The Best Classic Anzac Biscuits Recipe Based on the 1933 CWA Recipe

Our classic Anzac biscuits recipe is as close to the early 1933 Australian Country Women’s Association Anzac biscuit recipes I could get and it makes the best Anzac biscuit ever. Loaded with texture, the biscuits are crunchy on the outside, chewy within, and taste sweet, buttery and coconut-y.  This recipe is the result of my quest to recreate the Anzac biscuits of my childhood. Try our Anzac biscuit recipe whether you’re commemorating Anzac Day in Australia or abroad this year.

I’m re-sharing my classic Anzac biscuits recipe as Australia’s Anzac Day on 25 April is approaching. Since we published this recipe many years ago, it’s been one of our most popular recipes every April in the lead-up to one of Australia’s most important national holidays. It makes a biscuit recipe I tested time and time again to get just right – something between the modern Anzac Day biscuit as we know it, yet as close to possible as the 1933 Australian Country Women’s Association Anzac biscuit recipe without losing the texture and flavour we know and love.

The ability to bake and make this classic Anzac biscuits recipe, among other favourite recipes, was one of the reasons we moved house here in Siem Reap after five years living in an oven-less apartment. Seriously. Most Cambodian kitchens don’t have ovens, only stovetops, portable gas burners or clay braziers. So I set out to find us an apartment with a proper oven, and what an adventure that was.

While Terence, dripping with perspiration in singlet and boxers, was miraculously able to make mouthwatering feasts of Cambodian, Thai, Vietnamese, and Sichuan food on two gas burners, and bake the most wonderful sourdough bread I’ve ever savoured in a small hundred-dollar toaster oven in a kitchen that got so hot and humid it was like cooking in a sauna, I couldn’t face it.

When I finally discovered my dream apartment right under our noses, just across the river in Siem Reap’s French Quarter, I was over the moon. Not only did it have pretty colonial floor tiles, French doors with shutters, a balcony overlooking palm-filled gardens, fragrant with frangipanis, and a swimming pool, it had a charming kitchen with a Western-style stove and oven.

Soon after we moved, I bought bags of ingredients to make my Russian family recipes and finally do some baking. As Australia’s Anzac Day was approaching, it presented me with my first opportunity to make what I’d been itching to bake for years: the Australian biscuits of my childhood that my nanna Dolly, my Australian grandmother used to make. Terence baked delicious biscuits with Southeast Asian spices, nuts and tropical fruit, but I wanted to start with an Australian icon: the traditional Anzac biscuit recipe.

Before I tell you all about this classic Anzac biscuit recipe, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader-supported. If you’ve enjoyed our recipes, please consider supporting Grantourismo by using our links to buy something on Amazon, such as these cookbooks by Australian chefs or classic cookbooks for serious cooks. Now let me tell you about this classic Anzac biscuit recipe.

Classic Anzac Biscuits Recipe Based on the 1933 Country Women’s Association Recipes

Anzac Day is on 25 April. It’s a day special to so many Australians and New Zealanders. When you live away from your home country for as long as we have you use these national holidays to reflect upon home, your loved ones there, and your compatriots.

National holidays unite citizens so it’s about remembering that we do belong somewhere, despite having been at large in the world for so long – and despite not being able to return home since the start of the pandemic.

In the lead up to the Anzac Day long weekend in Australia and New Zealand, it seems every Australasian newspaper, magazine and food site has published and republished some form of the classic Anzac biscuits recipe, often with a twist on the traditional, or an Anzac inspired dessert.

As I’m obsessed with culinary history and the origin of recipes, when I set out on this baking project, I decided to start by baking the earliest Anzac biscuits recipe I could find. I wanted to recreate the Anzac biscuits of my childhood, the biscuits I made with my nanna on school holidays and at home with dad.

