My understanding is they were originally made hard so they could last the distance of travel and wouldn’t go mouldy before receiving them. Once they arrived soldiers dipped them into their drinks to make them soft and palatable.
I have no literature on this but I’m sure there is.
The original recipie was different - didn’t have any butter or baking soda or coconut in it. Yes, they were iron rations - and about as hard as iron too. Had to last through a long sea voyage through tropical waters with no refrigeration without spoiling. And could be eaten by both men and horses for a quick energy boost. Cheap ingredients that could be made by anyone with a woodstove and a husband/son at the frontline. One of the most outstandingly successful examples of getting the home front involved in a war without putting them at risk.
Modern recipie is different - and is inherently much softer. And burns a lot more easily (the coconut) so is baked for a crispy outside and a chewy inside so the bikkies don’t burn. If baked until juuuuust a little bit burned at the edges, they’re the absolute best bikkies to use for a cheesecake crust.
Should be outlawed, but I concede that it does make anzacs biteable when cooked too long (crispy). Can be replaced with an equal volume of rolled oats without changing the bikkie too much if cooked chewy. And coconut is essential for impossible pie cos specific gravity. All other uses of coconut come under the rubric of cruel and unusual punishment. Yes I’m including lamingtons in this.
It’s very similar to a basic ANZAC bikkie recipie - just baked in a slice tin and not separately. The chewy in the middle is the best part imo.
ANZAC biscuits should NEVER be chewy. They should be hard like break teeth hard.
WRONG! Should be crisp on the outside and chewy in the middle! I will die on this hill.
My understanding is they were originally made hard so they could last the distance of travel and wouldn’t go mouldy before receiving them. Once they arrived soldiers dipped them into their drinks to make them soft and palatable.
I have no literature on this but I’m sure there is.
I know what people prefer though.
The original recipie was different - didn’t have any butter or baking soda or coconut in it. Yes, they were iron rations - and about as hard as iron too. Had to last through a long sea voyage through tropical waters with no refrigeration without spoiling. And could be eaten by both men and horses for a quick energy boost. Cheap ingredients that could be made by anyone with a woodstove and a husband/son at the frontline. One of the most outstandingly successful examples of getting the home front involved in a war without putting them at risk.
Modern recipie is different - and is inherently much softer. And burns a lot more easily (the coconut) so is baked for a crispy outside and a chewy inside so the bikkies don’t burn. If baked until juuuuust a little bit burned at the edges, they’re the absolute best bikkies to use for a cheesecake crust.
WE DIE WITH HONOUR
wait. What are your opinions on the inclusion of coconut.
Should be outlawed, but I concede that it does make anzacs biteable when cooked too long (crispy). Can be replaced with an equal volume of rolled oats without changing the bikkie too much if cooked chewy. And coconut is essential for impossible pie cos specific gravity. All other uses of coconut come under the rubric of cruel and unusual punishment. Yes I’m including lamingtons in this.
WE DIE WITH HONOUR!
That’s gingernuts. The soft ones are an abomination.