Recipe: Black Star Founder Christopher Thé’s Anzac Biscuits Are a Little Different

Sydney chef Christopher Thé is probably best known as the inventor of the strawberry watermelon cake, a dessert so famous the New York Times wrote about (then reinterpreted) it. He created it for his bakery, Black Star Pastry, almost 15 years ago.

Thé sold the business in 2018 and in 2023 launched Hearthe, an elegant bakehouse in Sydney’s inner west that funnels the pastry chef’s passion for native ingredients into cakes and other sweets and savouries we want to both photograph and eat. His upcoming cookbook, Modern Australian Baking is an extension of that dedication to the Australian landscape and its bounty, with more than 80 recipes including Hearthe’s spectacular Geraldton wax cheesecake, pavlova with rainforest lychee and mango, and a zucchini flower focaccia slicked with native basil pesto.

It also stars a recipe for Anzac biscuits because, as Thé writes, “Anzac biscuits – understated, capable and stoic, like the soldiers they are named after – hold a sacred place in Australian culture. No book on modern Australian baking is complete without a recipe.” While Thé doesn’t mess too much with the original (and it remains one of the easiest home bakes going), his ingenuity with flavour means there is still an unusual addition. “This version includes cinnamon myrtle, which complements the flavour and adds a subtle aroma of the Australian bush,” he writes.

You can source cinnamon myrtle online; if you’re struggling, substitute with two parts ground cinnamon mixed with two parts ground cloves or nutmeg.

Christopher Thé’s Anzac biscuits

Makes 12 biscuits
Preparation time: 10 minutes, plus cooling
Cooking time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

200g butter
80g golden syrup
3g (½ tsp) bicarbonate of soda
100g desiccated coconut
100g (1 cup) rolled oats
225g brown sugar
200g (1⅓ cups) plain flour
10g ground cinnamon myrtle

Method

Preheat the oven to 160˚C.

Mix the butter with the golden syrup in a saucepan and melt over a low heat. Add the bicarb soda and allow to cool.

Transfer the mixture to a mixing bowl. Add the other ingredients and mix together well until you have a malleable cookie dough.

Portion into 60g pieces, place inside a 7.5cm ring cutter if you have one, and flatten evenly. Place the biscuits on a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake for 15 minutes, or until golden brown. The biscuits are ready when the edges are firm but the centres are still chewy.

Pre-order Modern Australian Baking by Christopher Thé, published by Hardie Grant Books. Photography by Chris Chen.