Dad was responsible for making most of the sweets in our family, while mum handled savoury. And I guessed that dad, who died of pancreatic cancer 20 years ago, would have learnt to make Anzac biscuits from his mum, my ‘nanna’ (Australian for ‘grandmother’ for our non-Aussie readers). Nan died in 1986, so sadly there’s nobody to confirm these things.

As nanna was born in 1913 or 1915 (our family trees can’t seem to agree on which) I figured that her Anzac biscuits, which were very traditional, would have been made to a classic Anzac biscuits recipe so I decided to test out the earliest Anzac biscuits recipe I could find.

It turns out that despite the many iterations of Anzac biscuits over the years, most modern day Anzac biscuit recipes are based on what’s now considered to be the classic Anzac biscuit recipe, and that’s the 1933 Country Women’s Association recipe. Although there are earlier Anzac biscuit recipes…

The Earliest Anzac Biscuits Recipes and A Potted History of Anzac Biscuits

Culinary historian Allison Reynolds, who wrote a book on the subject called Anzac Biscuits, the Power and Spirit of an Everyday National Icon, discovered a rolled oats-based biscuit similar to the Anzac biscuit dating to 1823. That biscuit was typically called “Crispies”, among other things.

Obviously it wasn’t called an Anzac biscuit, as the acronym A.N.Z.A.C didn’t come into use until after the battle of Gallipoli in 1915. If you’re not Australian and not familiar with the history, you can read about ANZAC history and the history of Anzac Day here.

Reynolds’ research revealed that the biscuit’s name changed during World War I, when they began to get called ‘Red Cross biscuits’ and ‘Soldiers Biscuits’, as they were baked to sell as a form of fundraising for the war effort.

Some believe they were also sent to Australian and New Zealand forces overseas, as the lack of eggs in the recipe meant they’d last longer. But that is often disputed, with the suggestion that there’s confusion with the wafer-like Anzac Tile biscuit.

Reynolds discovered the first printed Anzac biscuit recipe in the War Chest Cookery Book, dating to 1917, however, doesn’t resemble the biscuit we know and love as Anzac biscuits at all. That recipe has eggs and is sandwiched with jam and cream.

Reynolds found a more authentic Anzac biscuit recipe in a South Australian housewife’s notebook, dating to 1910-20, although one ingredient was missing: coconut.

The oldest recipe using coconut was published in one of the Country Women’s Association’s 1930s calendar cookbooks, Cakes and Afternoon Tea Delicacies.  As my nanna was a country woman at that time – she and my grandfather Ken had a dairy farm in Singleton, which was where my dad and aunty Val grew up. I guessed nan may very well have learnt to make her Anzac biscuits using that recipe.

1933 Anzac Biscuits No. 2 Recipe – With Coconut

I found that 1933 Country Women’s Association Anzac Biscuit recipe with coconut on the Australian War Memorial website, where they called it Anzac Biscuits No. 2 Recipe (the Anzac Biscuits No. 1 Recipe was without coconut) and that’s the classic Anzac biscuit recipe I began to make – because I didn’t want to get fined or go to jail!

However, after combining all the ingredients, I found that the biscuit dough was far too dry – so dry that it was impossible to form into balls. That’s because it only called for 2 tablespoons of butter…

1933 Anzac Biscuits No. 1 Recipe – Without Coconut

Google was my friend again and I found the 1933 Anzac Biscuits No. 1 recipe without coconut on the Country Women’s Association of New South Wales’ Exeter branch website – with ¼ cup butter, which is 4 tablespoons, which made much more sense:

2 cups rolled oats, ½ cup flour, 1 small cup sugar, ¼ cup butter, 1 tablesp. golden syrup, 1 teasp.carb.soda, 3 tablesp. boiling water. Put rolled oats and flour into basin: melt butter and sugar together and mix well with flour and oats; dissolve syrup in water and stir in soda till it foams well, then add to other ingredients and mix well. Put in 1/2 teaspoon drops on a cold, well greased slide and bake in a very a very slow oven, as they burn very easily. It is necessary t put them fairly far apart on the slide as they spread.
-Miss Murray, Manildra Branch

The method was different, however – the Anzac Biscuits No. 2 recipe is far easier – and it was too late to start over, so I simply added the additional butter. And I added a tablespoon of golden syrup for good measure.

