ANZAC biscuits
ANZAC biscuits
Oat-coconut biscuits bound with golden syrup — no egg, a chewy or crisp argument, and a name that is not a marketing season.
Recipe by I Want Some Food · Reviewed by the editorial kitchen. Native name preserved: ANZAC biscuits.
0 people cooked this in the public kitchen yet. Kitchen-tested by I Want Some Food. Not a purchased rating.
- Prep
- 15 min
- Cook
- 15 min
- Rest
- None
- Total
- 30 min
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Spice
- No chilli
- Cost
- Cheap nightUnder $8 USD · indicative, not a store price
About
ANZAC biscuits are oats, coconut, flour, sugar, butter and golden syrup (or honey), bound with bicarb dissolved in boiling water. There is no egg — that is the wartime pantry logic. Bake them chewy or snap-hard depending on time. We are writing a biscuit, not a memorial lecture. Still treat the name with ordinary respect. Stir oats, desiccated coconut, flour and sugar in a bowl. Melt butter with golden syrup, then add bicarbonate of soda dissolved in a little boiling water so the mixture foams. Combine quickly; the dough should be sticky but not wet. Roll into balls, flatten slightly, and bake until the edges set. A shorter bake stays chewy; a longer one snaps in a tin. There is no egg, which is the pantry logic, not a health claim. Leave them on the tray a minute so they firm. Store in a tin, not a plastic bag that sweats. Honey can stand in for golden syrup if that is what you have, though the flavour shifts. Do not treat them as a cake. They are a biscuit that keeps. Cool completely before you pack them for a lunchbox or they go limp.
Ingredients
- Rolled oats100 g
- Coconut milk, desiccated80 g
- Wheat flour100 g
- Sugar100 g
- Butter100 g
- Honey, or golden syrup30 ml
- Baking soda2½ ml
- Water, boiling30 ml
Scaling multiplies the written quantities. Baking still prefers a scale.
Steps
Step 1
Mix oats, coconut, flour and sugar. Melt butter with honey. Stir bicarb into boiling water (it will foam) and mix into the butter, then the dry bowl.
8 minStep 2
Roll tablespoons, flatten slightly on a tray. Bake at 160°C 12 minutes for chewy, 15 for crisp. They firm as they cool.
15 min160°CStep 3
Cool on the tray 5 minutes, then a rack. Tin when cold.
Adapt this recipe
The canonical recipe stays intact. Personal versions are labelled. Serving changes are maths, not AI.
Adaptations · 0 / 15 used. Resets 10 October.
Substitutions
Golden syrup → Honey or treacle
Darker with treacle. Still an oat biscuit.
Tips
- Golden syrup is the Australian taste. Honey is the substitution the recipe already named.
- Do not call them cookies on the tin if you are sending them to a grandparent.
History & culture
Australia and New Zealand. Bake sales, lunchboxes, and ANZAC Day kitchens. They keep in a tin. Australians and New Zealanders both bake them for lunchboxes, stalls, and ANZAC Day kitchens, and both get irritated when the name is used as a marketing costume on a chocolate-coated novelty. Ordinary respect is enough: it is a biscuit with a wartime association, not a liturgy. They keep in a tin, which is why they travelled. Bake sales still rely on them because the ingredients are cheap and the method is forgiving. Chewy versus snap-hard is a household setting, argued with the same energy as lamington icing. Packet versions exist and taste flatter. At home, golden syrup is worth buying. Serve with tea. They are not a dessert with cream. Children stir the oats and consider the job done. Expat tins in London and Dubai still smell like a school holiday when you open them.
Early 20th-century oat biscuits associated with care packages and later with ANZAC commemoration. The exact origin story is messier than the packets. Early twentieth-century oat biscuits, golden syrup, and coconut sit in a messy archive of newspaper recipes, care-package folklore, and later ANZAC commemoration. The packets tidy that mess into a single origin; historians do not. What you can say without bluffing is that egg-free biscuits suited a wartime pantry and a long shelf, and that the name stuck as commemoration culture grew. They are not ancient. They are not a military ration recipe in the strict sense people like to repeat. They are a civilian bake that became a memorial food. Commercial bakers standardised the round. Using the name for a completely different sweet is lazy. Baking the biscuit on a Tuesday is allowed. The history is twentieth-century, Australasian, and more complicated than a logo.
Traditional
Provenance: Editorial adaptation.
Questions about this recipe
Answers taken from this dish's times, amounts, swaps and tips — not a chatbot.
How long does ANZAC biscuits take?
30 min all in — 15 min prep, 15 min cook. Cook and rest follow the method. Leftover storage and optional extra waits are not included.
How many does it serve?
The recipe is written for 24 biscuits. Scale the ingredient list on the page if you are cooking for a different number.
How hard is it?
Easy.
How spicy is it?
No chilli.
What allergens should I watch?
This recipe is labelled for Wheat, Milk. Labels are informational — check the packets in your kitchen. This is not medical advice.
Does it fit a diet?
The published recipe is labelled Vegetarian.
What does it cost to cook?
Cheap night — about Under $8 USD, as a grocery budget for this recipe, not a restaurant price.
What equipment do I need?
Oven, Mixing bowl, Baking tray.
How much salt do I put in?
This recipe does not list a salt amount. We will not invent one.
How much sugar?
100 g of Sugar.
How much honey?
2 tbsp (or golden syrup) of Honey.
What can I use instead?
Golden syrup → Honey or treacle. Darker with treacle. Still an oat biscuit.
Any tips from this recipe?
Golden syrup is the Australian taste. Honey is the substitution the recipe already named. Do not call them cookies on the tin if you are sending them to a grandparent.
Can I use an air fryer?
This method is not written for an air fryer. The core technique on the page still applies.
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