Alright! I am so excited about this operation baking gals, it is such a great idea. I have my package for Jason all done up and ready to mail out to Iraq today! The first cookie that I thought of were ANZAC biscuits (they really are cookies though), it stands for Australian New Zealand Army Core. The story goes that people would ship them to the troops since they don't spoil easy and travel well... so hopefully these make it to Jason without any issues!

I actually got this recipe from cooking light, but they are super stick to your teeth sweet and totally addicting! I made a double batch of these but then used a larger scoop instead of a level tablespoon to make big cookies!

mmmmm so chewy and tasty

Anzac Biscuits
Ingredients
1 cup regular oats
1 cup all-purpose flour (or whole wheat)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup shredded sweetened coconut
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3 tablespoons water
1/4 cup stick margarine or butter, melted
2 tablespoons golden cane syrup (such as Lyle's) or light-colored corn syrup
Cooking spray

Preparation
Preheat oven to 325°.
Combine first 5 ingredients in a bowl. Add water, margarine, and syrup; stir well. Drop by level tablespoons 2 inches apart onto baking sheets coated with cooking spray. Bake at 325° for 12 minutes or until almost set. Remove from oven; let stand 2 to 3 minutes or until firm. Remove from pans; cool completely on wire racks.

2 dozen (serving size: 1 cookie)

Nutritional Information
CALORIES 98(27% from fat); FAT 2.9g (sat 1g,mono 0.9g,poly 0.7g); IRON 0.6mg; CHOLESTEROL 0.0mg; CALCIUM 11mg; CARBOHYDRATE 17.3g; SODIUM 59mg; PROTEIN 1.2g; FIBER 0.6g

The flat rate post office box is seriously huge so I realized I'd need more cookies to fill it up! So next I baked a batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, they were supposed to be oatmeal raisin but I forgot I didn't have any raisins in the house.. woops! That's ok I'm sure Jason will be happy with the chocolate! :D


Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 cup applesauce (unsweetened)
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (or whole wheat)
1 1/2 cups regular oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon apple pie spice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350°.

Beat sugar and butter at medium speed of a mixer until well-blended (about 5 minutes). Add applesauce and egg; beat well. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, oats, soda, cinnamon, and salt. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture; beat at low speed until well-blended. Stir in chocolate chips, and vanilla. Using 3 level tablespoons per cookie, drop dough 2 inches apart onto baking sheets coated with cooking spray; flatten slightly. Bake at 350° for 10 to 15 minutes. Remove cookies from pans; cool on wire racks.

Both of these cookies came out great! I packed them all up in zip lock bags with some paper towels to absorb any moisture and squeezed out all the air. I packed them all up along with some packs of gum (you can always use gum!) and used pages of Men's Journal as packing materials (reading material! haha). Jason I hope you love the cookies and it helps you and your buddies feel a little bit of home out there. Thank you so much for all you are doing!

Susan you are doing an amazing thing with Operation Baking Gals and I can't wait to do this again.

Lots of love!
::steph chows::

Chow!

Update: Package is in the mail!!! :D!