Strawberry Shortcake, Tupperware & Anzac Biscuits - No. 209

How’s that for a Happy Second Birthday, Between the Layers!!

CHEERS TO NOSTALGIA, CURIOSITY, TRYING new recipes, and some conversation!

I’m not sure that was my mission statement two years ago when I decided to write a newsletter about how cooking and baking intersect with life. But it seems to fit this moment. Here’s how I described the cake metaphor in that first post:

‘’Many of you have been with me since the Cake Mix Doctor days, and I’m looking forward to reconnecting! Between the Layers is so-named because cakes have been my life, and obviously they are more interesting with fillings and frostings, sometimes dark and bold like ganache, other times subtle and surprising like a thin veneer of apricot jam spread between almond cake or an unexpected red ribbon of raspberry between coconut. I see this newsletter in the same way - stories and thoughts between lines of print that I don’t always get to say in books.’’

For those of you here from the very beginning, thank you. And welcome to the newcomers as Between the Layers has grown to more than 22,000 readers. In these past 24 months I’ve written about holidays and remembrances, new products, new flavors and ideas, and how I cook and bake. I’ve also written about history and life, uncomfortable topics such as war and gun reform and how they relate to food, and even about Martha Stewart and Jell-O.

What have been your favorite posts?

Selfishly, it’s been two years of learning from other writers here on Substack as I have swapped recipes and columns with them. Substack has just exploded since I started writing, and I hope to engage with more new voices this year.

Looking back I can’t believe I wrote a book on Southern baking while I was writing this newsletter. What was I thinking?! I’ve shared sneak-peek photos and recipes with my Thursday subscribers, and I’ll continue to do more of that this year.

Just last week I told my Thursday people I’d be writing today about White House food through history…

But then I discovered today is Anzac Day in Australia and New Zealand!

And Anzac Biscuits (what we call ‘’cookies’’ in America) have been on my list of must-bakes for a while. I don’t know about you, but an oatmeal cookie wins any day!

So to mark two years of this newsletter, today we can bake this historic oat and coconut cookie whose story goes back to World War I. We also bake strawberry shortcake because that was the first recipe I shared when I launched Between the Layers in April, 2021. And as a party favor, I link to a nostalgic piece on Tupperware that I just wrote for CNN.

Anzac biscuits (cookies) and remembrance

I knew from digging into the history of baking in America that oats were an ingredient you didn’t necessarily bake with if you had wheat flour. Oats were what animals ate.

But they grew in places where wheat didn’t. So when wheat was scarce, and in World War I when Americans were encouraged to save the wheat for the troops, that’s when oats came into our favorite pie, cake, and cookie recipes.

The same goes in Australia and New Zealand. Here a cookie of oats called Anzacs or Anzac Biscuits is named after the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (Anzacs). A significant conflict experienced by these nations was in Gallipoli, in what is now Turkey, during World War I. Thousands were killed and wounded, so each April 25, the tragic landing in Gallipoli is commemorated in New Zealand and Australia by baking these cookies.

There’s a story that these Anzac biscuits were shipped by wives and women’s groups to soldiers abroad, too. If you look at the ingredient list, you’ll see the cookies really would ship and keep well.

According to Miranda Payne, food editor of taste.com.au, the traditional Anzac biscuit is hard and crunchy. Over time, it was baked in less time to make it chewier. “My preference is an Anzac that is crispy and crunchy,’’ she says, ‘’and that can be dunked in a cup of tea.’’

According to the Australian War Memorial, from the 1920s onwards Australian cookbooks always included recipes for Anzac biscuits. My 1990 copy of Australian Cuisine by Maureen Simpson includes Anzacs with golden syrup, something easily found in England, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. We Americans can use honey or a mix of sorghum and light corn syrup instead.

After baking my first Anzacs, I can see how this cookie has taken hold. It’s easily stirred together with just a bowl and a spoon. I’d love to toss in finely chopped pecans the next time I bake them. And even though I tend to be a chewy cookie person, I agree with Miranda that they are best crispy and crunchy and dunked in tea.

Do you bake Anzac biscuits/cookies?

1950s Tupperware party. Can you recognize any of these ladies? Getty Images.

Who loves Tupperware?

