Anzacs Through the Ages
Tiktaalik was an ancient fish with big plans. One day, sick of its watery home, it flopped onto a sandy shore and began a process that - over millennia - would dispose of its gills, give it legs, hair, toenails, binocular vision, culture, language, a nice big brain and a mammalian body (indistinguishable from yours and mine). Evolution is impressive. You start out with a fish, and - lo and behold - you wind up with a (mostly) hairless ape tapping away on a laptop in a house full of weird gadgets, lit by electric lights, beside two sleeping canines (who, incidentally also evolved from Tiktaalik the fish!)
It might not be QUITE as staggering as a dog and a great ape with fishy beginnings, but today I discovered that the Anzac biscuit has undergone an evolution of its own. I have an old notebook full of recipes, which belonged to my maternal grandmother, Joy. She died before I was born, so I never got to meet her, but, provided I can decipher her rather beautiful handwriting, I’m now able to eat her food! That’s one of the things I love about cooking - someone may have died 40 years ago, but as long as you have flour, eggs and sugar in your pantry, you can bring their recipe back to life. Temporary resurrection in the form of chewy, crispy (surprisingly-not-oaty) goodness.
See, I found that, like Tiktaalik, the original Anzac looks nothing like its current form. The original Anzac biscuit contained eggs and was sandwiched together with a layer of jam (and sometimes cream). Later, in efforts to increase their shelf life (possibly so soldiers’ wives could send them overseas to their husbands at war), the eggs were removed, and gradually desiccated coconut and oats found their way into the dough. I’ve taken a couple of liberties with Joy’s recipe, which just called for ‘raspberry jam’ (so I made my own), but it’s basically true to the original.
So, if you’d like to travel back in time, to the bygone days of… I guess… 1950-something (?), you can make Joy’s crispy, jammy, spicy recipe (below). And if you’d rather linger longer in the present, scroll down further and try my honeyed, buttery, nut-filled and very-definitely-oaty recipe (also below). I went ahead and made both, and then I ate them instead of having lunch, and then I got hungry and ate some more while I drank some wine. And then I ate half a pizza because I’m not an ancient fish and it’s not 1950 anymore and that means I can eat takeaway pizza in trackies and ugg boots, which is certainly something worth celebrating.
Grandma Joy’s Anzac biscuits
Makes 16 individual biscuits or 8 jam sandwiches
Ingredients
1 cup raw caster sugar
3 1/2 cups wholemeal self-raising flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
For the raspberry jam
4 cups frozen raspberries
juice of 2 lemons
15 cloves (whole)
1 cup raw caster sugar
Method
Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl then rub in the softened butter until mixed through. Whisk the eggs briskly until thick and foamy.
Add the eggs to the dry mixture and mix with your hands until a soft, slightly sticky dough forms.
Roll the dough into about 16 balls, place on lined baking trays and flatten gently with your fingers until they are about 2cm thick (leave a bit of room in between each biscuit as they will spread out as they cook). Bake at 180˚C for about 30 minutes, or until they have turned a golden brown colour. Remove from the oven and place on wire racks to cool.
To make the jam, put the frozen raspberries, cloves and lemon juice in a saucepan and cook gently on low heat until the raspberries are very soft (5-10 minutes). Give them a good mix to break them up, then add the caster sugar. Cook on the lowest heat possible until the jam has become quite thick and syrupy. If you notice the jam turning a brown colour, the heat is too high, turn it off and let it cool. The jam should become quite thick as it cools. You want it to be about the consistency of quince paste. If it’s not quite that thick, return it to the stove and cook a little longer.
Once the jam and biscuits are cool, sandwich a thick layer of jam between the biscuits and serve with a steaming pot of earl grey tea.
My Anzacs
Makes 8-10 biscuits
Ingredients
1/2 cup whole almonds (skin on)
1/4 cup pistachios (salted)
1 cup wholemeal self-raising flour
1 cup quick oats
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup coconut chips (you could also use desiccated coconut, but I think the big chunky coconut chips work best, so use those if you can!)
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup honey
Method
First, roast the almonds at 200˚C for 5-10 minutes or until they start to brown slightly. Remove from the oven and chop into semi-fine chunks (have a look at how chunky the almond pieces are in my photos if you want to get an idea of how roughly I chopped them). Chop the pistachios up too.
Add the almonds and pistachios to the rest of the dry ingredients in a medium bowl and mix well to combine.
Put the honey and butter in a heatproof jug and place in the microwave for 30-40 seconds, until the butter has melted. Mix well, then pour over the dry ingredients. Stir everything together really well until a sticky dough forms (it should hold together just well enough to be rolled into balls and flattened gently with your fingers).
Place on a lined baking tray, leaving a bit of room in between each biscuit (they will spread out a little as they cook) and cook at 180˚C for about 15-20 minutes, or until the biscuits have turned a deep golden brown.
Eat while warm if you like them chewy, or let cook on a rack if you like them crunchy! However you like them, you should have them with a big glass of milk and pretend you’re 7 years old again.