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I can't believe that it snowed again yesterday. It's the end of April, for pete's sake. Nu räcker det! (Enough, already!) It was a sunny, if cold morning, but around lunchtime a black cloud appeared in the west and soon the snow was pelting down. I admit to being quite shocked as I have been mentally preparing myself for summer, so snow was not featuring highly in my thoughts. I was out when it began to snow, but fortunately I was well rugged up in a winter coat, hat and gloves as it had turned icy overnight. Luckily the temperature was slightly above zero, so the snow did not stay around too long - only long enough to remind us that we are not over winter just yet.

Last night I spent ages on the phone chatting to our friend Randall who has returned briefly to Stockholm from Morocco. He is playing a couple of gigs before heading south to pick up his boat and continue sailing her to the Med. We have arranged to meet up with him on Sunday in Stockholm and another day down here to discuss his route, talk about the proof-reading of his book and catch up on news.

Today, I baked all afternoon and now have a huge pile of ANZAC biscuits bagged up and ready to be sold at the weekend picnic. These biscuits were invented during the First World War, by Australian women who wanted to send a tasty treat to the soldiers fighting overseas. Because everything went via sea (and this in the days before refrigeration), it took a couple of months to reach the soldiers, so a biscuit was required that would keep fresh for the long trip.

An adaptation of an old Scottish recipe was selected as being appropriate. Eggs, which act to bind the biscuit ingredients together could not be used as they would spoil, so golden syrup was chosen instead. These biscuits, made from rolled oats, sugar, flour, coconut, butter, golden syrup, baking soda and boiling water were called Soldiers' Biscuits, but after the ANZAC legend was born in the Battle of Gallipoli in 1915, they became known as ANZAC biscuits.

I used a traditional recipe for my biscuits:

1 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup dessicated coconut
1 cup sugar
1 cup plain flour
1 1/2 tsp bicarb soda
2 tbsp boiling water
125g butter
2 tbsp golden syrup

Combine rolled oats, flour, sugar and coconut in a bowl. Mix the butter and golden syrup in a small saucepan, stirring over a gentle heat until melted. Mix bicarb soda with boiling water, add to melted butter mixture, then stir into dry ingredients.

Spoon heaped teaspoonfuls of mixture onto greased oven trays (or line with baking paper), allowing room for spreading.

Bake at 150C for about 20 minutes (or until golden brown). Loosen on trays while still warm, then cool on trays.

Makes about 35 biscuits



Of course, what you can see above represents five batches of biscuits....

I didn't have golden syrup, but substituted a mixture of ljussirap and mörksirap and this worked perfectly. I've put them in bags and tied a little green and gold ribbon on them to make them a bit more festive. I hope the people who buy them enjoy eating them as much as I enjoyed making them.

We also bought two great books today to help us with our summer sailing. They are Arholma - Landsort and Landsort - Skanör. These books have guides to islands, guest harbours, natural harbours as well as information about local features, detailed maps of the areas and magnificent photographs, many of them aerial shots of the towns and harbours. These two books cover an area from the south west tip of Sweden to a point just above the Stockholm archipelago, which is the most common areas we sail. What useful, beautiful books and a great addition to our onboard library. I really want to get Skanör - Strömstad (dealing with the west coast) as well while the special price of 340kr lasts. I'll have to see how the budget stretches this month.

Now off to add the finishing touches to the Thai chicken we are having for dinner.