Lest We Forget - ANZAC Day 2010

Today is ANZAC Day - the date on which we remember and honour those who fell that day in 1915 and every other fallen hero, who died in the service of our countries. Both New Zealand and Australia share the day, as we shared our forces and our men in two world wars.

ANZAC Day begins with dawn services, throughout New Zealand and Australia. The old soldiers march into the parade ground, prayers are said for the dead, the ode to the fallen is said and then the last post played and the flag is lowered.

Ode to the Fallen

"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them."

Red Poppies are worn, as in England, for Armistice Day a tradition that grew from the poem In Flanders Fields:

In Flanders Fields
by John McCrae

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

History has it that ANZAC biscuits or cookies to Americans, were baked by women during WW1 for their sons/husbands/brothers/fiances etc overseas on deployment. Basically they are a rolled oat biscuit made without eggs in order that they keep longer. The golden syrup is the binding agent. I've successfully used maple syrup as a substitute.

I searched the web and my collection of recipe books to find the best recipe but for the most part the only significant difference was the amount of butter used.

ANZAC Biscuits (Cookies)

Ingredients
1 cup flour
pinch salt
1 cup sugar
1 cup desiccated coconut
1 cup rolled oats
125 grams butter
2 Tablespoons golden syrup
2 Tablespoons boiling water
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla essence - optional

Method
Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl
Melt butter, golden syrup and essence together
In a small bowl or cup mix the boiling water and baking soda and then add to the butter mix
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix to combine
Roll tablespoonfuls into balls and place on greased or lined baking sheets
Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for about 10-12 minutes until the biscuits have flattened out and are starting to brown

Pictured is a batch of fruity ANZAC biscuits that I made from A Treasury of New Zealand Baking. The recipe is by Dean Brettschneider. The biscuits have brown sugar instead of white and an assortment of seeds and dried fruits (I used pumpkin seads because I didn't have sunflower seeds). I think I prefer authentic ANZAC biscuits. You can find Dean's recipe here and make your own decision.

ANZAC Self-saucing Pudding

I'm really behind in my posting and completely overdue to share my adventures in the kitchen creating the Daring Bakers' April Challenge. To tide you over here's a recipe I made over ANZAC weekend in keeping with the ANZAC-ey theme of coconut and rolled oats. It's a really old fashioned, comforting pud and when my husband takes a second helping of dessert it's high praise indeed. Golden syrup, butter and hot water form a delicious caramel-like sauce. You could probably substitute maple syrup if you're unable to find golden syrup where you live. The recipe says it serves 4-5 and while that's true, I feel that the recipe doesn't make enough sauce for my taste. Your options? Half the pudding or double the sauce! I didn't decide to half the recipe until I had all the dry ingredients in the bowl so all I did was divide it in half and put one portion in a ziplock bag in the freezer. I then halved the milk measurement but used a whole egg as it's kinda hard to half a raw egg.

You'll find the recipe on the Taste magazine website.

But wait.... there's more .....

The next weekend when I was again in the mood to make a warming winter pud I got creative with the leftover batch of pudding mix. I melted some butter (about 100g I think) and mixed it with some brown sugar which I spread over the bottom of a pyrex baking dish. Then I sliced some bananas which were past their best for eating and squeezed over some fresh lime juice to cut the richness of the butter and sugar. I added milk and egg to the pudding mix and blobbed it over the top. No time for photos after it was baked but here's what it looked like prior to the addition of the pudding. It was very nice but I think I prefer my ANZAC self-saucing pudding straight up.

Lest We Forget

Today I went to a potluck lunch at work to farewell a co-worker who is going on maternity leave. She's having a boy so the theme was of course BLUE but you'd be forgiven for thinking the theme was teal. We had bluberry loaf, blueberry muffins (my contribution), a vanilla cake with blue icing and blue lamingtons as well as some savoury items; although who'd think there would be such a thing as too much sugar?

Tomorrow is ANZAC day which is a day of commemoration for those who died in the service of their country. The poppy is an international symbol of rememberance and explains the decoration on the star of the lunch - an ooey gooey citrus cake. I'm pleased to be able to share the recipe with you.


Sonya's Lemon and Orange Crumble Cake

Ingredients
Cake:
1 ¾ cups self raising flour
3/4 cups caster sugar
90g/approx. 3 ounces unsalted butter, chopped
Finely grated rind of one lemon
2 eggs, lightly beaten
Filling:
¼ cup orange juice
¼ cup lemon juice
¾ cup sugar
2 teaspoons cornflour/cornstarch
90g/approx. 3 ounces unsalted butter, chopped
Sifted icing sugar/powdered sugar for dusting

Method
Preheat oven to 160 degrees C/320 degrees C
Line the base and sides of a 20cm/8 inch round springform tin with baking paper
Put the flour, sugar, butter, rind and eggs in a food processor and pulse to combine
Press 2/3 of the mixture into the prepared tin, reserving the remainder
For the filling:
Put the juices, sugar, cornflour, eggs and butter into a medium pan and stir over a low heat until the mixture comes to the boil
Reduce heat and cook for 2-3 minutes
Remove and stand for 10 minutes to cool
When the citrus filling is cool pour it over the mixture in the tin
Crumble the remaining cake dough on top
Bake for 30-35 minutes
Stand on a wire rack before removing from the tin
Dust with icing sugar