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1
Heat the oven to 160 °C fan. Line two baking trays with baking paper. Combine the rolled oats, desiccated coconut, flour, and sugar in a large bowl and mix to distribute evenly. The dry mix should look uniform, with no pockets of flour.
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2
Melt the butter and golden syrup together in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring until the butter is fully liquid and the syrup is incorporated. The mixture should be smooth, glossy, and uniform — no separate pools of fat.
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3
Measure the bicarbonate of soda into a small cup. Pour the boiling water directly onto the bicarbonate — not the reverse — and stir immediately. The mixture will foam at once; this CO2 reaction requires the heat of boiling water to proceed at the correct rate. Pour the foaming bicarbonate into the butter-syrup mixture and stir to combine.
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4
Pour the wet mixture over the dry ingredients. This is where the dish lives or dies: stir only until the dry ingredients are just moistened — the moment no dry flour or oat remains visible, stop. Over-mixing develops gluten and produces a hard biscuit rather than a chewy one.
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5
Roll tablespoon-sized portions of dough into balls and place on the prepared trays, spacing at least 5 cm apart in every direction. Flatten each ball lightly to 1–1.5 cm thickness. The dough will spread significantly; biscuits placed too close will merge during baking.
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6
Bake for 12–14 minutes. Remove the trays when the edges are deep golden and the centres still look underdone and feel soft to a light touch — they will firm completely as they cool. A fully firm biscuit at this stage will be unpleasantly hard when cold.
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7
Leave the biscuits on the trays for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. At room temperature, the centres will set to chewy and the edges to crisp. The biscuit is ready when it holds its shape without bending but yields with the first bite.