Anzac Biscuits

by Allison Reynolds

Anzac biscuits, baked in Australia and New Zealand for over a century, have a powerful connection to the national identity and culture of both countries. But what is the story of this national icon? Were they eaten by troops during the First World War? When did coconut make an appearance? And where do you stand on the crispy versus chewy debate?

Culinary detective Allison Reynolds has travelled Australia, New Zealand and England delving into war files and family cookbooks to investigate the provenance of this extraordinary everyday biscuit.

'With patience and persistence, Allison Reynolds uncovers the surprising story behind this much-loved national treasure.' - Barbara Santich, author and culinary historian

‘How grateful we are to Allison Reynolds for celebrating this small but powerful cooks’ answer to war.’ - Michael Symons, author One Continuous Picnic: A gastronomic history of Australia

Allison Reynolds, MA (Gastronomy), is a culinary historian and a regular commentator on many aspects of food history. As gastronomer in residence at several South Australian establishments she researched the social and food history of early Adelaide. Allison's passion for tea, marmalade, food history and old cookery books continues unabated.

Genres: Nonfiction

168 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 2018

Reviews

[Sally906 · Rating 4 out of 5]

ANZAC BISCUITS maybe a small book – but there is SO much information packed into the eleven chapters. Of course, while I was reading, I had to do research – purely for review reasons you understand – and hubby and I both decided we are crispy fans not chewy fans. A recipe for crispy biscuits can be found below.

So why were Anzac Biscuits made at all? Mothers, daughters, wives and sweethearts all wanted to send packets to their men serving in the front lines – something from home. Unlike today though, mail from home could take months to arrive as everything travelled by ship. Because of this time factor, home cooked products needed to last. The original Anzac Biscuits were made from oats, butter, flour and golden syrup – all cheap products found in the pantries of the day. They couldn’t use eggs – as the biscuit would go bad –Golden Syrup was what bound the ingredients together. Because of the easily accessible ingredients, easy cooking method, and the fact that the recipe didn’t use eggs that meant the biscuits would last the long trip to Europe. The original biscuits, did not have coconut in them and were only made from rolled oats and golden syrup which resulted in a very hard biscuit – in fact they were known to break teeth. The coconut was added in the 1920s making the biscuit less of a jaw breaker.

The first version of a rolled oats based biscuit appeared around 1823 in the cook books of women in Australia and New Zealand. Over the 100 years they had a variety of names such as ‘Surprise Biscuits’ and ‘Crispies’. However, when WWI started the recipe name changed to ‘Red Cross Biscuits’ and ‘Soldiers Biscuits.’ From this point it was just a hop, skip and a jump to naming them Anzac biscuits, as they were sold on the home front to raise funds and after Gallipoli the word ANZAC was very patriotic and guaranteed a sale.

Even today, the modern version of the Anzac biscuit is used to help out in hard times, recently Australian emergency workers were given them when they were helping out in recent floods – and the biscuits were sent to drought stricken areas of Australia in care packages.

“…Anzac biscuits embody Australianness, conveying the ANZAC spirit of courage, endurance, survival and mateship and what’s more, they taste bloody good too…”

There are all sorts of useful snippets in ANZAC BISCUITS excerpts from original letters and pictures of containers used to transport goods from Australia over to the troops to give the reader and idea of the conditions the men were living in – and how much the biscuits lifted morale. I really enjoyed my time spent in this book – and if you like social history and knowing why things exist then I thoroughly recommend it.

So which country was first? Author Allison Reynolds very diplomatically says we both were.

Crispy ANZAC Biscuits (Coconut version)
Pre heat oven to 170C / 150C Fan Forced
Line 2 large baking trays with baking paper

Ingredients
• 1 cup plain flour
• 1 cup Rolled Oats (not instant)
• 1 Cup Desiccated Coconut (I used ½ a cup as hubby and I don’t like coconut)
• 1 cup Sugar
• 125g butter
• 2 tablespoons Golden Syrup
• 1 teaspoon Bicarbonate of Soda
• 2 Tablespoons Boiling Water

Method
• Mix flour, oats, desiccated coconut and sugar in a large bowl
• Melt the butter with the golden syrup in a large pan over medium heat, then remove pan from heat - Combine boiling water and bicarbonate of soda; add to butter mixture and mix well until it froths up.
• Stir into dry ingredients until combined
• Take teaspoons of the mixture and roll into a ball – put on trays allowing room for spreading
• Press the biscuits down firmly to flatten using the back of a dessertspoon
• Bake for 15 -20 minutes until nicely golden
• Remove trays from oven and leave biscuits on the baking tray to firm up, leave until completely cool about 10 minutes


Author Information: Allison Reynolds, MA (Gastronomy), is a culinary historian and a regular commentator on many aspects of food history. As gastronomer in residence at several South Australian establishments she researched the social and food history of early Adelaide. Allison's passion for tea, marmalade, food history and old cookery books continues unabated.


With thanks to Wakefield Press for my copy to read and review.

[Karla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked up this book as a side project to a side project and it did not disappoint. I knew a few of the details about ANZAC history and biscuits, but what was almost as fascinating was the process and detail that goes into tracing the culinary history and its processes and ingredients. Thank you for the interesting read!

[Heidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was really interesting to learn the history behind the ANZAC biscuit. What was really fun was sharing the experience by reading the book aloud to my 11 year old son.