Celebrating Anzac Day

7 Comments

• Ganga108  on  April 23, 2023

  Weirdly enough, Maggie’s biscuits (pictured) do not conform to the official recipe (https://anzacportal.dva.gov.au/commemoration/event-planning/anzac-biscuits) and according to the Australian Department of Veteran Affairs, should be called something other than Anzac biscuits (https://www.dva.gov.au/sites/default/files/2022-11/guidelines-use-of-the-word-anzac-nov22.pdf). Their shape is different too.

  There is a book written about Anzac biscuits – it is well researched and a very interesting read: Anzac biscuits : the power and spirit of an everyday national icon / Allison Reynolds. It has been a while since I read it, but I am not sure Jamie Oliver is correct. Either way, Allison Reynolds talks about the Anzac biscuit here: https://www.homestolove.com.au/is-this-australias-oldest-anzac-biscuit-recipe-11895

  BTW, I like my Anzac biscuits flat and chewy, and made them for my wider family for many years.

• valbe  on  April 23, 2023

  This is a bit of a coincidence as I just finished baking a batch of Anzacs biscuits! The recipe I use is in the Australian Women’s Weekly Old-Fashioned Favourites. The almost identical recipe is in AWW’s The Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits which is online. The foreword in the Old-Fashioned Favourites cookbook confirms the suggestion that the biscuits were made as fund-raisers after the war. I’m a bit curious though about the ‘husbands and girlfriends’; shouldn’t it be ‘wives and girlfriends’ ?? (not sure now with our present day gender issues!)
  They are so easy to make I can’t ever imagine buying them. I add a few raisins and sunflowers seeds so not exactly dinky-di nor true blue Aussie but as I live in Canada I feel I can get away with it.

• Darcie  on  April 23, 2023

  You’re right, I was typing without thinking – I fixed it to say “wives and girlfriends” although today I suppose the other way could work too!

• debkellie  on  April 23, 2023

  ANZAC biscuit trivia: The ANZAC biscuit recipe is actually protected by law. The “officially endorsed” recipe (from Arnott’s) can be found at this link: https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/encyclopedia/anzac/biscuit/recipe
  The history, as suggested by Jamie Oliver, that the Country Women’s Association (CWA) invented & sold them for fund-raising is also disputed by Australia’s War Memorial. The first published recipe was in a book called “The War Chest Cookery Book” published in 1917, and authored by the Citizen’s War Chest Fund (NSW). The CWA didn’t publish their variations (one with coconut, one without) until 1933 in their “Calendar of Cake and Afternoon Tea Delicacies: a recipe for each day of the year” (Sydney: The Association, 1933). And don’t dare call it a “cookie” 😉

• debkellie  on  April 23, 2023

  More Anzac trivia: extracted from the Australian Government regulations on the use of the word Anzac in relation to biscuits:
  “Anzac Biscuits
  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’). Where a recipe or the finished product substantially deviate from the generally accepted form (e.g. include ingredients such as chocolate or fruit), the manufacturer should consider renaming them so that the word ‘Anzac’ is not used. Each year DVA declines applications for permits where products include the word ‘Anzac’ but which do not bear any resemblance to generally accepted forms of Anzac biscuits – some examples include ‘Choc Chip Anzac Biscuits’, ‘Anzac cheesecake’, ‘Anzac muffin’ and ‘Anzac sandwich’. ”
  https://www.dva.gov.au/sites/default/files/2022-11/guidelines-use-of-the-word-anzac-nov22.pdf

• bittrette  on  May 4, 2023

  So there’s an official government recipe? If I were ever to eat this sort of baked treat, it would have to be the “we can’t call them ANZAC” type. I’m a garlic disliker, but I’m a coconut hater.
  I’m told (I don’t remember where) that coconut haters are rare in Australia. Don’t know about New Zealand.

• MelW66  on  May 7, 2023

  When I was a little girl (late 1960s to 1970s) my great grandmother (1891-1984) used to bake ANZAC biscuits and tell us the story of them every ANZAC day when all the men went off to the ANZAC march in Hyde park or Martin Place (Sydney). We would have the biscuits while watching the parade on TV (in black and white). Her story was that she baked them with her mother and packed them up to send to their husbands and sons and brothers etc who were fighting in the war. She told us the men said this was what sustained them while they were in the trenches. I never heard that from the men but they never returned sober from the march and I didn’t think to ask after that. For many years we only had ANZAC biscuits on ANZAC day, but then we hardly ever had biscuits anyway. So, this is just the story that I know, from my family.