Saturday, May 29, 2010

Anzac Cookies ... Revisited

I know I've done a post on Anzac cookies way, way back but I could not resist trying out another different recipe when I finally received by copy of Mix & Bake by Belinda Jeffrey from Amazaon. In her book, she mentions that there are many versions of Anzac cookies and they all tend to use somewhat similar ingredients such as oats and coconut. However there are some versions which have fairly exotic additions like wattle seeds and lemon myrtle, as well as the addition of chocolate chips.

These are extremely delicious cookies and I think great as a quick snack too. Should I bake these, I will leave a jar on my office desk and whenever I feel like a snack between lunch, I'll munch on one. They keep pretty well too ... that's provided you manage to keep some left. It's usually not the case where I'm concerned.

Anzac 1b


Anzac Cookies
Recipe Adapted from Mix & Bake by Belinda Jeffrey
Makes 24-30 biscuits


Ingredients:

1 cup (90g) regular rolled oats (not quick-cooking oats)
2/3 cup (65g) dessicated coconut
1 cup (150g) plain flour
3/4 cup (180g) castor sugar (I reduced my sugar to 140g)
125g unsalted butter
1 1/2 tablespoons golden syrup
2 tablespoons boiling water
1 1/2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:

1) Set your oven to 160C. Line a couple of large oven trays with baking paper and set them aside. In a large bowl, thoroughly mix together the oats, coconut, flour and caster sugar.

2) Put the butter and golden syrup into a small saucepan over low heat and warm them, stirring occasionally, until the butter has melted. Remove the pan from the heat. Add the boiling water and bicarb soda and stir them in briefly, just be a bit careful as the mixture froths up. Now pour this buttery liquid into the oat mixture along with the vanilla. Quickly stir the two together until they're thoroughly combined.

3) Roll the resulting sticky dough into walnut sized balls, flatten them slightly and sit them at least 5cm apart (as they spread quite a bit) on the prepared oven trays. (Instead of using my hands, I found it useful using a small ice-cream scoop to shape the dough) Depending on the size of your oven, you may find you need to bake these in batches.

4) Sit the trays in the oven and bake the biscuits for 16-20 minutes, or until they're a deep golden brown but still soft, then remove them from the oven. (It's a good idea to rotate the trays from shelf to shelf halfway through the cooking time to ensure the biscuits cook evenly.) Leave them to cool on the trays for a few minutes, then carefully transfer them to wire racks to cool completely. They keep well in an airtight container for up to a week.

Anzac 1a


Anzac 1c


11 comments:

  1. Minus the flour and baking soda, they probably taste like granola/muesli bar???

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  2. I love these! In Australia we ate them as ANZAC cookies; in S. Africa they were called Crunchies. We always had a tin of these on the shelf.

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  3. Hey, I've tried making ANZAC biscuits before. But somehow, they had a funny taste to me and just wouldn't go flat as they were being baked!? Still not sure what went wrong. Will try again when ANZAC mode strikes me again. Thanks for inspiring me! Here are mine btw:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/ocbcb/4215835032/in/set-72157612526791181/

    Keep up with the good work!

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  4. Cookies look definitely delicious...but what is Anzac?

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  5. These cookies are so moreish!!

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  6. These look very easy to make and tasty. Great snack!

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  7. Oooh...I love these cookies. I love the crunch and flavour.

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  8. I always buy these cookies when I visit Australia and sometimes from New Zealand.

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  9. I have never tried anzac cookies before, seen many recipes though. Yours look fabulous. Is this recipe book "Mix and Bake" good? Read the good review at amazon and thought of getting one too but it is very expensive over here!

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  10. Hi Quinn, yes they do taste like a granol/muesli bar without the dried fruits.

    Hi Heather, I can see why it's called "crunchies" in SA.

    Hi Pei-Lin, they really don't look that bad. You have to flatten them to get the cookies flat. Otherwise it would be just like a oatmeal cookie.

    Hi Angie, check out the "Linked Within" on my 1st post. It does have a little history as to why it's called Anzac cookies.

    Hi Ellie, El, Mary & Tigerfish, thanks for dropping by.

    Hi Kitchenflavours, I love this book and it has some fantastic recipes. I think it's cheaper now on Amazon from the time I bought it a few months ago ... booohoo :(

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  11. brinkka2011 says: I printed a lot of your blog out thanks my friend

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