Anzac Biscuits:
2 ozs. Flour
3 ozs. Sugar
1 teacup Coconut*
1 teacup Rolled Oats
2 ozs. Butter
1 tablespoon Golden Syrup*
1/2 teaspoon Winson’s Bicarb Soda [baking soda! Winson’s is the brand they sold]
2 tablespoons Boiling Water
Mix together flour, sugar, coconut and rolled oats. Melt butter and golden syrup. Dissolve Bicarb Soda in the boiling water and add to butter and golden syrup. Make a well in the flour, stir in the liquid. Place in spoonfuls on cold greased trays. Bake 15-20 mins in a 350F oven.
A simple recipe from the Edmonds “Sure to Rise” Cookery book, first printed in 1955, though my copy is from the 12th printing in 1972. (Edmonds makes baking powder.) The cookbook is a kiwi classic.
It’s a recipe from back in the day, when people still knew how to cook and bake. The food wasn’t fancy. Just cheap and easy, and good.
They’re tasty little buggers, these biscuits! and they only take about 30 minutes from craving to belly.
I fit them easily on one cookie sheet – they don’t spread. And my oven has them golden brown and crunchy within 15 minutes. I use an ice cream scoop to make them a good size, or a tablespoon measure for small ones. Oh, and don’t panic if the dough really doesn’t hold together. The mixture is very dry. More like a crumble. Just lightly press them into cookie-ish shapes and don’t worry about it. They’ll melt and fuse together in the oven.
Notes on ingredients:
* the coconut should not be that sticky sugary crap from the baking aisle. Look for the dried, desiccated, shredded stuff. Bob’s Red Mill has it. It might be a little pricey, but you can put it in those chocolate rice crispy treats that I make too… or lamingtons… or roll some other baking in it. Yummy, yum yum. I keep it in the freezer to keep it fresh.
*If you’re wondering about substituting for golden syrup, read this.
I have seen it at Cost Plus World Market, and I think Uwajimaya and Central Market have it too. Look in the British “ethnic” section :) or maybe with syrups, honeys, sweeteners…
I got my tin in Port Townsend – at the Wandering Angus.
Oh, and yes, I do use a teacup. That’s not some kind of fancy Imperial measure to my knowledge. Good grief, it’s baking, not rocket science!
Jo:)
adventures in the here now 
OMG! that tin of golden syrup – it has the lion and the bees on it doesn’t it and the motto: “out of the strong came forth sweetness” Lyle’s Golden Syrup – another staple of my childhood. Love love love the tins. Used to use them as cannisters in my kitchen cupboard.
This recipe sounds very much like what we used to call Crunchies or sometimes Oat Crunchies. Basically coconut, oats, butter, syrup. Except the way I learned was to press the ingredients into a square or rectangular pan, then slice them into bars when fresh out of the oven. The same recipe appears in any good South African cooking book from that era and, in fact, used to appear on the back of the Hulett’s Brown Sugar bags – because, of course, one used Hulett’s brown Sugar. Tate&Lyle and Huletts were the same company by the time I was growing up – and they owned a pretty good chunk of KwaZuluNatal Province (my home province), covering the lovely rolling hills with acre upon acre sugar cane to feed the world’s sweet tooth.
Agree with you totally about the coconut. Good point in the US.
Ha ha ha about rocket science. :)
Ps: so glad you are back in the blogosphere!
ah, the commonwealth :) it’s so nice to talk to Canadians and South Africans and all the other almost-British folks out there!
“common wealth” indeed. The golden syrup and milo tins of youth… although we had different tins of golden syrup in Aotearoa – brown and yellow? I can’t think of the brand…
I might try the bar cookie concept – it would be good to make smaller treats for a potluck I bet.
Thanks for the love and comments, Kate! always appreciated :)
these are so good! it’s very hard not to run off with all of them all when they’re about…