Anzac biscuits are very popular in Australia and New Zealand and are typically made for morning or afternoon tea and on Anzac day 26 April.
Anzac day commemorates the sacrifice of Australian and new Zealand soldiers in WW I in Gallipoli. Read a bit about it very interesting history .
The biscuits themselves are made from Oats and butter and golden Syrup can be baked to be chewy or crisp depending on how you like them. I used to make them in hundreds when i worked for aged care in Sydney with a bomb proof recipe which worked very well. This recipe will make you about 40, but you can easily multiply by10/20 time to make it bulk qtys.
Flour 300 g
Oats120 g
Dessicated coconut 75 p
Sugar350 g
Golden syrup 100 g
Butter 250 g
Water 25 g
Baking soda/ Soda bicarb 10 g
The method is really simple.
Mix all the dry ingredients together.
Mix soda with water and dissolve it. Dont be tempted to add more otherwise will taste terrible and soapy.
Melt butter and golden syrup gently. You can replace half the golden syrup with some manuka honey for a twist on the flavor which is quite nice.
Make small balls and place on a tray lined with baking paper
Bake in preheated oven for 8-9 mins and let them cool down on the tray.
If you like your anzac biscuits a bit crisper then pop them back in the oven as its cooling in down for another 5 mins but not right away otherwise they will burn.
I made up this recipe so that we can use up extra calamansi grown by my aunt ( mami in marathi), Sushama Patwardhan who is an excellent cook and enthusiastic about all her pursuits .
Ingredients
3 eggs
125 g sugar
½ tsp vanilla essence
150 g plain flour +
10 g baking powder
Sieve well together to combine all
Or a mix of flour/ almond powder / cornflour ( 150 g total)
and baking powder ( 10 g)
75 g butter+
75 g oil (melt the two gently)
Slice calamansi 2-3 to lay at base of the cake.
Juice and grated rind of 1-2 calamansi .
For the caramelized calamanai at the base
Sugar 40 g
Butter-20 g
Preheat oven to 180 C first
Make your cake tin and line with baking paper next.
Melt butter and oil
Sieve or mix flour and
baking powder mix well together
Put slices of calamansi on bottom on cake tin( 8 inch).
Make caramel add butter to it and a teaspoon of water . Pour over the slice of calamansi.
Whisk eggs till really thick and fluffy with the sugar . Add in rind and juice of calamansi and vanilla. Gently add in the melted butter and oil mix.
Gently fold in flour and bp mix.
Pour mixture in cake tin making sure it’s evenly spread.
In commercial baking they talk about bakers formula and that makes life so much easier rather than trying to remember a recipe with exact details.
I will give you an example of a simple bread formula using bakers percentage. In this the flour is Always taken as a100%.and everything else is taken in proportion to the flour .
Flour 100%
Water or liquid -65%
Active dry yeast -2%
Sugar 2%
Salt2%
Oil/fat-5%
So I were to put a weight on this I could say
Flour 1000g
Water 650g
Yeast 20g
Salt 20g
Oil/butter -50g
The method stays the same . Mix flour with water sugar and yeast then add in the water .add salt and oil in the end .
♦This hot cross bun comes from the pastry maestro Angelo Roche, who was our batch coordinator and trainer many many many moons back in 1994.. I was able to catch up with him again when i moved to Sydney from Aotearoa.
There are 2 parts to the recipe, nay 3 including the cross on the top
The Tanzhong- cooked starch paste- which makes them soft and fluffy.
water- 65g
milk -60 g
flour – 25 g
mix well together and microwave for 30 seconds or if you have a fancy 30k Rational Combi oven steam it there for 5 minutes. The idea is to have a cooked starch paste as the base for the recipe, which then makes the buns super soft and increases shelf life.
The next part has
tangzhong- 120 g-
milk-120 g
milk powder-7 g
sugar-35 g
yeast- 6 g
raisins- 100 g or mix of raisins , currants and mixed peel.
flour- 350 g
allspice- 1 g
cinnamon- 1g
Butter 30 g soft
cardamom- pinch
egg- 1 ea
salt- 5g
Mix warm tangzhong , with milk flour and yeast and set aside to bubble bubble boil and trouble.
Hehe no incantations required just cos it’s a rich dough do need to activate the yeast a bit more really.
Then add everything else except salt and butter, which goes in the end .
Form the dough, keep it covered in a warmish place ..you know the drill.
Once proofed, knock back, divide into equal sizes -(50 g ) each roughly and arrange on a baking tray close to each other .
For the third part cos the power of three shall set us free.
Flour 250 g
Oil 75 g
Water 300 g
Mix oil and flour and then add water to form a smooth paste which can be piped.
Pipe horizontally on the buns , then vertically.
proof till nearly doubled in size, brush with egg wash. and bake in preheated oven at 180 C for 12-15 mins.
stories of foods from the world over, laced with a hint of sarcasm and some black humour, its not for everyone, but then never was meant to be..
Anzac biscuits are very popular in Australia and New Zealand and are typically made for morning or afternoon tea and on Anzac day 26 April.
Calamansi upside down cake.