Chewy or Crunchy, Simply Satisfying: Anzac Biscuits

I saw Lara Lee's recipe for Anzac biscuits right before Anzac Day, and I decided it was time to to give Anzac biscuits another try. Last year I tried Erin Clarkson's Anzac biscuit recipe and I don't know where I went wrong, but my all of biscuits grew together into a single giant cookie the size of my baking sheet. 

Lee's recipe is simple. You put all of the dry ingredients (brown sugar, old-fashioned oats, unsweetened shredded coconut, and salt) into one bowl; combine all of the liquid ingredients (golden syrup melted with butter, and baking soda dissolved in hot water) in another; and add the wet into the dry. You scoop out the dough (I used a #24 scoop and got 15 cookies from a batch) and flatten them before baking.

Anzac biscuits can have different textures, and mine were super chewy, which I quite liked. But I'm sure they would also be delicious if they were crunchy, which simply requires baking them for a few minutes more. I was surprised how tasty these were, given that they are really a rather plain oatmeal cookie, without any added spices -- although the coconut definitely adds some nice flavor and texture that actually reminded me a bit of a Samoa cookie. Simple or not, these cookies were very satisfying.

Recipe: "Anzac Biscuits" by Lara Lee, in Bon Appetit.