A N Z A C biscuits . . . & by ' biscuits ' I mean cookies

Just as promised, I'm gonna give you a really fabulous recipe for ANZAC biscuits that my mother-in-law gave me. I know, you're wondering, "what on earth is she even saying, anzac?" Ok so ANZAC simply stands for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. These biscuits used to be made by the wives and family members of the soldiers. They would make them because they had a really long shelf life and ship them over to wherever the soldiers were. It's the simplest recipe but they're DELICIOUS. And it's fun to know that when you make them, you're making a "creature comfort" food that used to boost and sustain the general moral of the soldiers. And seeing as how yesterday was Australia Day, we celebrated with ANZAC cookies and heading over to Outback Steakhouse for a James Boag's beer. (which by the way.... BIG TIME FAIL Outback, for not even KNOWING it was Australia Day yesterday, and for laughing at us when we asked where the party was and why no one was celebrating... the least you could've done was hook James and Kobes up with a free drink considering their nationality. we were highly UNimpressed.)

Whew. That felt good to say that!

Right... anybody for trying these babies? By the way, they're sort of like ranger cookies, to give you an idea. They're the simple, oat-y and good with anything kinda cookie so I highly suggest them, even if you don't care about their history... I am aware that not everyone is married to an Australian. ;)

Ingredients you'll need:

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup sugar... i used white granulated but next time i'm gonna try raw so the color is prettier.
• 3/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1/2 cup butter... that's 1 stick. i used salted. i usually do use salted.
• 1 Tablespoon honey... the actual recipe calls for golden syrup but since we can't find that so easily, i used honey and i loved it. besides, honey is healthier!
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 Tablespoon boiling water

too easy, right?

Okay so preheat your oven to 300 degrees. Get out two baking sheets and line them with baking parchment paper, or grease them.

Combine the rolled oats, flour, sugar and coconut and stir.

Now put the butter and honey together in a small bowl, pop it in the microwave and melt it.

stir it well after melting to make sure all those butter clumps get totally melted and incorporated.

Now, combine the boiling water and baking soda and stir. Add that watery baking soda combination to the butter and honey and stir.

Combine the butter mixture with the dry ingredients and mix well!

Your mixture should look crumbly and balled like this. Also, I know it doesn't look like much dough but these biscuits are supposed to be small, so don't worry.

Now just form little-ish balls and place them on the tray to go in! Side note: the coconut and rolled oats make these dough balls a little tricky to stick together cause they're fairly dry, so just really press them into the palm of your hand to make them hold together. If you want, you can pat them with the palm of your hand and make them more flat instead of round... I just preferred round. You should have 2 dozen dough balls by the time you're through.

Stick these babies in the oven for 15-20 minutes... but caution, every oven is different, and because this dough is already a little bit dry, MAKE SURE you don't over do them. I set my timer for 20 minutes and pulled them out at 15 and they were JUST right. Had I left them in 2 minutes longer, however, we would've been breaking our teeth trying to bite into one. I highly suggest you set your timer for 15 minutes and check. They should be just golden on the tops. Remember, they'll keep baking when you take them out of the oven for probably another 5-10 minutes. Besides, what's better than a hot, gooey cookie? Take them out earlier rather than later.

That's it! :) Now enjoy them, knowing that you've just partaken in a little bit of Aussie history! They may not look like much, but when you start to smell that butter baking... oh man... watch out. You'll lose all sense of "beach body by summer" and the next thing you'll know, there will be 5 less cookies on that baking sheet than there were 5 minutes ago and you'll wonder why your fingers are coated in butter and coconut. Seriously, these were out of the oven for one episode of 'Touch' last night, and this morning there's 9 left. Yes, that means the three of us ate 15 cookies in 45 minutes. No joke.

 two Australian boys + 1 honorary Australian girl + a pile of ANZAC biscuits = great ending to Australia Day

Enjoy these friends... and next time you think of supporting Outback Steakhouse, think twice. Just kidding. ;) ......................................except I'm not.

xox