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 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.