Made with rolled oats, flour, sugar, butter, golden syrup, baking soda, boiling water and desiccated coconut, Anzac biscuits are associated with the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) established during World War I because these home-baked biscuits were often sent to soldiers abroad. Without using perishable ingredients like eggs and milk for baking, these sweet biscuits won't go off easily even after months of naval transportation.
Today, Anzac biscuits are mostly commercially made and commonly available at supermarkets and bakeries resulting many of us including me not knowing the origin of these biscuits.
After knowing the real meaning of these biscuits, I tend to appreciate Anzac biscuits even more... Loving the simplicity of these crispy biscuits and their amazingly subtle caramelised taste and yet there is no caramel in them. Loving the fact that Anzac biscuits are so easy to bake and I can bake them to commemorate the coming Anzac day.
Although Anzac biscuits are very very very easy to bake, finding your ideal Anzac biscuit recipe can be not very straightforward like baking the biscuits... LOL! You will probably see heaps of Anzac biscuit recipes from cookbooks and Google search and you won't know which is good or not!!!
No worries!!! I know! I have noticed that most Anzac biscuit recipes make either crispy or chewy biscuits but the recipes won't tell you if the biscuits are crispy, chewy, tasty, sweet or not!!! Hence, if you are looking for a perfect recipe that makes good CRISPY Anzac biscuits, I can tell you that this is the one...
Crispy Anzac Biscuits
These Anzac cookies are crispy because...
1) The recipe uses self raising flour to create more air pockets in the biscuits, resulting more puffy texture and more crispness.
2) Less oat will make the biscuits more crispy and crunchy so I have adjusted the proportion of oats:flour to be 1:1 by cup measurement.
3) The amount of caster sugar added has to be 1:1 sugar:flour cup measurement as this ratio will make the biscuits crispy with the amazingly subtle caramelised taste. So, please do not reduce the amount of sugar added. And please do not substitute caster with any type of sugar especially the brown sugar!!!If you follows this recipe to a tee, I'm sure you will bake these lovely crispy Anzac biscuits...If you prefer Anzac biscuits that are crispy and chewy, please stay tune for my next Anzac biscuits post.
These are my fav Anzac biscuits :)
Highly recommended!
Just minutes of mixing and baking, you will be enjoying these crispy biscuits
They are very quick and easy to bake and I will show how...
See the air pockets in these biscuits! This is why the biscuits are crispy!
Although a picture speaks a thousand words, sad to say my photo can't tell you how delicious and crispy these biscuits are until you bake and taste these biscuits yourself. Nevertheless, I can further illustrate to you that baking these biscuits is really very easy and have a video showing how I baked these biscuits.
Here's the recipe adapted from the book, Country Women's Association of Australia (CWA): Biscuits and Slices, contributed by Anita Morrish from Victoria Hill Branch Queensland ... with more details and description to bake these biscuits more successfully!
Makes about 20 cookies
50g (1/2 cup) old-fashioned rolled oats, not instant (original is 3/4 cup for more chewiness)
100g (1/2 cup) caster sugar
50g (1/2 cup) fine desiccated coconut
1/4 tsp salt
60g (1/4 cup) unsalted butter
15g (1 tbsp) water
25g (1 tbsp) golden syrup
1/2 tsp baking soda
Preheat oven to 180°C/350ºF. Line baking trays with baking paper.
Sift flour into a large mixing bowl. Mix in oats, sugar, coconut and salt until well combined.
Add butter, water and golden syrup in a saucepan. Cook mixture until the butter is completely melted. Remove mixture from heat. Do not boil mixture!
Add baking soda very slowly into the melted butter, bit by bit. Just in case that the melted butter is too hot and the mixture will froth crazily and will make a mess in your kitchen!Pour the butter mixture into the oat mixture and use a spoon or spatula to mix until all are well moistened. If you think that your mixture is dry, you can let mixture rest for about 10-15 mins at room temperature and it will moisten the mixture further. Do not over-mix!Roll tablespoonfuls of into balls and arrange the balls onto the prepared tray with about 5 cm (2 inches) apart. Flatten the balls slightly and bake for 12-14 mins or until the biscuits turned dark golden brown and firm. If you are baking two trays of biscuits at the same time, swap the position of the trays during the middle of the bake so that all biscuits are evenly and thoroughly baked and crisped. Allow biscuits to cool slightly in the baking trays for about 10 mins. Transfer biscuits onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Serve or store in airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 month but I'm sure that the biscuits will be gone very quickly.
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