This week, I really fancied baking biscuits. I like baking biscuits.
Relatively-speaking, they are not difficult to prepare and bake, and are quick to put together, but the results are delicious and always popular with family and friends.
There’s nothing quite like a plate of home-baked cookies or crunchy biscuits with a pot of coffee or tea to raise the spirits. And when they’re baking, the sweet scent fills the warm kitchen, tingling the senses. You find people start to appear gradually, making murmuring sounds. They never last long once baked.
So I decided to make a biscuit I’d heard of many times, but never attempted myself – the famous Anzac Biscuit. Appearing, with the usual fog of ambiguity, somewhere around 1917, these biscuits have since become a staple of home baking in both Australia and New Zealand.
Named after the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps, a combined military force created just before the battle of Gallipoli, it has long been thought that the biscuits, being pretty indestructible, were so-called because they were sent overseas all the way across the world without risk of spoiling.
As it is, and I’m sure some biscuits were sent to the forces in such a way, the name Anzac refers to their being popular at fetes, galas and other fundraising events back in the Southern Hemisphere.
To this day, when the biscuits are manufactured by most bakery companies, a certain percentage of their price is given to Armed Forces charities.
Anzacs are simple things, made using oats and coconut, and have a wonderfully warm, cereal flavour, spiked with the intense coconut-y aroma. Delightful just as they are (and I must report that they are excellent dunkers) I wanted to fancy things up a little and make them a little more substantial, so I thought of a nice custard-y icing, packed with fresh vanilla seeds, along with a nice sharp raspberry jam. Raspberries and coconuts go so well together, which is odd, and flies in the face of the generally-agreed-upon rule that ‘what grows together goes together’.
Although, I suppose that Australia is one of the few countries of the world that can grow raspberries and coconuts on the same land mass, and probably at the same time, although separated by thousands of miles, having both temperate and tropical regions.
Geography lesson over, it’s safe to say that these two ingredients complement each other wonderfully, the tart fruit blending so well with the creamy aromatic coconut in many ways. It’s a classic combination that we’ve visited many times, and is a cake-baker’s staple. For the buttercream, I relied on my standard Custard Cream biscuit filling, bolstered with custard powder and fresh vanilla, for a real depth of flavour.
These biscuits make quite a substantial afternoon treat, when enjoyed with a lovely pot of strong tea, and you’ll feel terribly pleased with yourself at having made them all from scratch.
For the biscuits:
180g porridge oats
150g plain flour
150g unrefined golden caster sugar
60g desiccated coconut
115g golden syrup
125g unsalted butter
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
2 tablespoons hot water
For the custard cream filling:
100g icing sugar, sifted
1 tbsp custard powder
50g unsalted butter, softened
1 vanilla pod, seeds removed
1 tsp boiling water
For the raspberry fridge jam
750g fresh raspberries
375g jam sugar
Extras:
Baking parchment
Method:
Let’s make the jam first. Lightly crush the fruit with a wooden spoon, and tip into a non-reactive pan along with the sugar. Gently heat to dissolve the sugar, then bring up to a rolling boil, and allow it to bubble away, stirring, for 5-6 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. Pour into a suitable container. Remember that this isn’t proper jam, not having quite as much sugar, and it won’t keep for half as long. Keep it in the fridge.
Make the cream filling next. Sift the icing sugar and custard powder into the bowl of a food mixer then blend in the butter on a gentle setting. Add the vanilla seeds, then add the boiling water, blending the mixture for at least 10 minutes, until very smooth and creamy. Set aside until ready to use. It will stiffen in the fridge, and you’ll need to let it warm back up before making the biscuits.
Now for the biscuits; preheat the oven to 170°C / Gas 3. Place the oats, sugar and coconut in a bowl and mix to combine. Sift in the flour and mix well. Place the golden syrup and butter in a heavy saucepan over a gentle heat and cook, stirring all the time, until melted.
Combine the bicarbonate of soda with the water and add to the butter mixture. Careful, it will foam up quite dramatically! Pour this into the oaty mixture and mix well to combine. Place tablespoonfuls of the mixture onto baking trays lined with baking parchment and flatten out to rough 7cm rounds, allowing each biscuit plenty of room to spread. Bake for 8–10 minutes or until deep golden. Allow to cool on baking trays for 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.
Pipe or spoon a little custard filling onto half of the biscuits, and a dollop of jam on top of that.
Gently press the upper halves of the biscuits and allow the icing to firm up slightly before serving.
