Honouring the Diggers with an ANZAC biscuit

The humble ANZAC biscuit is a national institution in Australia. Everyone has their own preference for the ANZAC biscuit - some like them chewy and some like them with a crunch. Some like them with added ingredients, like a touch of chocolate or some citrus zest, but the ANZAC biscuit itself is a tradition that at its very core is something tried and true, and not to be messed with. Not on ANZAC Day anyway.

ANZAC biscuits are simple really, an oaty biscuit with a sweet buttery, honey taste that when dunked into a cup of tea is perfection itself. It's the dunking that's the real secret to the ANZAC's heart and soul, and the reason it apparently sustained troops in the field in the Great War.

So if you're not from these parts, you might not know that ANZAC was the name for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps in World War One. Word is that back in the early 20th century when so much of the world was in conflict and many young men were soldiers, sailors and airmen, thousands of miles from home, the ANZAC biscuit was created and shipped to ANZAC troops all around the globe. Mums and wives baked and sent them to their young men for sustenance, for a sweet treat from home, and mostly just for love.

It's a simple recipe and it lasts forever given the simple nature of the ingredients themselves. They're also a sturdy little thing (unless you make the soft and chewy variety) and can withstand not only the trip through the antiquated shipping mail systems of the great war, they'd still with stand the hot cup of tea at the other end. And you know, even if you had a misfortune to have yours shatter in the post, the crumbs taste just as good.

Tomorrow is ANZAC Day, a day of remembrance and thankfulness, that begins with a dawn service and ends with much frivolity and celebration. There are a few things that everyone agrees on, even if they disagree on the chewy versus crunchy biscuit divide - that tomorrow is the day for playing Two-Up and remembering the fallen, that the day should include at some point a delicious ANZAC biscuit, and that the shop bought variety is never as good as the one baked at home by someone who loves you.

ANZAC Biscuits

1 cup of plain flour

1 cup of white sugar

3/4 cup of finely shredded coconut

1 and 1/2 cups of rolled oats

pinch of salt

125g of butter

2 heaped tablespoons of golden syrup

1/2 teaspoon of bicarb or baking powder

3 tablespoons of boiling water

1. This is a simple recipe. First prepare two baking sheets. Then preheat your oven to 160 degrees centigrade with your oven racks set just above the middle of the oven in height.

2. Pop all the dry ingredients into a bowl and mix together by hand.

3. In a saucepan (yes, let's do this the old fashioned way) melt the butter and the golden syrup together.

4. In a small cup add the boiling water and the baking powder together and watch it fizz. Now add the fizzing mixture to the melted hot butter and syrup mixture. Be careful, it should be oiling but it is certainly very hot!

5. Now take the butter mixture off the heat and pour it gently into the dry ingredients. Mix through gently until all of the ingredients are well combined.

6. Baking time! with wet hands, roll spoonfuls of the mixture in your palms and press lightly onto the prepared trays. They will spread a little so leave some rooms between them. Bake for about 16-18 minutes but keep an eye on them, you don't want them to burn.

Just be careful when you take them out of the oven - these are fragile while they're hot but as soon as they cool will become easy to handle and a lot more stable.

PS: You CAN use honey or treacle if you HAVE to... but it won't give you the same result and no one will thank you for it! :0)