Anzac Biscuits — oat, coconut and golden-syrup biscuits

i. Origin & history

ANZAC stands for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, the force that landed at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. The date became Anzac Day, the main day of remembrance in both countries, and the biscuit that carries the name became one of its most familiar rituals.

The popular story is that wives and mothers baked these biscuits and posted them to soldiers at the front because, without eggs, they survived the long voyage. Historians are more cautious. Oat-and-syrup biscuits certainly existed before the war — rolled oats were a Scottish staple carried to both countries — and biscuits like them were sent in parcels, but much of the baking seems to have been done at home to sell at fêtes and street stalls to raise money for the war effort. Recipes printed under the name 'Anzac biscuits' appear in community cookbooks in the years just after the war, and Australia and New Zealand still good-naturedly dispute which came first. Coconut seems to have entered the standard recipe during the 1920s.

The lack of eggs is often presented as a deliberate preservation measure. More likely it reflects wartime scarcity and the fact that oat biscuits bound with syrup simply did not need them. Either way, the result is a biscuit that keeps very well, which suits its role as something baked in quantity and shared.

There is also a soldiers' 'Anzac biscuit' that has nothing to do with this one: the hard, dry ration biscuit or hardtack — the 'Anzac wafer' or 'Anzac tile' — issued to troops, notorious for being hard enough to break teeth. The sweet oat biscuit is the home-front version, not the trench one.

Because the word Anzac is protected by law in both Australia and New Zealand, commercial bakers may only sell 'Anzac biscuits' that stay close to the traditional recipe and shape, and official guidance discourages calling them 'Anzac cookies'. That protection is part of why the recipe has changed so little in a hundred years.

ii. What the golden syrup and bicarbonate do

The method is unusual: the butter and golden syrup are melted together, then bicarbonate of soda dissolved in boiling water is stirred in, and the mixture foams up dramatically before being poured into the dry ingredients. That foaming is the key to the biscuit.

Golden syrup is slightly acidic, and bicarbonate of soda is alkaline. When they meet in the hot liquid they react, releasing carbon dioxide. Some of that gas lightens the dough so the biscuits spread and form a slightly open, crackled texture rather than a dense puck. The rest of the bicarbonate stays in the dough and makes it more alkaline, which speeds up browning reactions in the oven — that is why Anzacs turn such a deep, even golden brown at a moderate temperature, and why they taste of toffee.

There are no eggs to hold the dough together, so the binding comes from the melted butter and syrup coating the oats and coconut. As the biscuits cool, the sugars set and glue everything into place. This is why the biscuits are soft and fragile straight from the oven and firm up on the tray.

Chewy versus crisp is the great Anzac argument, and it is controlled by three things. Baking time: pull them when the edges are golden and the centres pale and soft for chewy; leave a few minutes more until evenly deep brown for crisp. Sugar: brown sugar holds more moisture and gives chew; white sugar gives snap. Thickness: thicker balls flattened less stay chewier in the middle.

iii. Ingredients

Makes 24 servings · scroll the side panel to adjust

• 100 g rolled oats
• 150 g plain flour
• 85 g desiccated coconut
• 150 g light brown sugar
• 125 g butter
• 2 tbsp golden syrup
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2 tbsp boiling water

Use traditional rolled oats, not quick oats, which turn pasty, or steel-cut oats, which stay hard. Golden syrup is essential to the flavour and the chemistry; honey burns faster and tastes different, and maple syrup lacks the acidity, though both work at a pinch. Desiccated coconut — fine, dry and unsweetened — is standard; shredded or flaked coconut gives a coarser, more uneven biscuit. Brown sugar is the usual choice for chewy biscuits; swap half for caster sugar for crisper ones. Salted butter is perfectly traditional; with unsalted, add a pinch of salt. For gluten-free Anzacs use a gluten-free flour blend and certified gluten-free oats; for a vegan version use a firm plant-based block butter.

iv. Method

1. Heat the oven to 170 °C (340 °F), or 155 °C fan. Line two large baking trays with baking paper.
2. In a large bowl, combine the oats, flour, coconut and sugar, breaking up any lumps of sugar with your fingers. Make a well in the centre.
3. Melt the butter and golden syrup together in a medium saucepan over low heat, stirring, until smooth. Take it off the heat.
4. Dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in the boiling water in a cup, then pour it into the hot butter mixture. It will foam up and roughly double in volume — stir once and immediately pour the foaming liquid into the dry ingredients.
5. Mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon until there are no dry patches. The dough should be moist and clump together when squeezed; if it is too crumbly, add a teaspoon of water.
6. Roll level tablespoons of dough into balls and place them on the trays at least 5 cm apart — they spread considerably. Flatten each one gently with your fingers or the back of a fork to about 1 cm thick.
7. Bake one tray at a time for 10–12 minutes for chewy biscuits, until the edges are golden but the centres still look soft, or 14–16 minutes for crisp ones, until evenly deep golden-brown.
8. Leave on the tray for 5 minutes to firm up, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. They harden as they cool.

v. Tips & common mistakes

• Add the bicarbonate to the hot liquid, not the dry mix. The reaction needs the heat and the syrup's acidity. Stirred into the flour, the soda stays unreacted and leaves a soapy, metallic taste.
• Pour while it is still foaming. The gas escapes quickly. Waiting a few minutes gives flatter, denser biscuits.
• Space them generously. Anzacs spread more than most biscuits; crowded on the tray they fuse into one large sheet.
• Watch the last two minutes. The high sugar content and the alkaline dough mean they go from golden to burnt very quickly. Rotate the tray halfway if your oven has hot spots.
• Do not judge doneness by firmness. Every Anzac is soft straight from the oven. Judge by colour, then let them set on the tray.
• Soft biscuits next day? Re-crisp them. Five minutes at 160 °C restores crispness to biscuits that have absorbed moisture; store crisp and chewy batches separately.

vi. Variations

The protected commercial recipe stays classic, but home bakers adapt freely. Anzac slice presses the same dough into a tin and cuts it into bars. Common additions include macadamias, sultanas, a little ground ginger or orange zest, and, less traditionally, dipping half of each biscuit in dark chocolate. Some New Zealand family recipes use more coconut and white sugar for a crisper, paler biscuit.

The flavour family is old British baking: golden syrup and oats also define Yorkshire parkin and flapjacks, and the treacly snap of brandy snaps comes from the same syrup. Other Australian classics on the same morning-tea plate include lamingtons, caramel slice and, at children's parties, fairy bread.

vii. Serving & storage

Anzac biscuits are an everyday biscuit-tin staple with a cup of tea, and a fixture of Anzac Day itself — eaten after dawn services, sold at fundraisers, and baked by schoolchildren learning the story behind them. They need no accompaniment, though they are excellent crumbled over vanilla ice cream.

Store them in an airtight tin at room temperature, where they keep well for up to 2 weeks. Crisp biscuits slowly soften in humid weather; chewy ones gradually firm up. The dough can be rolled into balls and refrigerated for 3 days or frozen for 3 months, then baked straight from the freezer with an extra 2 minutes. Baked biscuits also freeze well for 3 months.

ix. More from Oceania

• Lamingtons — chocolate-and-coconut sponge squares
• Caramel Slice — Australian millionaire's shortbread
• Fairy Bread — hundreds-and-thousands party bread
• Pineapple Cake — upside-down pineapple sponge
• Parkin — Yorkshire oat and treacle cake
• Shortbread — Scottish butter biscuit