TRADITIONALISTS prefer them crisp and crunchy while others like them soft and cakey which means there is more variation in the humble Anzac biscuit today than when it was developed by Australian home cooks during the First World War.
Regardless of how you take your Anzac biscuit, it remains a firm favourite with both young and old, and as the nation prepares to celebrate the Anzac Centenary next year the Country Women's Association of NSW (CWA) has included a special Anzac section in the 2014-15 The Land Cookery Competition.
This special one-off section will be for a small fruit cake (9.5 centimetres wide x 6.5cm high) and a single Anzac biscuit slab measuring 15cm x 15cm and is representative of the food packs wives, mothers and daughters sent to their men fighting at Gallipoli, said The Land Cookery Competition Committee member, Coral Barber, Parkes.
She said the Anzac was developed to fill a need at that time as women were concerned about the nutritional value of the food their men were receiving while fighting overseas.
Faced with the problem of transporting whatever they sent long distances with no refrigeration, a group of women came up with a biscuit which used readily available ingredients and "kept" for about two months.
As eggs were scarce during the war years, the recipe used either golden syrup or treacle as the binding agent, along with butter, sugar, plain flour, bicarb soda as the rising agent, and rolled oats.
While modern Anzac biscuits also call for coconut, Mrs Barber said the original recipe didn't use this ingredient as it was not available during the war.
The biscuits were originally called Soldiers biscuits, but due to their increasing popularity were soon known as Anzac biscuits.
Rather than the small, individual biscuits we think of today, Mrs Barber said the original biscuits were made into large slabs to be sent overseas, and soldiers would break pieces off to eat on the go.
Mrs Barber said while there was no set recipe for the competition - and entrants could use their own - entries must not contain coconut.
The no-set recipe rule also applies for the fruit cakes entries, although like the Anzac biscuits entries must confirm to the set size and shape parameters.
Mrs Barber said the cake recipes may use alcohol, which was used during the war years to help preserve the cakes.
"Traditionally the fruit cakes sent overseas were about the size of a sponge cake, and went as often as the family could afford to send them," she said.
"The cakes were made in a tin which had a lid to fit and once cooled the lid was placed on, the tin wrapped in brown paper and then in calico for posting with the recipient's details marked in Indian ink, which was used at the time to ensure the information was permanent," Mrs Barber said.
