Anzac Day 25th April.

ANZAC BISCUITS.
Traditional biscuits baked by anxious mothers and wives during World War 1, packed in food parcels and sent to the Australian soldiers in the trenches. Ingredients.

1 cup Rolled Oats.
3/4 cup Desiccated Coconut.
1 cup Plain Flour.
1 cup Sugar (I used brown)
125g Butter.
2 tablespoons Golden Syrup.
1/2 teaspoon Bicarbonate of Soda.
1 tablespoon Boiling Water.
1 tablespoon *Wattleseed. (I added this but you don't have to)

Method. Preheat oven to 150c and line 2 cookie trays with baking paper.

Mix oats, flour, sugar and coconut in one bowl together. Melt together the butter and syrup in the microwave if you wish, or as I did, in a saucepan over heat. Mix the soda with the boiling water and add to the melted butter mix. Now add the butter mix to the dry ingredients and mix together well with a wooden spoon. Place 1 tablespoon full of the biscuit mixture on to the baking tray. This should make around 35 biscuits. Flatten with a fork and do leave room for spreading. Bake for 20 minutes. Allow to cool on trays.

*Wattleseed is a truely delightful spice from the Australian bush. Has a flavour of rich coffee, chocolate and hazelnut. Mine was given to me by Sharon in Melbourne. Thank you. You can get it from here. www.spicebazaar.com.au

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

Gingered Flapjacks

There are so many recipes out there for flapjacks. This one I used, is from
http://www.scottishrecipes.co.uk/ with the addition of ground ginger.
I know they are simple to make, but today I had the need to make some thing quickly, tasty and without much effort. So on went the air conditioning and then the oven.

The ingredients....

75g of Butter.
75g light Brown Sugar.
1 tablespoon of Golden Syrup.
175g of porridge Oats.
2 tablespoons ground Ginger.

Method....

1. Put the butter, sugar and golden syrup into a saucepan and stir over a low heat until the fat and sugar have melted.
2. Add the ground ginger and porridge oats and blend thoroughly.
3. Press into a well greased 18cm square sandwich tin.
4. Bake in the centre of a moderate oven at 180c for 25 minutes or until evenly golden brown. 5. Mark into fingers whilst warm.
6. Allow to become almost cold in the tin before removing.
7. Enjoy!

Gingered Oat Biscuits

This is a recipe from Violet's mum, Violet being the Violet from Violet's Pantry. A members only forum to which I belong. I thought at first that I would not like these, so I decided to add ground ginger. It did add a nice warmth to the biscuit, but you could leave it out if you wish.

4 oz/100g self raising Flour.

4oz/100g porridge Oats.

½ level teaspoon Bicarbonate of Soda.

4oz/100g Butter.

4oz/100g granulated sugar.

1 rounded tablespoon Golden Syrup.

1/2 tablespoon of ground Ginger.

Heat the oven to 180 c. Grease a large baking tray with butter or line it with parchment paper. Mix flour, oats, ground ginger and bicarbonate of soda together in a bowl put to one side.

Put butter, sugar and golden syrup in a saucepan and heat on a low heat until butter and sugar are melted, stir occasionally, take off heat and stir in the oat mix, beat well with a wooden spoon. Scoop dessertspoons of mixture up and make into ball shapes and place on the prepared baking tray, when the tray is full slightly flatten the balls out with the back of the dessert spoon. Cook in the oven for 15 minutes, when ready remove from the oven and leave to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before moving onto a wire rack.

I actually doubled this recipe and had two trays of 15 biscuits each in the oven at one time.