I am not a CWA member so I wasn’t about to take the liberty of calling this Anzac Biscuits No. 3 recipe, though I was very curious to know if there was one out there…

Australian Women’s Weekly Anzac Biscuits Recipe

I remembered that my nanna also loved her Australian Women’s Weekly magazines and that the writing pad in which she hand-wrote her recipes also contained clippings of recipes she’d cut out of Women’s Weekly, so I scooted over to their website.

The Australian Women’s Weekly’s Anzac biscuit recipe is similar to Recipe No. 2 with a different method and with coconut and brown sugar.

My Classic Anzac Biscuits Recipe

I’d already opted for brown sugar over white sugar for my classic Anzac biscuits recipe as the older recipes didn’t specify which sugar. I remembered that my family used brown sugar more often than white when baking and that it resulted in more intense flavours and a moister biscuit.

The result was absolutely perfect. My classic Anzac biscuits tasted exactly the same as I remembered the Anzac biscuits of my childhood – and perhaps a little better!

Tips to Making This Classic Anzac Biscuits Recipe – Chewy or Crunchy?

One of the main questions that get asked about how to make Anzac biscuits is whether they should be chewy or crunchy and every Australian has an opinion and preference.

I spotted one recipe that said to add more golden syrup for a chewier biscuit, but that’s not necessary. This classic Anzac biscuits recipe makes both chewy and crunchy.

For Crunchy Anzac Biscuits

If you want your Anzac biscuits crunchy, the biscuits will need around 12 minutes in the oven, but check the biscuits at 11 minutes to make sure they’re not about to burn. They’ll become crunchy after they cool.

For Chewy Anzac Biscuits

If you prefer your Anzac biscuits chewy, pull the biscuits out of the oven at 9-10 minutes. Note that the biscuits are going to be soft, so you’ll need to take care when shifting them from the oven pan to a cooling tray. The biscuits will firm up as they’re cooling.

Classic Anzac Biscuits Recipe

Classic Anzac Biscuits Recipe

AuthorLara Dunston

This classic Anzac biscuits recipe is very close to the two earliest recipes from Australia’s Country Women’s Association dating to 1933, with just two small tweaks.

Print Recipe Rate this Recipe

Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 12 minutes mins

Total Time 22 minutes mins

Course Biscuit

Cuisine Australian

Servings made with recipeServings 28 Biscuits

Calories 89 kcal

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup desiccated coconut
• 1 cup flour
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons golden syrup
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 2 tablespoons boiling water

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F and line large oven trays with baking paper.
• Combine the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
• Melt the butter.
• Add the golden syrup.
• Dissolved the bicarbonate of soda in the hot water and combine with melted butter and golden syrup.
• Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and thoroughly combine.
• Form a flat tablespoon of mixture into a small ball, place it on the baking tray, and squash it down a little into a fat hamburger patty shape, and repeat, ensuring the balls are 5cm apart. We like our bisucits to weigh around 35 g.
• Bake for 9-10 minutes for chewy biscuits and 12 minutes for crunchy biscuits.
• Lift them carefully off the baking trays onto a cold plate.

Nutrition

Calories: 89kcalCarbohydrates: 15gProtein: 1gFat: 3gSaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 2mgSodium: 50mgPotassium: 42mgFiber: 1gSugar: 9gVitamin A: 25IUVitamin C: 0.1mgCalcium: 9mgIron: 0.5mg

First published 25 April 2019; updated and republished 3 April 2025.

Do you make Anzac biscuits for Anzac Day? Do you have a favourite recipe? Do let us know if you’ve made this classic Anzac biscuits recipe in the comments below, as we’d love to know how it turns out.