Anzac Biscuits

Ingredients
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup brown sugar
¹⁄₂ cup unsalted butter
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons boiling water

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350*F.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper. 

2. Mix together flour, oats, coconut and sugar on low speed. 

3. In a small saucepan, over low heat, combine the butter and honey.  Stir until melted.  Mix the baking soda and the boiling water and add to the butter mixture.  Pour the butter mixture into the dry ingredients and mix well. 

4. Spoon tablespoon-sized dollops of the dough onto parchment paper, allowing plenty of space for the cookies to spread.  Bake for 9 minutes, switching the sheets halfway through baking. 

5. Cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheets before removing to wire rack.  Cool completely before storing. 

Comments
I’ve heard nothing but praise for Anzac Biscuits from my Australia-dwelling friends, so I decided to try them out during my 2010 holiday baking.  A friend sent me a few recipes to consider and I ended up picking this one since I recognized all of the ingredients. 

And that was the easiest part of the process. 

My first mistake was to try to bake 16 cookies on the first two sheets to go in the oven.  They flattened and expanded significantly during baking and ended up covering the entire sheet.  Oops.  This problem was rectified by only baking 6 cookies per sheet for future sheets. 

My second mistake was the timing.  The recipe said to bake the cookies for 15-20 minutes.  My oven tends to run cool, so I opted for the higher number since that has served me well with all the other cookies I have baked.  It didn’t work so well for these cookies.  The sugars caramelized and burned, but the failed cookies made great dog treats…  I experimented with times for subsequent sheets and decided that 9 minutes was pretty much perfect. 

I’m glad that I made these cookies on the third day of baking; since I probably would have given up on cookie baking all together if I had tried them earlier. 

As for taste, they’re delicious, buttery, and sweet.  The individual flavors of the oatmeal and coconut aren’t very discernable, and I’m not sure I’ll be making these again in the future, but they’re different and tasty nonetheless.

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