Anzac Biscuits

Here in Australia, Anzac biscuits are a popular oat and coconut biscuit. The name originated back in World War I when wives and girlfriends of soldiers would send their loved ones these oat biscuits.

The biscuits have always been made without eggs (which, during WWI, were difficult to get as many farmers joined the war effort) and did not spoil during the long trips overseas, hence their popularity at the time.



Anzac Biscuits
(Makes 24)

1 cup rolled oats
1 cup plain flour
1 cup coconut
3/4 cup caster sugar
150g butter
3 tbsp golden syrup
1/2 tspn bi-carb soda
1 tbsp boiling water

Preheat your oven to 160C and line two baking trays with baking paper.

In a large bowl, stir together the oats, flour, coconut and caster sugar.

In a saucepan, melt the butter and golden syrup over low heat. In a small cup, mix together the bi-carb and water, add it to the melted butter mixture then straight away tip it into the flour mixture and stir it all really well.

Roll spoonfuls of the mixture into balls and put them on the baking trays. Flatten them with a lightly floured fork then pop them into the oven. If you like your biscuits chewier, cook them for 18-20 minutes. For a crunchier biscuit, bake them for 22-25 minutes.

Leave the biscuits to cool on the trays for about 5 minutes before removing them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Note: This recipe is very adaptable. You can make large or small biscuits; crunchy or chewy; add crushed peanuts or macadamia nuts, chocolate chips, chopped glace cherries or any variety of dried fruit. However, I have kept this recipe very traditional and think nothing can improve the original biscuit.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Everyone loves chocolate chip cookies (or biscuits, if you'd prefer to call them that.) Except when those chocolate chip cookies have about three chocolate chips in them. Per batch. Not cool!

The beauty of making them yourself is that you can control the chocolate content. And the type of chocolate! Tiny white chocolate chips, or large bitter dark chocolate chunks. The choice is yours.

Choc Chip Cookies
(Makes 36)

150g butter
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tspn vanilla extract (or 1 tspn vanilla essence)
1 egg
1 3/4 cups self-raising flour
1/2 tspn salt
125g chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 180C and line two baking trays with baking paper.

In a mixer (or using a set of electric hand beaters) beat the butter, sugars and vanilla until it forms a thick, pale and fluffy mixture. Slowly beat in the egg.

Stir in the sifted flour and salt, then add the choc chips (or chunks ;p ).

Roll the dough into small balls (about two teaspoons full) and place on the baking trays. Don't squash them down - just leave them as little balls otherwise they'll spread too much and look like flat discs rather than chunky biscuits.

Bake the cookies for about 10-12 minutes in the oven, or until they look pale gold. Transfer them to a wire rack to cool (or be eaten, whichever comes first!)

Honey Cardamom Biscuits

Honey, in its purest sense, is an energy source for bees. Lucky for us, its lovely sweet stickiness is a beautiful way to liven up biscuits, cakes and slices. It helps to bind dry mixtures and add a natural organic sweetness.

All different types of honey will vary in flavour. This is because bees will only visit one type of flower on each visit, thus beekeepers will choose a site for the hives dominated by one specific plant species to produce a specific type of honey.

In Australia, the most common varieties of honey are red gum and eucalypt. Although for this recipe, I have used local unprocessed Badgingarra honey.

Honey Cardamom Biscuits
(Makes 30)

200g unsalted butter
150g caster (superfine) sugar
3 tbsp honey
250g plain flour
1 tspn baking powder
80g ground almonds
2 tspn ground cardamom

Preheat your oven to 170C/325F and line two baking trays with baking paper (or greaseproof paper).

Sif the flour, baking powder and cardamom into a bowl then stir in the ground almonds.

Over medium heat (or in a microwave) melt the butter, sugar and honey. After a minute or two, the sugar will dissolve (and you won't be able to hear the sugar crystals scraping along the bottom of the saucepan when you stir the mixture!)

Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and stir well. Roll small balls of the mixture (about three quarters of the size of a golf ball) and place them onto the baking trays. Flatten the balls slightly with the palm of your hand then bake the biscuits for about 15 minutes. They will turn a lovely golden colour when they're ready. If they still look pale after 15 minutes, leave them in the oven a little longer.

Let the biscuits cool on the trays for a minute or two before transferring them to a wire rack to cool. The point of this is that the biscuits will be meltingly soft when they first come out of the oven, if you try to move them without letting them cool a little first, they will fall apart when you touch them.

These biscuits keep extremely well (about 10 days!) in an airtight container or biscuit jar.