Like most Brits, I’ve been known to drink forty to fifty cups of tea a day. And with each cup, I’m always thinking, wouldn’t it be nice if I had a perfectly crispy, slightly chewy, oat-and-coconut-heavy side biscuit to go along with this? Enter: the Anzac Biscuit (or cookie, for us also-Americans), the perfect tea and coffee accompaniment, for your 40 to 50 cup-a-day habit.

The Anzac biscuit is a treasure of Australian 🇦🇺 and New Zealand 🇳🇿 bakeries, so when I decided I wanted to add it to the Pastry Passport array this summer, I knew I had to reach out to Gracie Barrow of Fornax Bakery in Perth, Western Australia. Gracie makes some of the most beautiful cakes, tarts, pastries, and breads you’ve ever seen, all using local and seasonal ingredients. She’s been known to make a killer Anzac Biscuit with rye flour and candied ginger, so I asked her to share her recipe and we adapted it the Downtime way. Ours is 100% vegan, made with all stone-ground local flour, and has a beautiful crispy edge with a nice chewy center. You can drink three or four cups of tea before finishing this one.

Want to try an Anzac biscuit this weekend? Pastry Passport holders can get their specially reserved biscuits between 9am and 12pm on Saturday morning, but don’t worry, we made extra — come in early to try one before we sell out.

Below, we talked to Gracie about Australian baking, the history of the Anzac (named for the Australian New Zealand Army Corps), and what we should know about baking and eating in Western Australia.

Downtime: Tell me a bit about yourself and your baking background. What are you working on now? How did you get into baking?

Gracie Barrow of Fornax Bakery: I’m a pastry cook from Perth, Western Australia. I’ve been working in the baking and hospitality industry for the past 15 years. My cooking celebrates the seasons and the bounty of produce we are so lucky to grow in WA.

I am inspired by classic French and British baking, the incredible bakeries in Copenhagen, op shop cookbooks, foraging... I'm just about to wrap up a series of pop-ups I've been running for the past few months and I also work in a bagel bakery. 

DT: What is your relationship to Anzac biscuits? Any memories from eating them that stand out?

GB: I've eaten Anzacs all my life - we eat them around the 25th April, which is ANZAC Day. Cafes in the 90s had jars on their counters with biscuits the size of your head in them, and Anzacs were always my favourite. You can get them in packets in supermarket all year round but they're pretty average. They were the first thing you made at Tafe (our technical training school in Aus) and now I make them every year in April and am always looking to improve them! I also love eating the raw dough.

DT: What makes an Anzac biscuit special? How should it taste? What is the perfect Anzac to you?

GB: Anzacs are such a special biscuit because they were made by Australian women to send to soldiers in the First World War. They were able to stand up to the long travel in tins and were made with cheap and easy-to-find ingredients, and the soldiers could crumble them to use as porridge.. and most importantly they provided comfort from home. 

The Anzac biscuits we make today include coconut and golden syrup and the 'perfect' Anzac is pretty contested, but in my opinion they should be crispy around the edges and chewy in the middle.

DT: Tell us what you wish people understood about Australian/NZ baking. What do you wish people knew about your baking traditions, both in Australia and as a baker in general?

GB: Hmm, I think being such an isolated city, Perth has a reputation for being boring but we have some of the most creative and talented chefs, bakers, brewers, winemakers, and producers. I’m grateful to be surrounded by such talented people. I think one of the reasons baking here is special because of the people that move here from all over the world to make Australia home - we live in such a multicultural country and everyone brings their own pastries - being able to drive five minutes down the road and eat burek, a pain Suisse, a banh mi... it's pretty great. 

I wish people knew how much bakers give to their work - our bodies and our souls! It's so worth it, but I think if people knew what was behind their loaf of bread they would see it in a different light.