Anzac biscuits

This time last year, Tim was posted to the NT and I visited him in Darwin. I attended my first dawn service ever. It's not that I grew up without an appreciation of Anzac Day. I think it was just that my parents weren't into waking up five kids in the early hours of the morning, rugging them up against the freezing Canberra weather, driving around looking for a car park somewhere in the vicinity of the War Memorial and then standing about shivering until it was all over. 

Last year I didn't have to rug up. In fact, I wore shorts. Most people did. There were a few men in dark suits which I thought was lovely, respectful gesture, but with the bats playing in the foliage above while sweat trickled down the back of my legs, it crossed my mind that there really was no need to be a martyr in this weather, in the dark! Needless to say it was a moving and worthwhile experience and I'd like to repeat it some day.

With all the hoo-ha this year about whether or not Monday should be a public holiday, I decided to get back to basics and be grateful that Anzac biscuits haven't changed since I was a kid. 

This is a pretty cool recipe for any time of year, but funnily enough, I only remember them being made in April. I especially remember couples taking cute excursions together to the supermarket to buy the ingredients (I was once a checkout chick). I remember my friend Nicholas making giant sized ones that he put straight in big glass jar to look at but not eat. I remember in recent times seeing them on the shelves in the biscuit aisle and wondering why? They're so easy and fun to make, as well as being a good reminder of what 25 April represents.

I probably won't go to dawn service on Saturday. I will cook dinner for a number of friends. And I have already made and safely stowed away three-dozen Anzac biscuits. My recipe is the same one I've used since I was a kid. It works every time.

Ingredients:

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup plain flour, sifted

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup desiccated coconut

150g butter or margerine

2 tbsp golden syrup

2 tbsp boiling water

1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

In a decent-sized bowl, combine the rolled oats, flour, sugar and coconut. Melt the butter and syrup together in a small saucepan. Mix the boiling water and bicarb in a cup and whisk this into the butter mixture. The pour the whole lot over the dry mixture. It will froth up a bit and you need to make sure it's all mixed together well with a wooden spoon.

Roll teaspoons of mixture into walnut-sized balls and put them on a lined baking tray. Make sure they have room to spread out.

Bake for 15-20 minutes in a 150º C oven. Let them sit for a few minutes and then place them on a wire rack to cool. Store them in an airtight container - if they last that long. I make three dozen from this mix. 

NB. I didn't make it with spelt this time around, but of course you can. This will make them wheat free but not gluten free because of the oats. If anyone wants a proper gluten free Anzac recipe, I do have one that I've used successfully and I'm happy to pass it on.

Sugar & Spice & all things nice

Wow! After an unprecedented delay since my last post, I'm back! Sorry about that. It's good to know that people care, judging by the emails I've gotten, wondering where I am, and where the Christmas stuff is. I could pretend that I've been kept far too busy to blog by a series of glamourous and fun Christmas parties, but sadly, I was temporarily laid out earlier this week by some kind of very un-fun, unseasonal, and completely without Christmas (or any other) cheer, tummy bug. YUCK! 

Anyhow, it's now the 4th day of Christmas so I have some catching up to do. I've done almost all my Christmas shopping, except for one friend who has perfect taste, gives magnificent gifts, and  I find incredibly difficult to buy for. This Saturday, mum is dragging me out to the DFO because she's heard they have good bargains out there and wouldn't mind a look. I'm really just the driver on this expedition, having no interest in the DFO experience at all. In fact, I personally hate any kind of shopping (except for food) with a passion. I really do. (Men have offered to marry me on this basis). I'm going to have to take some kind of sedative to get through it. I can imagine it now - the hyped up, Saturday morning, pre-Christmas crowd, on a mission with high spirits and full credit cards, striding through with purpose and in the hopes that they truly have discovered some kind of super-saving-shopping-mecca that will bring peace and goodwill to all men. Or at least get them some serious bargains. (Deep intake of breath) On the cooking front, I have plenty of that to do too, if I make it out of the shops alive. 

The first tasty treat on this year's Christmas list is a recipe I found in a Woman's Weekly recipe book. Actually it's a really nice little book, full of gorgeous pictures and Christmas recipes. It's simply called 'Christmas'. I've only used this one recipe so far but I hope to do more and we'll see how we go.

Sugar and spice snaps look so invitingly delicious on the page. I recall be able to buy honey snap biscuits as a kid. I don't think they make them any more, but these cookies reminded me of those. Full of Christmas spices like ginger and clove and lots of dark sugar, they're just right to kick the season off.

One thing - I sprinkled the first lot with regular raw sugar, suspecting that it would in fact get lost in the biscuit when cooked. It did. I then turned to the trusty coarse, coffee crystal sugar. It's basically just larger grounds of raw sugar and worked a lot better. 

Sugar & Spice Snaps

Women's Weekly, Christmas, p 11

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups (225g) plain flour

3/4 cup (165g) firmly packed dark muscovado sugar

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp mixed spice

1/4 tsp ground clove

150g butter, chopped coarsely

1 egg yolk

1/4 cup (55g) raw sugar

Process flour, muscovado sugar, spices and butter until crumbly. Add egg yolk; process until combined. Knead dough on floured surface until smooth. Cover; refrigerate 30 minutes.

Divide dough in half, roll each half between sheets of baking paper to 3mm thickness. Refrigerate 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 180ºC/ 160ºC fan forced. Line three oven trays with baking paper.

Cut thirty 7cm rounds from the dough. Place rounds on trays; sprinkle with raw/coffee sugar.

Bake snaps about 10 minutes; cool on trays.

A cookie a day...

One of my favourite cook books is Nigella Lawson's 'Feast'. It's a beautiful book, jam packed with recipes, stories and great photos. I have a few favourites in this book, and these cookies are now one of them. I made them on Sunday morning and by Sunday night they were gone, except for a few I'd put aside for colleagues. The Cookie Monster had struck! No guesses who that is in our house.  

These are seriously good anyway and despite note being allowed to eat wheat, I had to risk it and try a bite. I'm really glad I did. They're packed with the sweet, yet slightly tart little cranberries, and the smoothness of the white chocolate that makes them feel slightly decadent. Yes, they're sweet, but not something you'd eat every day. Especially if you live with the human equivalent of a locust and there's not much left at the end of the day! 

I think these are a good special occasion cookie, if such a thing exists, and a great option for Christmas if you're over the whole gingerbread thing. (Stay tuned for gingerbread recipe).

Cranberry and white chocolate cookies

From Nigella Lawson's Feast, p 82

Ingredients

140g flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

75g rolled oats

125g soft unsalted butter

75g dark brown sugar

100g caster sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

75g dried cranberries

50g pecans, roughly chopped

140g white chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/ 180ºC

Measure out the flour, baking powder, salt and rolled oats into a bowl. Put the butter and sugars into another bowl and beat together until creamy - this is obviously easier with an electric mixer of some kind, but you just need to put some muscle into it otherwise - then beat in the egg and vanilla.

Beat in the flour, baking powder, salt and oat mixture, and then fold in the cranberries, chopped pecans and chocolate chips or white chocolate, chopped into small dice. Set the bowl of biscuit dough in the fridge for 10-15 minutes.

Roll tablespoons of dough into a ball with your hands, and then place them on a lined or greased baking sheet and squish the dough balls down with a fork. You may need two baking sheets or be prepared to make these in two batches.

Cook for 15 minutes; when ready, the cookies will be tinged a pale gold, but be too soft to lift immediately off the tray, so leave the tray on a cool surface and let them harden for about 5 minutes. Remove with a spatula or whatever to cool fully on a wire rack.