Vegan chewy Anzac cookies

For the past few days, I’ve been reading a few pages here and there of an excellent new nonfiction book about climate change entitled This Changes Everything. Yes, it’s very depressing. Yes, you should read it.

I didn’t actively seek the book out. After a few years of educating myself on climate change and generally wringing my hands over it, I’d put it aside in favor of blissful ignorance, pretending that there was nothing I could do and that nobody was ever going to stop it anyway. That opinion has not change—however, when I saw it at the library, I knew I just had to pick it up. THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING. That’s a grand statement.

Wow. source

Now, I’m not the kind of person to read one book and have my whole worldview changed. I like to think I am not too gullible. But maybe I am, because fuck if my mind hasn’t been blown at least three times per chapter. Naomi Klein knows her shit, whipping out all of these trade laws and public opinion statistics and showing just how far-reaching our response to climate change has to be—even going so far as to say that our response must uproot the very foundations of modern capitalism.

Capitalism, you say? source

It’s kind of disturbing, yeah. That very statement goes against everything American stands for. Even the most liberal politician probably would never breathe a word against capitalism. But here I am, reading this book, wondering if maybe Naomi Klein, if maybe we do have to increase regulation and make sacrifices and turn our definition of “clean energy” and “green energy” inside out. She doesn’t shy away from making potentially offensive statements, either. For example, when talking about our use of resources as it relates to the climate, she says;

“Plenty of people are attempting to change their daily lives in ways that do reduce their consumption. But if these sorts of demand-side emission reductions are to take place on anything like the scale required, they cannot be left to the lifestyle decisions of earnest urbanites who like going to farmers’ markets on Saturday afternoons and wearing up-cycled clothing.” 

ALRIGHTY THEN. source

Which is totally true. But you don’t usually see it phrased like that. Usually people don’t go out and say our energy-saving light bulbs and fancy-ass Teslas and *gasp* maybe even our vegan diets aren’t enough to solve the world climate crisis—precisely because of the natural reaction we have when our lifestyles and worldviews are challenged like that. It’s things like that which push us away from activism and make us think that there’s nothing we can do.

Or maybe that’s the kind of thing that motivates us, and pushes us to fight for a better world for ourselves and our children.

I dunno. I just felt compelled to share that with you. As a TL;DR—go read that book. It’s great, if a bit scary at times.

Aaaanyway. Call that a non sequitur, because the main purpose of this blog post is to show you these cookies.

Oh, phew! I was getting worried there.

Have you ever had an Anzac cookie? I hadn’t, until I decided, out of the blue, to try making them the other day. A traditional biscuit in Australia and New Zealand, they’re both super easy to make and super delicious, given that this recipe calls for no creamed butter or chilled dough or any of that. The Taste.com source recipe is pretty close to Wikipedia’s description of an authentic Anzac biscuit, too, with “rolled oats, flour, desiccated coconut, sugar, butter, golden syrup, baking soda, and boiling water”. All I had to do was substitute golden syrup for corn syrup and coconut oil for the butter—and boom! There you have it. A chewy, crispy cookie that would impress any Aussie. I think.

One note about the chewiness here—this variation does not call for any chilling of dough or whatnot. If you wanted a thicker, chewier cookie, you could certainly stick it in the fridge before rolling out balls of dough and perhaps even after rolling them to prevent the cookies from spreading too much. Then again, the thinner cookies are still marvelous...plus they only take like five seconds to make. Who would argue with that?

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Vegan chewy Anzac cookies

Adapted from Taste.com

Ingredients

125 grams • all-purpose flour • 1 cup

90 grams • rolled oats • 1 cup

85 grams • shredded sweetened coconut • 1 cup

155 grams • light brown sugar • ¾ cup

125 grams • coconut oil • ½ cup plus 1 tablespoon

40 grams • corn syrup • 2 tablespoons

30 grams • water • 2 tablespoons

4 grams • baking soda • 1 teaspoon

Instructions

Preheat oven to 320 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, oats, coconut, and brown sugar. Place remaining ingredients (except baking soda) in a small saucepan and stir over medium heat until melted. Add baking soda to saucepan.

Pour wet ingredients into the dry and stir just until combined. If you want really thick and chewy cookies, feel free to chill the dough at this step; if you want thinner cookies like in the photos, go right ahead and plop 2 tablespoons of dough in balls on the sheet at least 2 inches apart and flatten out the balls a bit with a fork. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool completely on baking sheet. Munch.

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Majestic as fuck.

While you’re sticking around for some of these delicious cookies, here are a couple similar treats I’ve posted in this blog.

Mint chocolate chip macarons. Truly a miracle of modern culinary technology.

Chocolate chip pumpkin spice cookies with chocolate buttercream. Man, I could go for a pumpkin spice latte right now.

Wicked easy chocolate chip cookies. Just as easy as these babies here!

Momofuku-inspired confetti cookies. Because sprinkles make everything better.