So, in a bid to keep myself occupied and de-stress, I have been baking ANZAC biscuits all afternoon. Actually, I bake them quite often. They are delicious, nutritious, easy, inexpensive biscuits that everyone loves - and I usually get about 40 from this recipe, which keeps us in stock for a week. Great for the kids' lunch-boxes.
For those who don't know, ANZAC (Australian & New Zealand Army Corp) biscuits were developed out of necessity in Australia in WWI, when mothers, wives and girlfriends of soldiers needed to bake something with the highest nutritional value possible that would not spoil during the two month sea journey to the front. Eggs were scarce, so they don't appear in the ANZAC recipe. Butter and golden syrup (molasses or treacle) are used as the binding agent. I don't think nuts were used in the original recipe, but they are a nice addition.
Every time I pull a batch out of the oven I think of the women who did the same almost 100 years ago,who lovingly packaged them up into tins and sent them across the ocean to their loved ones.
ANZAC BISCUITS
2 cups rolled oats (I like quick oats - just a bit finer)
1 cup caster sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups dessicated coconut
2 cups plain flour
1 cup ground or flaked almonds (or another nut or linseed, sunflower and almond, LSA, mix)
pinch of salt
Mix above ingredients together in a large bowl. In a saucepan melt together:
1/2 cup water
250g butter
2 tablespoons golden syrup
2 teaspoons bi-carb soda
Pour into dry ingredients and mix together. Now just make up balls of flattened biscuits (whatever size you like - sometimes I bake giant ANZACs for fun) and bake them in a moderate oven until golden (light golden for soft, darker golden for crunchy).
Trust me, these are not your standard horrible mum's-trying-to-bake-something-healthy-with-oats type of biscuit - they're delicious!
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