In early November 1966, Adelaide Hendle grabbed some oats and flour from the pantry of her Brisbane home.
She mixed some golden syrup with a little bicarbonate of soda and some boiling water until it bubbled up.
Not long after she pulled a batch of Anzac biscuits from the oven.
Once they cooled, she packed them in a commemorative tin emblazoned with the still-under-construction Sydney Opera House on the lid and other iconic international landmarks around the sides.
Then she wrapped the tin in brown paper and sent it to her son Terry who was serving in Vietnam.
During his six months there, his mother and sister Desley often sent him homemade biscuits, they were popular with his mates in the 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment based in Nui Dat.
The day this tin of biscuits arrived, Terry put them aside, keen to have one after he'd finished night patrol. But that night on sentry duty, Terry, aged 20, was mortally wounded and died on the operating table.
The unopened biscuit tin was returned to his mother and over the years, as she moved home 32 times in 33 years, she always carried "Terry's bikkies" on her lap in the car to make sure they stayed safe.
Adelaide died in 1999 and Desley donated the unopened tin to the Australian War Memorial.
After Terry's death, Adelaide and Desley never baked Anzac biscuits again.
But many of us do. A century after the first recipes for the biscuit appeared, the humble Anzac biscuit is still a firm favourite with many Australians.
Dianne Rutherford, a curator at the memorial and baking enthusiast, says there's one simple reason.
"They're delicious," she says.
"And for so many of us we've got memories of baking with our mothers or grandmothers and it is an easy biscuit to make. It's hard to go wrong and the ingredients are inexpensive and easily available."
She's fascinated by the history of the biscuit.
"It's really only in the 1920s that the Anzac biscuit as we know it comes into existence. The earliest one, based on a 1917 recipe had icing and jam in the middle and was probably baked to sell at stalls to raise money for the war effort," she said.
"The earliest recipes didn't have coconut in them but most do now. There are even recipes for ones which contained ginger and they've had various names such as Anzac munchies or crispies."
For the troops, Ms Rutherford says, receiving a care package from home provided a link to some kind of normal life.
"Whether it contained letters, tobacco, a razor, some biscuits or fruit cake, it was something to remind them what they were fighting for," she said.
"Eating a biscuit is such a sensory experience, the smell, the taste, the feel of something made at home in their childhood kitchen, a package of biscuits was always well received."
Anzac biscuit recipes from the AWM
The popular Anzac biscuit is a traditional, eggless, sweet biscuit. Early recipes did not include coconut.
The following recipe (without coconut) was published in The Capricornian (Rockhampton, Queensland) on Saturday, August 14, 1926.
Ingredients
- 2 cups rolled oats
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 cup plain flour
- 1/2 cup melted butter
- 1 tbsp golden syrup
- 2 tbsp boiling water
- 1 tsp bicarbonate soda (add a little more water if mixture is too dry)
Method
1. Combine dry ingredients.
2. Mix golden syrup, boiling water and bicarbonate of soda until they froth. Add melted butter.
3. Combine butter mixture and dry ingredients.
4. Drop teaspoons of mixture onto floured tray, allowing room for spreading.
5. Bake in a slow oven.
Anzac biscuits, No 2
The Country Women's Association of New South Wales Calendar of Cake and Afternoon Tea Delicacies: a recipe for each day of the year (Sydney: The Association, 1933) included two recipes for Anzac biscuits, one without coconut and the following version which included coconut.
Ingredients
- 1 cup each of rolled oats, sugar and coconut
- 1 tbsp syrup
- 3/4 cup flour
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (dissolved in 2 tbsp boiling water)
Method
1. Melt butter.
2. Add syrup to dissolved soda and water. Combine with melted butter.
3. Mix dry ingredients and stir in liquid.
4. Place small balls on ot buttered tray and bake in moderate oven.
5. Lift out carefully with a knife as they are soft till cold.
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