ANZAC Slice | Super Easy Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What makes Anzac biscuits crunchy or chewy? ›

According to taste.com.au Food Editor Miranda Payne, the traditional Anzac biscuit was the harder, crunchy version. Over time, the original recipe was modified with variations being cooked for less time (making them chewier) or adding more sugar (so they're super crispy).

This gets added to the wet ingredients to add moisture to the cookies without adding extra greasiness. Baking Soda. Baking soda or bicarb soda is the main raising agent in Anzac biscuits - it is added to the wet ingredients before being mixed into the dry ingredients.

Anzac biscuits are quite soft when you first take them from the oven so just leave them on the trays to cool completely and firm up before removing them.

It's a combination of caramelising sugar, toasting oats and coconut, and browning butter, and it is completely and utterly irresistible. And while you're at it, these biscuits lend themselves beautifully to experimentation – some dried tropical fruit, a dunk in chocolate, or a dash of maple syrup would be perfect.

If golden syrup isn't a regular in your pantry (Lyle's is the brand if you're in the US), you can substitute maple syrup or even honey. It will be a different flavour profile, of course, but it will work and still be very good.

The ingredients they used were rolled oats, sugar, plain flour, coconut, butter, golden syrup or treacle, bi-carbonate of soda and boiling water. All these items did not readily spoil. At first the biscuits were called Soldiers' Biscuits, but after the landing on Gallipoli, they were renamed ANZAC Biscuits.

If your Anzacs spread, your butter was too warm. Chill them for at least 30 minutes before baking, and this should help.

If you prefer a chewy Anzac biscuit, bake for 10-12 minutes until only lightly golden on the edges. They will be soft when removing from the oven but firm up once cooled. If you prefer a crunchy Anzac biscuit, replace the caster sugar with brown sugar and bake for 12-15 minutes until very golden brown on the edges.

Just wrap a cookie or two in a damp paper towel and then put them in the microwave for about 10 to 15 seconds. The moisture from the paper towel should soften the cookies right up. So if you wonder how to soften hard cookies quickly? Microwave is the way!

Anzac biscuits have long been associated with the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) established in World War I. It is thought that these biscuits were sent by wives and women's groups to soldiers abroad because the ingredients do not spoil easily and the biscuits kept well during naval transportation.

What does Anzac stand for? ›

ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. Anzac Day falls on the 25th of April each year. The 25th of April was officially named Anzac Day in 1916. On the 25th of April 1915, Australian and New Zealand soldiers formed part of the allied expedition that set out to capture the Gallipoli peninsula.

The use of the word 'Anzac' in the commercial production and sale of Anzac biscuits is usually approved, however the biscuits must not substantially deviate from the generally accepted recipe and shape, and must be referred to as 'Anzac Biscuits' or 'Anzac Slice' (not 'Anzac Cookies').

chewy vs crispy is a combination of 2 things… ratio of fats to flour, and baking times/temps.. for more chewy cake like cookies, you want something with a high fat, content cooked at a lower longer temperature… for a more crispy or dryer cooking you want a lower fat batter cooked at a high temperature.

The biscuits needed to travel and keep well for several months on their journey from Australia to the ANZAC – Australian and New Zealand Army Corps in Gallipoli and the Western Front. They were traditionally hard tack biscuits, a bread substitute that had a long shelf life.

To prepare crunchy biscuits, reduce the amount of ingredients that tend to retain moisture, such as 00 type flour, eggs or brown sugar. Prefer white granulated sugar or corn syrup instead, for drier biscuits.

If your biscuits are too tough…

Biscuit dough is moist and sticky, so much so that it may seem too wet after you've added all your flour. If you do think this about your dough, fight the urge to add more dry ingredients — dough that isn't wet enough will bake into a hard, dry biscuit.