Anzac Biscuits

Sweet biscuits of rolled oats bound with butter and syrup appear on tables of remembrance on April 25. These are Anzac biscuits, baked in Australia and New Zealand. The name “Anzac”—that is, ANZAC, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps—carries memories of the First World War, but these biscuits are distinct from the hard military rations issued to soldiers. Oat-based methods close to today’s biscuit also survive in cookbooks published to raise funds for various activities.

A warm syrup that binds the oats

In a typical method, rolled oats, flour, sugar and, if desired, desiccated coconut are mixed, and melted butter and golden syrup are added. Baking soda dissolved in hot water is added to the warm syrup, and the mixture is stirred into the dry ingredients while it is still foaming. Unlike doughs made by whipping eggs, the oat flakes and flour come together through mixing with the syrup and fat.

The dough is divided into small portions and placed on a baking tray with space between them, because they spread as they bake. Fresh from the oven they are soft, and they become easier to handle once cooled. Depending on the baking time and thickness, they can be made with crisp edges and a chewy center, or thin and dry throughout. Military hardtack is a dry biscuit baked hard so that it keeps for a long time, but this sweet biscuit can turn out hard or soft depending on the recipe and how it is baked.

Soldiers’ hard biscuits and sweet home baking

The “Anzac tiles” and “Anzac wafers” issued to soldiers at Gallipoli were very hard, dry-biscuit-like military rations made to keep well. They were eaten soaked in water or crushed into porridge, and actual examples with words or pictures written on them and sent to family members survive at a war memorial.

The name “Anzac” already appears on sweet baked goods during the war. The “Anzac Ginger Biscuits” in a 1916 Perth newspaper used molasses and ginger, with the dough rolled out and cut with a cutter. In 1917, the War Chest Cookery Book, published to raise funds to support soldiers, included a recipe for “Anzac Biscuits” by Alice Anderson. Two biscuits baked with eggs, wheat flour, rice flour and spices are sandwiched with jam and iced. Both looked different from today’s eggless, single-layer oat biscuit.

Oat biscuits appearing in cookbooks

In Dunedin, New Zealand, church women began publishing the St Andrew’s Cookery Book in 1904 to raise funds for relief, missionary work and other activities. Editions from the late 1910s to the early 1920s include near-modern oat biscuits called “Anzac Crispie” or “Anzac Crispies.” Unlike the biscuits sandwiched in pairs with jam, biscuits baked one at a time also came to carry the name “Anzac.”

The method in the fourth edition (1923) of the Edmonds Cookery Book held by Auckland Museum combines flour, sugar, coconut and rolled oats with melted butter, golden syrup and baking soda dissolved in hot water. By contrast, a recipe published in an Australian newspaper in 1926 contains no coconut, while a 1933 cookery calendar from a women’s organization includes both. In the 1920s and 1930s, methods with and without coconut existed side by side.

Remembrance through baking and the use of the Anzac name

On Anzac Day, baking these biscuits at home or at school is also an occasion to think of those who served. Among the activities introduced by Australia’s Department of Veterans’ Affairs is an example of students baking several thousand biscuits and delivering them to local facilities. It is an activity in which those who served are remembered while sweet biscuits are baked and shared. In New Zealand, commercial products also contribute support. According to the Royal New Zealand RSA, which supports veterans and their families, a donation is made to the organization every time a bag or tin of AFM Group’s Anzac biscuits is sold, and donations in 2024 exceeded NZ$50,000. Both handing out biscuits baked at school and donating from the sales of commercial products link remembrance with support for local people and veterans.

Both countries have official conditions on the commercial use of “Anzac.” According to guidance from Australia’s Department of Veterans’ Affairs, permission is required to use the name in commercial sales. New Zealand’s Ministry for Culture and Heritage lists biscuits that follow the traditional recipe and shape as an example of use that is normally accepted, but it does not extend accepted use to cookies, slices, loaves or muesli bars. The handling of a word of remembrance when it is attached to products also differs from country to country.

Anzac biscuits sold in a jar at a French bakery. Photo: TCY, 2023-11-17 (Exif), Vichy, France. Original image / CC BY-SA 4.0. Downscaled version from the source; no further modifications.

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