheat oven to 160 degrees. Place 1 cup plain flour, 1 cup dessicated coconut, 2/3 cup brown sugar and 1 cup rolled oats in a bowl. Mix well. (No need to sift anything - the roughness of the mix will give the biscuit texture)

Place 125g butter and 1 tbsp golden syrup in a saucepan over medium heat and melt. 

Place 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda in a small bowl and add 2 tbsp boiling water. Stir to combine. Add bicarbonate mixture to saucepan and stir. Pour over oat mixture.

Stir all the ingredients together.

Roll teaspoonfuls of biscuit mixture into balls and place on a greased and lined baking tray, leaving room for spreading.

Flatten each ball gently with a fork.

Bake biscuits for 15-20 minutes, or until biscuits are golden brown at the edges. Allow to cool slightly before transferring to a wire rack. For me, this recipe made 32 bite size cookies.

The texture of these biscuits is chewy with a crunchy outer (exactly how anzac biscuits should taste). I find that the ones you buy from the supermarket are usually crunchy all the way through (which if you like crunchy, by all means, go for them). Recipe was super, super easy to make and all of it took less than an hour. Anyway, gobbled up 3 of these before I went to bed and I'm sure it won't take a long time to get through the rest!

6 comments:

Rita (mademoiselle délicieuse) said...

Love crunchy outers with chewy centres. And because of the ingredients involved, I always like to think of ANZAC biscuits as healthy as they resemble muesli bars - in my mind anyway!

Kristy Sayer-Jones @ Southern In Law said...

I'm with mademoiselle delicieuse crunchy outers and chewy centres are sooo good.

ANZAC biscuits are the best - especially when they're still a little bit warm.

missklicious said...

Ooh, these look so good!

I don't like store bought biscuits usually for this reason, they are always crunchy all the way through. Home made are so much better!

Sweets By Vicky said...

Aww man! I'm so jealous! I can't find glutenfree oats here in Singapore so there seem so out of the question for me! *grumblesss* Eat an extra one (or three) for me alright! :)

Von said...

These sound really good- I've never had proper anzac biscuits before- only the packaged ones.

panda said...

mademoiselle delicieuse - exactly what i was thinking! they do taste so healthy so surely i can eat a few more :)

kristy - agree and agree! unfortunately a lot of biscuit recipes don't make it clear whether it's going to be a crunchy or a crunchy with chewy centre biscuit; i get disappointed when it doesn't have that chewy centre!

missklicious - it's been ages since i've had any store bought cookies; always an excuse to get into the kitchen and bake some :)

sweets by vicky - hehe i will! you know, half the time i look at your blog and everything on your blog looks so good, you would hardly think it was gluten free. anyway, still on the look out for xanthum gum to make those muffins of yours!

von- give the recipe a go, it's very easy to make!