Anzac biscuits are a crunchy yet chewy delight filled with oats, coconut and flavoured with golden syrup. They are popular both here in New Zealand, and in Australia.
In our first month in New Zealand, I picked up a packet of Anzac biscuits not having a clue of what they were for an afternoon treat. As soon as I opened the packet I could smell the golden syrup and a wave of nostalgia ran over me. Then after the first bite, I looked up at Dave and said "these are crunchies!"
A year and half later, when the idea of Salty Ginger came to me, I decided to compare my crunchie recipe to a multitude of Aussie and Kiwi Anzac biscuit recipes and was a little bit surprised to see that they were pretty much identical.
This made me wonder - which came first? My guess is that the biscuit came first, then someone got tired of rolling out individual cookies and was like - I'm just gonna bake this and slice it.
For this particular recipe, I used my original hand-written Crunchie/Anzac recipe and instead of baking it as a slice, I rolled out biscuits, halved the baking time and ended up with, well, you guessed it - an Anzac biscuit.
Ingredients for Anzac Biscuits
Standard grade or plain flour is used to bind all these ingredients together.
Butter gives the cookie a nice rich flavour, but I have made these biscuits using baking margarine and it works perfectly fine which results in a vegan Anzac biscuit.
Golden syrup adds a nice light syrup flavour, but if you want an Anzac biscuit without golden syrup you can substitute it out with honey or pretty much any other type of syrup. Keep in mind that maple syrup is usually thinner than golden syrup and you may need to add another 50 to 100 grams of flour to compensate for the additional moisture.
Baking soda gives this biscuit the little bit of a lift it needs.
White and brown sugar together add a nice crunch and depth of flavour.
The oats and desiccated coconut add to the wholesomeness of the biscuit. If you want an Anzac biscuit without coconut, replace the coconut with more oats.
Making the Anzac Biscuits
Making Anzac Biscuits is very easy and straight forward. To start, you combine the flour, salt, sugar, oats and coconut, mixing to ensure the ingredients are well combined.
Then you melt the butter, add the golden syrup giving a good mix before adding the baking soda in milk.
The biscuits come together when the dry and wet ingredients are incorporated using a spatula or wooden spoon. You then roll balls of cookie dough about 2cm in diameter, place them on a cookie sheet and press down with your fingers until they are about 1cm tall.
To reduce the spreading of the Anzac biscuits on the cookie sheet to much, pop the rolled biscuits into the fridge for 20- 30 minutes before baking. This allows the butter to set and creates a really nice chewy Anzac biscuit.
If you don't let the biscuits rest in the fridge, they will spread resulting in a thinner crunchier Anzac biscuit, which may also need a shorter baking time. Keep your eye on those biscuits!
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Anzac Biscuits
Anzac biscuits are a crunchy yet chewy delight filled with oats, coconut and flavoured with golden syrup.
Ingredients
- 100 grams rolled oats (1 cup)
- 100 grams desiccated coconut (1 cup)
- 150 grams plain or standard grade flour (1 cup)
- 100 grams white sugar about ½ cup
- 65 grams brown sugar about ¼ cup
- 1½ teaspoon ground cinnamon optional
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 125 grams butter or margarine (½ cup)
- 90 grams golden syrup (¼ cup)
- 1 tablespoon milk or water
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180°C.
- Grease or line a baking sheet with baking paper.
- Combine the flour, oats, coconut, sugar, cinnamon and salt in a mixing bowl.
- Melt the butter either in the microwave or on the stovetop, then add the golden syrup and stir until combined.
- Combine the baking soda and water or milk.
- Mix the baking soda mixture into the butter and syrup.
- Add the melted butter mixture to the dry ingredients and stir until well combined.
- Roll approximately 2 cm balls of biscuit dough, and flatten with fingers until the biscuit is about 1cm tall.
- Place the balls onto a baking sheet and let rest in the fridge for 20 to 30 minutes to allow the butter or margarine to set.
- Bake the biscuits for 10 to 15 minutes.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet for 10 to 15 minutes before placing on a cooling rack to cool down completely.
- This recipe makes between 20 and 25 biscuits.
Notes
If you want to turn the biscuits into slices, simply press the dough into a cookie sheet or pan until approximately 1-1.5cm tall and bake for 25-30 minutes.
To reduce the spreading of the Anzac biscuits, I popped my rolled biscuits in the fridge for 20-30 minutes. This allows the butter to set and reduces the spreading overall and also creates a chewier Anzac biscuit.
If you don’t let the biscuits rest in the fridge before baking, place them further apart on the baking sheet, with at least a 10 cm space in between the biscuits to accommodate the spreading. This will result in a thinner crunchier Anzac biscuit.If you have let the biscuits rest in the fridge but still want a crunchier texture, simply bake the biscuits for an additional 5 minutes.
Butter can be substituted with baking margarine or vegan alternatives.
Golden syrup can be substituted with honey or maple syrup.
Rolled oats can be substituted with steel-cut oats.
Baking soda can be replaced with an equal amount of baking powder.
White or brown sugar can be substituted for either in this recipe.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 20 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 155Total Fat: 7gSaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 14mgSodium: 149mgCarbohydrates: 22gFiber: 1gSugar: 11gProtein: 2g
Nutrition information is an estimate and will vary between brands and ingredients used.
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