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On my recent vacation to Australia (see "i heart australia"), I really enjoyed my afternoon tea breaks in my hotel room which I often had with Australia's famous "ANZAC Biscuits". Well, I guess these are only famous in Australia because I have never heard of them before my "down under" vacation. ANZAC biscuits are named after Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.
During World War 1, the wives, mothers and girlfriends of Australian soldiers were concerned for the nutritional value of the food being supplied to the troops. Food which was sent to the fighting men had to be carried on the ships of the Merchant Navy with no refrigerated facilities.
The ingredients used to make ANZAC biscuit's were rolled oats, sugar, plain flour, coconut, butter, golden syrup or treacle, bi-carbonate of soda and boiling water. The recipe did not include eggs to bind the ANZAC biscuit mixture together. Because of the war, many of the poultry farmers had joined the services and eggs were scarce. The binding agent for the biscuits is golden syrup.
Since my vacation coincided with Australia's ANZAC Day (the US equivalent to Memorial Day but with a lot more beer), I was lucky enough to see these treats throughout Sydney and Melbourne. While at the United Airlines Red Carpet lounge, they had a big basket of these which I swiped a few and ate on my return trip to Newark.
All but one...
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I have been hoarding one package from my trip to consume with fond memories of my Australian vacation. Yesterday, I did a search on the net and found a few recipes. Now I can finally eat that last package. It's actually quite simple and there was little variation from recipe to recipe. I made them last night and they were easy to make and came out excellent. The biscuit is a hard crunchy biscuit with a sweetness unlike an oatmeal cookie. You can really taste the oats. The go great with tea of a cold glass of milk.
I did notice that on the packaged ANZAC biscuit, it says it is "with wattle seed". What the heck is wattle seed?
Here is how you make them (without wattle seed!);