Fondly known as ‘Daddy biscuits’ in our house, these biscuits are filled with nostalgic memories for our family. My husband’s mother always had a tin of them on the go, on family camping holidays; a tradition all 4 siblings in his family have continued. Whenever we all go camping to the West Country you can guarantee there is a tin of these hidden away to be eaten on windswept beaches or on a walk.
I think they are probably some form of Anzac biscuit; they certainly have oats, coconut and syrup in them, like an Anzac biscuit. They are a bit like a thin and ‘less worthy’ flapjack.
They were one of the first things my daughter learned to cook, standing aged 3 on a stool in the kitchen with her granny. When she was learning to write, she carefully wrote out the recipe and it’s that recipe that we all still work from 12 years on. It’s a bit splattered, but aren’t all the best recipes!
These are a super easy bake for kids and can be adapted to endless variations. I sometimes put in sultanas or cranberries, or chopped dried apricots. The children if they are making them without me often scatter some chocolate chips on top as soon as they are out of the oven. We sometimes half dip them in melted chocolate for an indulgent treat.
To save you trying to decipher the recipe here it is. I am afraid with it being from Granny, it's in old money measurements.
INGREDIENTS
4oz plain flour
3 oz rolled oats (not jumbo)
1 oz desiccated coconut
4oz golden caster sugar
1tsp bicarbonate of soda dissolved in 1tbs hot water
Optional: a handful of raisins, sultanas, chopped apricots, dried cranberries, choc chips.
METHOD
Mix the oats, flour and coconut together in a bowl.
Melt the butter, sugar and syrup together and then mix in the oat mixture and the bicarb and water. Thoroughly mix together, then dollop dessert spoon size blobs onto a lined baking sheet. Spread them out well as they spread quite a lot when baking. Granny and Bella would say roll into walnut-sized balls but I just usually dob dessert spoon fulls!
Bake at about 180 degrees C, till golden. Leave for a couple of minutes in the tin to cool and set a little, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.