ANZAC Biscuit Recipe

There are so many beautiful stories, commemorations and tributes that arise around ANZAC Day as we reflect on those Service men and women who protected our country.

One of our beautiful Parque Vista residents, Kay, recently shared some precious memories with us about her grandmother who served in WWII. Her grandmother was a trainee cook in the Australian Women’s Army Service. The cooks were taught to cook for as many as 300 army men using food rations.

Pictured: Trainee cooks in the Australian Women’s Army Service. Kay’s grandmother on the far right. 

Kay recently found a copy of her grandmother’s handwritten Army Cook Training recipe book which includes recipes that call for things like ‘a bag of sugar’, ‘8 sacks of flour’, or ’44 dozen eggs’! We can only imagine how many bags of oats went into the ANZAC biscuits.

Luckily Kay has also shared with us a more recent adaptation of the classic ANZAC biscuit that you can have a go at without having to feed 300 people.

Thank you Kay for sharing these beautiful memories.

ANZAC BISCUITS

Ingredients

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup plain flour

1/2 cup sugar

3/4 cup desiccated coconut

1 tablespoon golden syrup

1/2 cup butter

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 tablespoon boiling water

Method

1. Mix oats, flour, sugar and coconut together.
2. Melt syrup and butter together.
3. Mix soda with boiling water and add to melted butter and syrup.
4. Add dry ingredients.
5. Place tablespoons of mixture on greased slide. Leave room for expansion.
6. Bake in slow oven 150-165 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes.

(From: The Commonsense Cookery Book, compiled by the NSW Public School Cookery Teachers’ Association.)