ANZAC Cookies: Happy Australia Day!

Today is Australia Day. Not sure what kind of celebrations there will be in Australia after the recent bush fires. But today is an important day because it marks the anniversary of the first British fleet landing in Sydney Cove. You can learn more about it here.



Before I went to Australia, my friend and I attended an Australia talk at our local library. It was a husband and wife giving the presentation, and I don't think they were Australian. I think they'd just been to Australia a lot.

That doesn't really matter. What does matter is that they brought Vegemite and ANZAC cookies for us to sample. I wasn't wild about Vegemite, but the ANZAC cookies - oh yeah!



ANZAC stands for Australia New Zealand Army Corps, and there is another public holiday in Australia in April to commemorate the soldiers who fought and died for their country. According to lore, ANZAC cookies (or biscuits, as they're called abroad) were sent to soldiers by wives and women's groups because the ingredients in them don't easily spoil. The cookies are made with flour, rolled oats, maple syrup, boiled water, sugar, coconut, and butter.

I've made gluten-free ANZAC cookies before, and those turned out really well. But this year I decided to just make regular ANZAC cookies because I knew my husband would probably not eat them. In order for me to eat them, I used Country Crock plant-based stick "butter" in place of regular butter. So even though I used this regular recipe from Kylee Cooks for ANZAC cookies, my cookies turned out dairy-free.


There's an actual ANZAC Day in April, but I always forget that one. For some reason, Australia Day is usually marked in the yearly planners I buy but not ANZAC Day. I mean, if you're going to mark one Australian holiday, you might as well mark them all, right?

I would highly recommend making these cookies in whatever way suits your dietary restrictions. And get thee to Australia. It's on my list of places to re-visit. It's been many, many years since I've been to Australia, but maybe some time I'll do a top things to do there post.

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