Thursday, April 25, 2013

Healthier ANZAC Biscuits

For my international readers who may not know - today (25th April) is a day of remembrance for our troops who have fought at war. We call is ANZAC day (Australian New Zealand Army Corps).  

I really enjoy making ANZAC biscuits each year. 
The story about these biscuits (or so I'm told) is this: the wives used to send these cookies over to their hubbies and they were a recipe that kept well and had no milk or eggs in them! 
Most of the recipes we see these days do contain eggs and or butter even though that is not how traditional ANZAC biscuits made.  
Obviously I don't make them with butter - but this year I took it up another notch & ditched using oil too! I like to make all my recipes as fat free as possible. 


These worked out really really delicious & so much like traditional ANZAC biscuits that I will never go back! 
In fact, who said we just have to have them on ANZAC day - I think I'll have them all year round!


You'll need:
1 cup oats
1 cup wholemeal flour
3/4 cup dessicated coconut
1/3 cup brown sugar (firmly packed)
1/3 cup brown rice malt syrup
1/2 cup apple sauce
2 Tablespoons boiling water
1/2 teaspoon bi-carb soda

In a large mixing bowl combine the oats, flour, coconut & brown sugar.
In a microwave jug combine the rice syrup with the apple sauce and microwave on high for 30 seconds. The rice syrup will be soft & easy to mix. Stir together well.
Combine the bi-carb soda with the boiling water & mix well. The bi-carb soda will froth.
Add the 2 wet mixtures into the dry & stir well.
It will look like its not wet enough but just keep mixing and it will come together.
Wet hands and roll tablespoons of mixture and place on a lined baking tray. Press down.
Bake at 180C for 18-20 minutes until golden brown.

Makes 16 cookies

Inside the cookie - so deliciously light and fluffy yet just the right amount of crispness on the outside:

12 comments:

  1. These look great Sandy - I'm not a huge fan of traditional Anzac biscuits but this version would definitely go down well with me!

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  2. These cookies look absolutely delicious and I love the story behind them. I'll order the ingredients in my next grocery delivery so I can give them a try. I'll have to sub the brown rice syrup as it's not easy to get hold of here, but hopefully they'll still work out okay.

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    1. You could sub golden syrup or other running sticky sweetner in its place!
      I hope you enjoy them - they're very popular here in Oz. :-)

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  3. I can almost smell these:)) I like mine chewy so slightly undercook them!!

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    1. mmmm yes chewy cookies are soooooo good!!!

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  4. Made these for breakfast today. Yum!

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    1. So glad you liked them! They are my husbands favourite!

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  5. I don't care for coconut, what would i substitute for it?

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    1. Sorry, an ANZAC cookie just isn't an Anzac cookie without the coconut. You can leave it out and just have plain cookies, but it's not the traditional flavours of Anzac cookies then.

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  6. Any ideas on replacements for the sugar?

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    1. Sorry, a significant part of an ANZAC biccy is the brown sugar! It just wouldn't be the same without it.

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