Anzac Biscuits

I was never especially patriotic while I actually lived in my home country.  Being Australian was just something I took for granted without needing endless introspection about what it actually meant; notwithstanding the (detestable) then-Prime Minister's attempts to proclaim us, in the proposed preamble to the Australian Constitution, "one nation under God", we knew that Australian-ness wasn't about a shared religion or knowing the definition of "mateship".  'Australian' was just something we happened to be.  Australia Day meant a public holiday and probably good weather allowing a BBQ or trip to the beach.  Anzac Day was another public holiday, less chance of good weather and a gentle reminder, via the dawn parade (which I always knew happened though I never went to watch) and various typical comments in the media, of wartime history and the sacrifices of people long ago.

Now I'm older, more cynical about the world, more nostalgic and further away, I can see Australia from more of an outside perspective.  'Lucky Country': yes; Australia still has one of the best standards of living; things cost more there these days, but that's partly because the country's economy has remained comparatively strong while others are teetering on the verge of ruin.  Certainly lucky compared to so many others where war, disease, poverty, political unrest and violence threaten everyday lives -- but you also have to be lucky to live there; immigration policy and particularly the treatment of refugees remains a contentious issue; our "boundless plains" aren't to share with everyone.  The race riots of mid-last decade in Sydney; the more recent disturbances over Sudanese immigrants in Melbourne; an apparent increase in racially motivated violence, hate crime and people-being-dicks-in-public in the last few years -- all these things make me worry about what sort of society Australia is turning into.  Politics in Australia, since the last election's failure to return either party in a conclusive majority and the scrapping and bargaining that followed it, has become dirty, petty, lowdown and ad hominem.  And more and more people now refer to Australia Day, which commemorates the arrival of the First Fleet (of white British colonists, that is) as "Invasion Day" to acknowledge that Australia was NOT just terra nullius, there for the taking, but that the proclamation of British sovereignty and most of what followed from it was, in fact, an invasion of territory belonging to the indigenous peoples, causing harms which continue to persist to this day.

I'm not sure, amongst all of that, where Anzac Day fits in.  Is it, when wars are still being fought around the world, appropriate simply to remember our compatriots of nearly 100 years ago without wondering whether things have become any better since, and whether we should be trying harder to make them so?  I'm saved from this partly by the fact that it's just another ordinary day here; no holiday to wonder whether we deserve or should be doing something better with.

Of course, I could ponder these questions with a bunch of my non-Australian friends, but I'm not sure what they'd make of it, given that they probably don't even know it's Anzac Day in the first place.  One thing I have found, though, is that given a choice between politics, philosophy and biscuits, most people (NB. this does not apply to the people I work with.  They're strange) will choose the biscuits.  And so that's what I've gone with.

Anzac biscuits are really simple to make, and I would say easy to remember the recipe for except that I had to check, since it's been years since I last made them -- but at least I did remember it right!  I like them still chewy on the inside, not crunchy all the way through; if you like a crisp biscuit then bake for longer until brown almost to the centres.

Anzac Biscuits for an English kitchen
1 cup plain flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup coconut
125g butter
2tbs + 2 tsp golden syrup (the recipe I remember says 2tbs but the Australian tablespoon is 20ml)
1/2 tsp bicarb soda
1 tbs water

Buttery, golden syrupy dough

Preheat oven to 170C.  Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl.  Melt butter, golden syrup and water together in a saucepan; stir in bicarb soda.  Add butter mixture to dry ingredients and mix until well combined and no dry bits remain. 

Roll dessertspoonfuls of mixture into balls (about the size of small walnuts) and place on greased baking trays about 1.5in apart to allow for spreading.  Bake for 10-12 minutes, rotating trays as needed for even cooking.  Biscuits should be golden brown around the edges but still light blonde in the middle; they will firm up as they cool down.

Makes about 28.

Ready for baking!

(Every time I have made these before, placing the uncooked dough on the tray in round balls, they have spread out to become fairly flat biscuits.  This time, for reasons I can't fathom, they have remained more mound-like.  Clearly there are some factors of an English kitchen I haven't yet worked out!  They still taste just as good though...)