Chewy Anzac Biscuits

An easy recipe for Anzac Biscuits with just 6 ingredients and no eggs. We use self raising flour and quick oats to give these biscuits deliciously crispy outsides and extra chewy insides. Let’s get baking!

Why We Love This

There’s nothing better than a tray of freshly baked biscuits straight out of the oven. The whole house smells great and you get a sweet treat or two as well.

Cheap to make and super easy to mix together, we love that they don’t need eggs either!

We’ve made these Anzac biscuits with self raising flour and quick oats, which makes them lighter and chewier than the traditional crunchy style. They’re delicious as a snack or dessert, slightly crispy on the outside but soft on the inside.

Related: Grandma’s Scones / Chocolate Weetbix Slice / Vegemite on Toast

What are Anzac Biscuits? 

Anzac biscuits are sweet oat biscuits popular in Australia and New Zealand. Much like pavlova and ginger kisses, ownership is hotly debated between the two countries!

Traditionally, they are firm, crunchy, long life biscuits that soldiers would eat as a substitute for bread during wartime. Because of this, they were also sometimes known as hardtack, Anzac tile or Anzac wafers.

These days, they’re most often enjoyed on Anzac Day (25th April), or even Australia Day (26th January), but we love enjoying them any time of year.

Where We Learned These

As kids, we’d often have them in our school lunchboxes as a tasty treat. Sometimes, Laura’s mum would bake a tray to take to class parties, along with chocolate covered lamingtons. They make a deliciously sweet contrast to other party favourites like homemade party pies and sausage rolls!

Why Were They Created?

There are two main origin stories for Anzac biscuits, both originating around World War 1 – hence the name ANZAC which stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. 

Some records say they were invented to send to soldiers. Since they’re made without egg, they travel well and last much longer than other biscuits. It’s also said they were made at home to sell and raise funds for the war.

Cool Fact #1 – According to this article, the first recorded instance of the named ‘Anzac Biscuit’ recipe dates back to 1919 or 1920 over a hundred years ago in our home town of Adelaide .

Cool Fact #2 – Did you know it’s technically illegal to call these Anzac cookies (but only if you plan to sell them commercially). In Australia, we always call them biscuits.

What You’ll Need

Chances are you already have everything you need to make Anzac biscuits on hand!

• Oats – You can use rolled oats or quick oats / instant oats if you prefer. Rolled oats tend to lead to a crunchier biscuit, while quick oats lead to softer, chewy Anzac biscuits.
• Sugar – You can use regular white sugar, caster sugar (aka superfine sugar), raw sugar or brown sugar. Different styles of sugar may change the flavour profile, but you’ll still end up with a deliciously sweet biscuit.
• Self Raising Flour – A lot of recipes traditionally use baking powder and plain flour for the mixture, but we prefer to use self-raising flour to achieve the same result more quickly and easily. If you only have plain flour, add 2 tsp baking powder.
• Butter – Salted or unsalted butter is fine, depending on your preference. We tend to use salted cooking butter for most of our baking (when appropriate), because the salt helps bring out the sweet flavours even more.
• Golden Syrup – This is the key ingredient in traditional Anzac biscuits, because it helps to bind the ingredients together. That’s why you don’t need eggs to make them! You can substitute with treacle, honey or maple syrup in a pinch.

How to make Anzac Biscuits:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 160°C / 320˚F. Add the oats, white sugar and self raising flour to a mixing bowl and give it a good stir.
2. Next, pour in the melted butter and golden syrup and stir through. Pour in the water and bring it all together.
3. Spoon out a portion into your hand and roll into a ball before placing onto a tray. Repeat until you fill a tray with 6 – 8 biscuits. Flatten each biscuit with your hand or a fork. Bake for 30 mins or until lightly golden brown.

Wandercook’s Tips

• Biscuits – Remember to squish down the biscuits balls before baking otherwise you may end up with with baked oat balls instead of biscuits! 
• Consistency – If your mixture is too dry, try adding an extra teaspoon of water, mix again and repeat as required. The end result should be sticky enough to roll together and not collapse when placed on the tray.
• Crunchier Biscuits – To make them crunchier, bake them slightly longer and use rolled oats, not quick oats. You can also split your batch in half, cooking some as chewy and some as crunchy for the best of both worlds!

FAQs

Variations & Substitutes

While there are hard and fast rules for what constitutes a traditional Anzac biscuit, we love the freedom to experiment in your own kitchen! Here are a few extra ideas to tweak your Anzac biscuits:

• Use Quinoa Flakes – Substitute the oats with quinoa flakes for a more nutty taste. Or try using half oats, half quinoa.
• Add Chocolate – Stir chocolate chips through the dough before portioning them out. Once cooked, drizzle or dip them in melted chocolate.
• Add Texture – Try adding chopped nuts (macadamias, peanuts or walnuts), desiccated coconut or dried fruit for extra pops of flavour and crunch.
• Make it Vegan – Swap the butter for an equal amount of coconut oil for vegan Anzac biscuits.

Looking for more delicious biscuits and cookies? Try these next:

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