My Best Anzac Biscuits

You have to make Anzac biscuits on Anzac Day.  Tradition, y'know?  Although I have stuck to this tradition for as long as I can remember, I've not made successful Anzacs before.  This is despite me following recipes, I promise.  I like a chewy biscuit, not too soft, but definitely not in the hard or crunchy classification.  My previous Anzacs have been either too hard for my liking, or so ... Well, soft isn't the word I'm after.  They've turned into one baking tray of something resembling brandy snaps.  Yes, I must have been putting them too close together, and yes, something else must have been wrong for them to spread quite so much.  Edible, and yummy, but not really what I was after.  Every time I had that style of Anzac biscuit disaster I would remember the Anzac Day spent in the U.S. where asking for golden syrup scored us that look of "... Er... You want what now?" so we substituted molasses.  It's not the same.

Today, I found numerous recipes for chewy Anzac biscuits.  I chose the more recent recipe that also used less sugar and coconut.  Success!  These are soft and chewy.  You can find the recipe here, or below:

Ingredients:
1 cup rolled oats (mine were quick oats, thanks to the most recent Queensland floods)
1 cup plain flour
2/3 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup dessicated coconut
125g butter, chopped
2 tablespoons golden syrup
1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda

Method:
Preheat oven to 160C.  Line 3 baking trays with baking paper (I really spread out my biscuits this time, so used 2 trays twice).
Combine oats, flour, sugar, and coconut in a bowl.  Place butter, syrup, and 2 tablespoons cold water in a saucepan over medium heat.  Stir for 2 minutes or until butter has melted, then stir in the bicarb soda.  Stir the butter mix into the oat mix.
Roll level tablespoons of mixture into balls, place onto trays 5cm apart, and flatten slightly.  Bake for 10-12 minutes until lightly golden.  Remove to a wire rack to cool.

I found that at the 10 minute mark I had to swap the trays - the original bottom tray then only needed another minute, the other tray another 4. 
Putting away ingredients while the first batch was baking, I transferred my coconut to a slightly-too-small jar.  So the 2nd batch scored a bonus tablespoon or so of coconut.  This worked.  They didn't spread as much but are still soft and chewy.
Before I tasted these, I was thinking I should just keep baking Anzac biscuits until I come across a recipe that works to my satisfaction.  However, I think I found it!  I'll be transferring this recipe to my trusty old recipe book.  Of course, a few more batches before next Anzac Day just might be in order...

Lemon Delicious

Not much was new today.  I decided not to run so that I could put away washing instead (exciting, huh).  I bashed my wrist so typing and just general movement is awkward (hello, delete).  I did get to see a niece and nephew and their parents (deep sigh of satisfaction...) and I went to the gym between morning students.  Thank goodness for new recipes.

Lemon delicious is something that takes me back to childhood and my grandparents.  My grandma made a beautiful lemon delicious.  I have made citrus delicious and sticky lemon pudding, but never before actual lemon delicious - this recipe is from the fruit cookbook I bought recently (also the source of fruit and cinnamon muffins, and date and cinnamon squares).

Preheat the oven to 180C; grease a 1.25L ovenproof ceramic dish.  (I found the oven was preheated before I'd got to the egg stage - maybe I was having a slow cooking day).

Using an electric beater, beat 60g unsalted butter, 3/4 cup (185g) sugar and 2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest in a bowl until pale and fluffy.  Gradually add 3 egg yolks, beating well after each addition.  Fold in 1/4 cup self-raising flour and 3/4 cup milk alternately to make a smooth, thin batter.  Stir in 1/4 cup lemon juice (I had a super-juicy lemon, and just one provided more than enough juice).

Whisk 3 egg whites in a clean, dry bowl until firm peaks form.  With a large metal spoon, fold a third of the egg white into the batter to loosen (not sure what they mean by that).  Gently fold in the remaining egg white, being careful not to overmix.

Pour batter into the prepared dish and place in a large roasting tin.  Pour enough hot water into the tin to come a third of the way up the side of the dish.  Bake for 55 minutes (took an hour here) until the pudding has risen and the top is golden and firm to touch.  Leave for 5 minutes before serving.  Dust with icing sugar and serve with cream (or, you know, ice cream or quark if you have nothing else!).

My house now smells of lemon and baking and childhood.  Lovely.

Today's photo:

In December, I babysat my niece and we made biscuits.  We made some more today - except they were the end of a batch I made a couple of weeks ago and froze.  Defrost, heat oven, roll (tiny) bits into balls ("I did it! I did it!"), put on trays, bake for 10 minutes.  Take photo of finished product while it cools.  Eat biscuits, and pack some to take for later.

Exercising Restraint

This morning, I made biscuits.

I only had one student this morning (bliss!), and I had a meeting in the afternoon which required me to bring something to share.  So once the student was done, at 9am, I baked.  This was so nice.  Made me wish for a normal job (you know, 9-5, Monday - Friday), so that I could actually have a weekend.  Excuse me while I have a giggle.

Now, this biscuit recipe I have used many times.  Many, many times.  And it's basic enough that it can withstand substitutions quite easily.  It's in the Donna Hay Off the Shelf book (Food Processor Biscuits).  Today I used more than the recommended 1 cup of chocolate chips (I had about 1 1/3 cups of dark chocolate melts which I broke into pieces), and I used dried apricots instead of raisins.  Partly because that's what was in the cupboard, and partly because comments on past baking has been the raisins are just mean - you think you're getting chocolate when in fact it's vaguely healthy instead.  At least when you bite into a piece of apricot there are no illusions.

The main thing for today, though, is that this recipe apparently makes 25 biscuits.  I always have more than that, as 2 tablespoons per biscuit is a lot of biscuit dough.  Now, I bake 10 biscuits per tray, so I'm always left with a certain amount of dough which will obviously not make a whole extra tray of biscuits.  I must admit, usually this ends with me just eating the remainder of the biscuit dough.  Enjoying it, yes, until I've finished it...  But today I thought, I'm going to bake a half-tray's worth of biscuits.  Which ended up being 8 biscuits anyway, so the total number was 38.  Totally feeling virtuous.