Looking back as we move forward has been a recurring theme of this newsletter. And I write about Tupperware over on CNN today because this 77-year-old company may sadly go out of business.

It was born in 1946 when Earl Tupper, a Massachusetts home inventor and chemist was inspired how paint cans could seal tightly and thought the kitchen could use plastic containers that did the same thing.

Tupper’s products were sold through home parties, just like what Midge Maisel staged to make a little extra income in season 4 of ‘’The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.’’ I want every pastel bowl on her coffee table!

On a less feel-good note, Tupper’s Tupperware was made of a durable and shatter-proof plastic called Bisphenol A, commonly known as BPA, and linked to myriad health issues. It was banned in 2010.

So do you love/hate Tupperware?

Here’s that CNN post.

In my list of all-time least cooperating foods to style for photography, can we please place strawberry shortcake toward the top? Along with ice cream cake, maybe. This lovely wasn’t behaving, but the final version will appear in my book on Southern baking, to be published in 2024.

Photographer Rinne Allen taking a photo of the little darling in Rinne’s Athens, Georgia, studio. Late February, 2023.

Strawberry shortcake and birthdays

To take us all back two years I share the recipe for my strawberry shortcake, which is my older sister’s birthday cake, and her birthday is Thursday.

As I wrote in that first newsletter:

‘’When it was your birthday, you got to choose your cake for family dinners at home. Mine was invariably chocolate on top of chocolate, but my sister Ginger picked Strawberry Shortcake. And we were all the beneficiaries of her wise decision.

This was not the pre-made spongecake sort of shortcake with frozen berries and Redi-Whip, mind you. It was the Southern version, based on a biscuit-like dough, delicious and really not hard to make from scratch. That one recipe still connects me to the past, to the hands who made it, and through the years I’ve customized my mother’s recipe to make it more like the way I cook today.’’

To celebrate two years together, here is that recipe.

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If there’s one thing I’ve learned from these past two years, it’s that we’re never too old to ask questions. And we’re never too young to think the world doesn’t need our perspective.

Have a great week and happy baking these two kinds of biscuits. (One is like a cookie, and the other is more like a scone. But don’t get me started on biscuit differences because we’ll be here all day!)

- xo, Anne

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Coming Thursday for paid subscribers, an Open Thread! Look for the email Thursday morning. We will talk wedding and graduation gift and menu ideas for spring! Mother’s Day, too! Plus, I’ll share a fabulous and easy caramelized onion pizza for spring get-togethers.

And because it’s my second birthday, and I’d love more of you to become paid subscribers and support my efforts, which lets you access all the recipes and content, I’m giving you this gift:

THE RECIPE:

Anzac Biscuits (Cookies)

This is such a straightforward pantry-driven recipe. The only ingredient that might not be found in an American kitchen is the golden syrup, but we have options. Use some honey or maple syrup, or use cane syrup if you live in Louisiana and have that close by. I have a jar of sorghum from East Tennessee and used half sorghum and half light corn syrup. As for the sugar, vary it as you like. I prefer a mix of brown and white in oatmeal cookies because the brown makes things interesting and more chewy. White sugar makes cookies crisp.

Makes 30 to 36 2 1/2-inch cookies

Prep: 10 minutes

Bake: 10 to 12 minutes

• 1 1/4 cups (150 grams) unbleached all-purpose flour

• 1 cup (90 grams) oats

• 1 cup (46 grams) unsweetened shredded coconut

• 1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar

• 1/4 cup (55 grams) light brown sugar

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 10 tablespoons (5 ounces) unsalted butter

• 4 tablespoons golden syrup or honey, maple syrup, corn syrup, or sorghum (your choice)

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1. Place a rack in the center of the oven, and preheat the oven to 350º F.

2. Stir together the flour, oats, coconut, white sugar, brown sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Place the butter in a small saucepan over low heat to melt. Stir in the golden syrup and the baking soda. Stir the butter mixture into the dry ingredients until combined.

3. Scoop 1-inch balls onto an ungreased baking sheet, placing them 3 inches apart. Bake until crispy and lightly browned, 10 to 12 minutes. Let rest on the pan 1 minute, then remove to a rack to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining dough, letting the same baking sheet cool in between batches.

4. Store in an airtight tin for several days, or freeze up to a month.