anzac cookies

The 17th recipe in 2013.

The Anzac biscuits recipe is from BBC GoodFood. I misread the recipe and didn't realize I should dissolve the bicarbonate of soda to 2tbsp of boiling water. Therefore, I missed 2 tbsp of water at first and had difficulty in forming a dough. The mix was as dry as muesli and couldn't form a dough. I then re-read the recipe but for some reason I still didn't see the line about dissolving bicarb!! Luckily I looked up a few other Anzac cookie recipes written by Australians. I found their recipes seem to have an extra 1 or 2 tablespoon of water and syrup. Hence I added an extra tablespoon of golden syrup - which helped but it was still a bit crumbly. Then I added 2 tablespoons of water gradually which just did the magic and gave me one lump of workable dough. Turns out my dough has one extra tbsp of syrup compared with the original and has exactly the water content it calls for! What can I say? I think I was just very very lucky! And the cookies taste really good!

What I used:

85g porridge oats (I used Scott's Old-fashioned Porage Oats, in case it matters) / 85g desiccated coconut (unsweetened) / 100g plain flour / 90g caster sugar / 100g melted butter / 2 tbsp golden syrup / 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda / 1 tbsp of water

What I did (wrong):

preheat oven to 180C / combine the oats, coconut, flour, bicarbonate of soda, sugar in a bowl / stir the golden syrup into the melted butter / make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients & pour in the butter-syrup mixture / stir gently from the centre to incorporate the dry ingredients / take tablespoonfuls of mixture, gently roll into balls, leave them on buttered baking sheets, press down gently by palms / leave about 1 inch apart to allow room for spreading / bake for 10 mins until golden. after taking out of the oven, wait for a few minutes to set before transfering to a wire rack to cool.

What I felt:

It tastes great. But my recipe in fact has about 10g less caster sugar but an extra tablespoon of golden syrup compared with the original recipe. So I don't know if the original one would be even better or not. Anyway, I am very happy with the result. The biscuits are chewy and soft, very different from the Scottish shortbread or French sables I usually fall for. Yet surprisingly I love it. It's not cheesily chewy. And it smells so good. Quite coconut-y but not too strong. Oats give some lovely bites too.

How good was it? 8/10 (Good. Surprisingly good)

How easy was it? 10/10 (It's probably among the simplest way to make biscuits. No moulding no pipping no cutting out. So much easier than shortbread!)

How economical was it? 8/10. To be honest I don't know the cost of it but my gut feel is... it shouldn't be expensive. Oats is a staple food. The coconut has been bought ages and I can't remember how much it is). Golden syrup isn't exactly expensive and we can use clear honey instead if we don't have golden syrup in hand.

Will I make this again? Yes. In fact I plan to make some for my ski trip in mid February! I think they'll make wonderful snack with a cup of hot chocolate on the Alps.