Classic Anzac Biscuits Recipe

4.50 from 4 votes

This classic Anzac biscuits recipe honours the earliest recipes for this Australian favourite, and is very close to the two earliest recipes from Australia’s Country Women’s Association dating to 1933, with just two small tweaks. Do channel your grandmothers and do as they did and use your instincts and adjust the mixture if it's too dry for you: we bake these biscuits in hot climates and humid kitchens. Also note: as this is a traditional Australian recipe (and we're Australian), this recipe uses Australian tablespoon sizes which are 20ml (or four 5ml teaspoons) or in the case of butter, 20g; we've provided spoon sizes and grams but do note that there is a conversion tool within the recipe.

Prep Time10

Cook Time12

Total Time22

Course: Biscuit

Cuisine: Australian

Servings: Biscuits

Calories: 89kcal

Author: Lara Dunston

Ingredients

1 cup rolled oats 90g
1 cup brown sugar 220g; or caster sugar for authenticity
1 cup desiccated coconut 80g
1 cup plain flour
4 tablespoons butter 80g or more if needed; see notes
2 tablespoons golden syrup
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
2 tablespoons boiling water

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Preheat oven to moderate heat (180°C/160°C fan-forced or 356°F/320°F fan-forced) and either grease your oven trays or line the oven trays with baking paper.
To a large mixing bowl, add the dry ingredients (oats, sugar, flour and desiccated coconut) and combine well.
To a small bowl, add the butter and melt in a microwave - or in a small pan on the stovetop if you prefer.
To the same bowl, add the golden syrup and combine with the butter.
Dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in the boiling water and pour it into the bowl with the melted butter and golden syrup and stir to combine well.
Add the warm liquid mix to the dry ingredients and thoroughly combine.
Scoop out a flat tablespoon of mixture and with your hands form it into a small ball, place it on the baking tray, and squash it down into a fat patty shape. (We like our biscuits to weigh around 35g.)
Repeat, ensuring the patties of dough are around 5cm apart, until you've used up all the mixture.
Slide the trays into the oven and bake for 9-10 minutes for chewy biscuits and 12 minutes for crunchy biscuits.
When the biscuits are done to your liking, slide the trays out of the oven, and lift the biscuits carefully off the baking trays and onto a cold plate to cool down and firm up.

Notes

A note on the amount of butter in this recipe: we use more butter than the earliest Anzac biscuit recipes, as they were too dry in test after test, but we use less butter than most modern-day recipes, and more golden syrup.
We've been baking this recipe in hot climates and humid kitchens and the biscuits always turn out perfectly. In response to a couple of recent reader observations that their biscuits were too dry, I waited and tested the recipe again in a cold kitchen in the middle of winter in Australia and found the mixture a tad dry, but not overly so, and added 1-2 tablespoons of butter. Do channel your grandmothers and use your instincts and if your mixture is too dry, add a little more butter - or golden syrup This is a very forgiving recipe.

Nutrition