This week in Australia we remember ANZAC day.

It marks the anniversary of the landing at Gallipoli of the Australian and New Zealand troops during WW1. It is a time when Australians give thanks for the sacrifices that our service men and women (including both of my beloved Granddads) have made for our country. We remember with the Dawn Service, the March and ANZAC biscuits.

The biscuits were originally sent in care packages to troops far off because they were cheap to make, didn’t contain any eggs and they kept well for a long time – after the end of the war they were sold as a fundraiser and today they are the only commercial good allowed to carry the name of ‘ANZAC’. They are delicious and thankfully, very easy to make into an allergy friendly version – plus, you can be very flexible with them based on what you have in your pantry.

See below the recipe for a *coeliac friendly version.

• 1 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup plain flour  (GF flour, spelt, wheat – all work)
• 1/4 cup desiccated coconut
• 1/4 cup of almond meal (or seed meal)**
• 5 tbsp coconut sugar (or other sugar)
• 125g melted butter or oil (coconut oil, olive oil and melted vegan butter all work well, as does a nut oil if it suits you)
• 50g golden syrup/honey/maple syrup
• 1 tsp bicarb soda
• 2 tbsp boiling water.

*For a Coeliac friendly version: you can replace the oats with a mix of rolled quinoa and puffed rice.

**to omit the almond/seed meal, replace it with an extra 1/4 cup coconut.

Mix together the dry ingredients, except the bicarb soda, in a large bowl. (Speed 4, 10 seconds). Then set aside.

In a medium sized saucepan (or microwave), melt together the oi/butter and syrup. (Speed 2, 100C for approx 2 mins)

In a separate bowl, mix together the bicarb and boiling water and then add to the butter/syrup mix. It will froth up to about double the volume.

Add the wet mix to the dry mix and combine well (Speed 4, 8 seconds, scrape down and repeat).

On a greased baking tray place heaped teaspoon-fulls of the mixture and flatten down slightly. They need to have quite a bit of space in between.

Cook in a preheated oven at 170C for about 15-20 mins or until golden brown.

When you remove them from the oven they will be quite soft. They will harden as they cool. Leave them on the tray for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.

 

Makes about 18 biscuits and they keep well in an air tight container for a couple of weeks … but they never last that long in my house!

A double batch of these bikkies is a great solution for Church suppers or bulking up for lunchboxes.

 

Enjoy