Australia Day on 26 January is almost upon us. Whether you are celebrating settlement or commiserating on invasion (it is a day full of political opinion as much as parades and bbqs), I hope you will be eating good food.
Today for Australia Day I share some iconic Australian recipes, and recipes using iconic Australian food. It has been hard to narrow down so many favourite recipes so I have tried to only include quintessentially Aussie food, rather than recipes of my family. Here they are (clockwise from top left):
Classic Australian baking:
ANZAC biscuits - traditional oaty biscuits from World War I
Chocolate caramel slice - layers of biscuit, caramel and chocolate
Pumpkin scones - slightly sweet and popular at afternoon tea
Pikelets - fatter sturdier pancakes that are a quick treat for kids
Lamingtons - light sponge cake dipped in chocolate icing and then coconut
Ginger fluff sponge - a lightly spiced sponge layer cake sandwiched together with cream
Kids parties and lunchboxes
Hedgehog - similar to fridge cake, biscuit cake or tiffin - a chocolate slice with chunks of biscuits
Honey joys - cornflakes baked with a honey butter coating
Lemon slice - chunks of biscuit in a slice of lemon, coconut and condensed milk
Apricot delight - dense uncooked mixture of dried apricots and coconut cut into small squares
Coconut ice - very rich condensed milk and coconut mixture usually with a pink layer and a white layer
Chocolate crackles - chocolate coated rice bubbles, traditionally made with copha (hydrogenated coconut oil - which is less popular these days).
Australian brand names in recipes:
Tim Tam brownies - brownies stuffed with tim tams (chocolate sandwich biscuits)
Chokito fudge - fudge stuffed with chokito (chocolate bar with fudge and rice bubbles)
Grubs with Tim Tams - chocolate balls made of condensed milk, cocoa, coconut and biscuit - this recipe uses Tim Tams instead of traditional Marie biscuits
Violet Crumble ice cream - ice cream stuffed with Violet Crumble - a chocolate covered bar of honeycomb
Tick Tock teacups - biscuits with clock faces form the saucer with a marshmallow cup, a lifesaver handle and a freckle for the froth - these are really cute party favourites
Cherry Ripe cake pops - cherries, condensed milk and coconut are mixed and dipped in chocolate to imitate a favourite chocolate bar
Classic savoury Australian recipes (vegetarian):
Sausage rolls - one of my favourite party recipes - "sausage meat" wrapped in pastry
Damper - simple campfire bread leavened with baking powder
Party pies - while the larger meat pie is an Aussie classic, these smaller versions were always at parties of my youth
Chiko rolls - minced meat and cabbage in a really chew fried pastry
Zucchini slice - lots of egg and grated zucchini plus some fried bacon all mixed and baked a bit like a fritatta
Pumpkin soup - it was a great shock when I first travelled to find that pumpkin soup was not as ubiquitous as I had thought from living in Australia
Recipes using Australian ingredients
Vegemite in Cheeseymite scones - I hardly need to tell you about how dark and salty vegemite is and that it is best eaten in small amounts - it goes well very with cheese
Pumpkin in Pumpkin, pecan and poppyseed scones - I know well that many other countries have pumpkin but few seem to have it like we do in Australia where our Queensland Blue and Kent pumpkins are regular household vegies - and we love it in scones
Quandong syrup in the frosting on Kale cake - I only tasted quandong syrup recently and loved its gentle fragrant fruitiness in a cream cheese frosting - an indigenous fruit that I must learn about
Dried wattleseed in Mud cake - I love using native seed, dried wattleseed, instead of coffee granules in baking - it has a slight bitterness that echoes coffee
Weetbix in Marshmallow weetbix slice - weetbix was first made in Australia (thought it became weetabix in some countries) and was one of the main cereals when we were young - it is low in sugar and high in fibre so retains its popularity - the marshmallow slice with it is a faovurite from my childhood
Pepperberry in Tofu and pesto crackers - in Australia we have an indigenous mountain pepper with edible leaf and berries - I've used it in baking occasionally
Quirky Australian themed recipes
Southern Cross cake - an easy Australian-themed cake
Buttermilk and lemon myrtle damper in Aboriginal flag dinner - many years ago as a new blogger I created a dinner homage to the Aboriginal flag - one day I will do it with a better photo!
White Christmas - we have very few iconic Christmas recipes in Australia but this no bake slice filled with rice bubbles, dried fruit and copha (or white chocolate) is an old favourite
The Getting of Wisdom book cake - the cake didn't look very much like a book but it did feature the name of a classic coming-of-age Australian book that we studied at school
Shamburger pizza with the lot - the classic Aussie burger in a fish and chip shop has lettuce, fried onions, beetroot, fried egg, tomato and bacon as well as the burger in a bun - I had a go at putting a veg version on a pizza
Gluten free Tim Tams - I also had a go at making gluten free Tim Tams for the celiacs in my family - they were good but the melted chocolate was not on my side that day
Classic Australian recipes I hope to blog one day
Sponge cake - my mum makes beautiful light sponge layer cakes regularly on birthdays so I feel it is my destiny to bake sponge cakes
Fairy bread - what Aussie party is complete without bread with butter and coloured sprinkles though such a simple idea that it seems crazy to blog it
Jelly slice - have loved jelly slice since childhood but need to get around gelatine to make it (the Moody Noodles have had a go)
Cheesymite scrolls - a recently Aussie classic take on the bread roll though the idea of pairing vegemite and cheese is an old one
Vanilla slice - custard between layers of puff pastry with lots of icing on top - I only occasionally want one so the idea of a whole batch of them seems a bit much
Pavlova - this is one of my mum's regular desserts that I grew up on - I want to try one but dream of making a vegan one with aquafaba - though it needs to have the marshmallow inside and crisp outside to be proper pav
So now I am pretty amazed at how many Aussie recipes I have produced here. Cultural cringe makes us Aussies believe we have little to offer the rest of the world but it aint true. And I haven't even started on other favourites like coffee scrolls, jelly cakes, peach melba. Check out my Australia Day Pinterest board for more ideas. Whether commiserating or celebrating, I hope you are finding some Australian food for our national day.
NOTES: For American readers, when we say "biscuit" it is like your cookie. Our slices are similar to American bars. Rice bubbles are known as rice krispies elsewhere. It is confusing but Google will mostly help out.