I have a confession. My favourite recipe for Anzac biscuits includes forbidden macadamias. And forbidden glacé ginger. I adore these golden discs studded with nuggets of chewy, warming ginger and toasted macadamias. It has been my go-to for years and I’ve converted all my family to using this as the standard recipe.
Until last weekend.
In the same way I am overcome with the impulse to cut my hair into a bob with a fringe and obtain a third cat, I was whipped into a baking frenzy and tried seven different recipes for Anzac biscuits in two days. Chocolate Anzacs? Almond Anzacs? Anzacs with sour fruits? I tried them all.
Before you purists sharpen your pitchforks and report me to the Department of Veterans’ Affairs for my blasphemous biscuits (legislation says the biscuits “must not substantially deviate from the generally accepted recipe”, and refers to a recipe that lists butter/margarine, golden syrup, bicarb soda, oats, coconut, brown sugar and flour), let me give you the forward sizzle: this baking marathon had a surprising outcome.
I’m firmly on Team Crunchy when it comes to Anzacs, so when I found a recipe which relied on a higher ratio of golden syrup to sugar, I thought I’d hit the jackpot. Surely using more of the liquid amber syrup would result in an intensely crisp, toffeed biscuit? Sadly not. They were doughy and soft – likely from the moisture content of the golden syrup; and while the flavour was roasty and toasty, they did not usurp my ginger Anzacs.
The second recipe came from a Cadbury cookbook and – you can see where this is going – it included cocoa powder. The result reminded me more of the New Zealand biscuit now commercially known as Milk Chocolate Roughs. It was quite moreish – but no contender for my favourite.
I moved on to a recipe from Sydney’s Bourke Street Bakery, which included dried barberries, a tiny crimson fruit – smaller than a currant – often found in Middle Eastern cooking, with a sour mouth-puckering intensity. The biscuits were good but the barberries made them feel too healthful and more like a muesli bar.
Anzacs with almonds and vanilla and almond extract appealed to my love of marzipan, and while they were an excellent biscuit, they did not scratch my itch.
Feeling like the Goldilocks of the Anzac biscuit world, in desperation I turned to a travel article which claimed to have found the “world’s best Anzac”. On a boat. On the Hawkesbury River. I was sceptical, especially as there were no forbidden inclusions. No pizzazz. Just oats, flour, raw sugar, butter, bicarb and a scant amount of golden syrup. In short, a law-abiding recipe.
They were perfect. Crunchy and buttery with lacy edges, toasty and heady with notes of molasses. The unrefined raw sugar was the magic ingredient.
I’ve since made two more batches with one minor tweak – swapping out two-thirds of the desiccated coconut for shredded coconut to give more textural contrast.
And while this might be my go-to recipe for now, I’m not ruling out trying them on Anzac Day, sandwiched together with a rosemary-infused chocolate ganache.
The Riverboat Postman’s Anzac biscuits recipe
These biscuits are served on weekdays year-round to day-tripping passengers onboard The Riverboat Postman, a mailboat that runs out of Brooklyn in Sydney’s north, delivering parcels and letters to residents along the Hawkesbury River.
Lunch and morning tea is served to cruising passengers – Anzac biscuits included.
Prep 15 min
Cook 12 min per biscuit sheet
Makes approx 36 biscuits
1½ cups rolled oats
1½ cups finely desiccated coconut
1½ cups raw sugar
1½ cups flour
250g butter
1 tbsp golden syrup
1 heaped tsp baking soda
1-2 tbsp boiling water
Water, as needed
Preheat the oven to 180C. In a large mixing bowl, combine the rolled oats, desiccated coconut, raw sugar and flour. Set aside. Melt the butter in the microwave together with the golden syrup.
In a separate cup, mix the baking soda with the boiling water. Then pour this into the butter/syrup mixture. Add to the flour and oat mixture and blend well. You should have a consistency in which you can roll a soft ball which is not too dry and not too sticky. Add more water, if needed, to make thinner biscuits.
Grease three to four biscuit sheets. Roll the mixture into 2.5cm diameter balls and arrange the balls on the greased cookie sheets, leaving about 5cm of space between the balls.
Press each ball lightly to flatten them. Bake in the preheated oven, one sheet at a time, for 11 to 12 minutes or until the biscuits are golden brown and crisp.
Place on a cold flat surface to set, then move to a cooling rack.
