Hard tack
Have you ever thought how the ANZACs
at Gallipoli could be supplied with food: many thousands of men, at short
notice, with no refrigeration? While they were fighting on Gallipoli the
soldiers were supplied with food from as far away as Egypt and Greece, and
this, combined with the lack of refrigeration, meant that they could get very
little fruit, vegetables, meat or dairy products.
So what did they eat? Bully beef
(tinned corned beef), rice, jam, cocoa, tea, some bread and above all hard tack
fed the soldiers at Gallipoli. Hard tack, also known as "ANZAC
Wafer", or "ANZAC Tile", has a very long shelf life, unlike
bread. Hard tack or biscuits continued to be eaten during the Second World War.
The original biscuits were made by Arnott's, and our recipe has been provided by
Arnott's.
Warning Hard tack is really hard! There are many stories of
soldiers breaking their teeth on them, so be careful!
Today we made Hard Tack biscuits to experience what the soliders
ate. These are some of our thoughts on
the biscuits:
· Smell quite nice
· Taste sweet
· Smells like cocoa
· Very hard
· Hurts my teeth
· Tastes like weetbix
· Looks like a weetbix
· I can’t really break it
Hard Tack Recipe
Ingredients
Makes six biscuits.
o
1½ cups self-raising white flour
o
3 cups self-raising wholemeal flour
o
5 tablespoons sugar
o
3 tablespoons milk powder
o
pinch salt
o
1 cup water
Method
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Place dry ingredients in a
large bowl and mix together.
Make a well in the centre
and add the water. Mix together until an even dough is formed.
Turn the dough onto a
floured board and knead for a few minutes. Shape the dough into a ball and let
rest for half an hour.
Divide the dough into three
and then roll each ball into thick 1cm sheets.
Cut the rolled sheet of
dough into 9 cm squares, using the edge of a steel ruler, rather than a knife.
This pressing action helps to join the top and bottom surfaces of the biscuit
and will improve the "lift" in baking.
Now make a regular pattern
of holes in each biscuit, five holes across by five holes down (25 holes in
all). The ideal tool to use to make these holes is a cotton bud with the cotton
wool cut off or the thick end of a bamboo skewer. Push it through to the bench,
twist slightly and withdraw. (Some historians claim that each biscuit had 49
holes.)
Place on a slightly greased
baking tray, being careful that the biscuits are not touching. Form a wall
around the outside edge with scrap dough. This will stop the outside edges of
the biscuits from burning.
Bake on the centre shelf
for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown. Be careful not to burn them!
Leave the biscuits on a
cooling rack until they harden. Or switch off the oven and return the biscuits
to the oven until it becomes cool.
