Baking (or buying) Anzac biscuits is traditional come 25 April, many Australian families have a favourite recipe and there are endless debates over whether they should be crunchy or soft.

Curiously enough, the biscuit that most of us know and love, made from rolled oats and golden syrup, is nothing like the historical “Anzac biscuits” that were a staple of soldiers’ rations at Gallipoli.

The hardtack biscuits were a nutritional reserve for bread, that unlike bread would not go mouldy. As the name suggests, hardtack biscuits were extremely tough. Hence, on Gallipoli where the fresh food and water was scarce, the biscuits were infamously used and consumed.

Soldiers were crafty in making them easier to swallow. An article by the Australian War Memorial describes a kind of porridge that could be made by shaving hardtack biscuits and adding water. They could also be soaked in water and mixed with jam, to bake over a fire into “jam tarts”.

The Australian War Memorial has kept a number of hardtack biscuits in their collection; understandably, given how creative soldiers would get with non-culinary uses for the biscuits.

So durable were they that soldiers would write messages on them to send back home across long distances. They used the biscuits as paint canvases, and even photo frames.

One biscuit in the Memorial’s collection shows a small coloured painting of an island scene on one side, and on the other side reads ‘XMAS CARDS ARE VERY SCARCE SO WE WROTE IT ON A BISCUIT’.

The origin of the sweet Anzac biscuit is ultimately unknown, but from the 1920s onwards, they’ve held a special place in most Australian recipe books and households.

History sourced from the Australian War Memorial website, learn more at awm.gov.au

Traditional Anzac biscuits recipe

Makes 15 biscuits | Prep 20 mins | Cook 12 mins

Recipe and image courtesy of Uncle Toby’s.

• 1 1/4 cups of plain flour, sifted
• 1 cup Traditional Rolled Oats
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 3/4 cup desiccated coconut
• 150g unsalted butter, chopped
• 2 Tbsp golden syrup
• 1 1/2 Tbsp boiling water
• 1/2 tsp bicarb soda

Preheat oven to 170°C.

Place the flour, oats, sugar, and coconut in a large bowl and stir to combine.

In a small saucepan place the golden syrup and butter and stir over low heat until the butter has fully melted.

Mix the bicarb soda with 1 1/2 Tbsp boiling water and add to the golden syrup mixture. It will bubble whilst you are stirring together so remove from the heat.

Pour into the dry ingredients and mix together until fully combined. Roll tablespoonfuls of mixture into balls and place on baking trays lined with non-stick baking paper, pressing down on the tops to flatten slightly.

Bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown.

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