Anzac Day & Anzac Biscuits

For a few minutes today I pondered whether I should post about my batch of Anzac Biscuits. Our much celebrated afternoon tea treats have been blogged about many times over and probably in far more eloquent ways than I can offer here (Citrus and Candy‘s post comes to mind), but then I remembered the whole point of today: Lest We Forget.

I’m enjoying a wonderful day so far with my beautiful children who are happily playing in the garden. Being kids, they’re fairly oblivious to how momentous an occasion Anzac Day is, and you know? That’s totally OK. There’s plenty of years ahead for these kids to ponder the complexities of the world and gain perspective. For now, I’m happy to indulge their petulant whinging about how the new Pokemon game can’t come fast enough.

So on behalf of my indulged children, I hereby express my gratitude for the fact that for a good lot of us, we are only mired by so-called first world problems. I’m also grateful that our country is in a position to help those who do face more significant problems in their lives. Even if our report card isn’t perfect, life’s pretty good in our neck of the woods, and I especially dare not complain on Anzac Day which is all about considering how bad things could have been were it not for a generation of brave people.

Anyway, enough of my wordy words. As Citrus and Candy’s recipe is spot-on, my recipe here is for simply for Thermomix users and those who can’t resist brown butter :) I agree that people should otherwise adhere to the original recipe and not add nuts or other flavours. The original really is the best.

Anzac Biscuits (makes 12)

1/2 cup of plain flour
1/2 rolled oats
1/2 shredded coconut (dessicated is fine but don’t blitz with oats)
1/3 cup caster sugar (I used light Muscovado but anything browner will change the flavour too much)
80g butter
1 tbsp golden syrup (or treacle as substitute but nothing else!)
1/2 tsp bicarb of soda
1 tbsp boiling water

To Make: Pre-heat oven to 160C. Line baking tray with baking sheet. Place butter in small saucepan and heat gently on medium heat until the butter browns slightly. Remove from heat immediately and add the golden syrup. Allow butter mixture to cool. Combine boiling water and bicarb of soda in a small bowl then add to butter mixture. Set aside.

Add oats and shredded coconut to TMX bowl and blitz on Speed 7 for 5 seconds. Add flour and sugar to TMX bowl and combine either by spatula or a quick blitz on Speed 3. Add butter mixture to the bowl and blitz on Speed 2 for 10 5 seconds or until well combined. If mixture is very warm, I recommend putting the bowl into the fridge for at least 15 minutes or the biscuits won’t maintain a good shape in the oven.

Once cooled, make small 2.5cm balls from the dough and space well apart on the baking tray. Place tray in oven and bake for 20 minutes or until the bottom of biscuits are done. This yields a largely chewy biscuit with a crisp outside. Reduce baking time by 5 minutes if a very chewy biscuit is desired or add 2 minutes more for a crunchy biscuit (but keep an eye on them!).

When done, allow biscuits to cool on the tray for 10 minutes then transfer to a rack to cool completely.

4 Comments for this entry

• 

  Tannicteeth

  May 1st, 2012 on 9:23 pm

  We have to make more in our thermomix! I know the lady who sold it to us would be horrified to find out that we have recently been using it to just cook eggs!
  Thanks for the inspiration!

  Reply
• 

  Monica

  May 3rd, 2012 on 6:54 pm

  Oh I’m pretty sure there are many TMXs out there that have done less work! They are a bit intimidating in the beginning but once you start making things, they are like having an extra hand in the kitchen :)

  Reply
• 

  Nic@diningwithastud

  May 20th, 2012 on 6:47 am

  I need to get a Thermomix. Badly.

  Reply
• 

  Monica

  May 21st, 2012 on 9:18 am

  It’s an extravagance but by gum they are worth it :D

  Reply