Old School Crunchies

PREP TIME: 5mins

COOKING TIME: 30mins

Crunchies as we South Africans call them is kind-off like a crunchy flapjack. Gina’s crunchies had a bit of a reputation of being the best in Cape Town, this is her recipe, roughly based on the original recipe from Drizzle and Drip. Many a lunchbox across Cape Town were filled with these crunchy joys of delight.

What you'll need:

22 x 22cm  square ceramic or brownie tin (the bigger the tin the flatter the crunchy)

Ingredients:

  • 200g unsalted butter
  • 2 cups of oats
  • 1 cup of plain flour
  • 1 cup desiccated coconut
  • 1 cup light brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
  • a pinch of salt

Method:

  1. Pre heat the oven to 180c
  2. Line a square baking tin or ceramic with baking paper, ideally overhanging over the sides
  3. Mix the flour, oats and coconut in a bowl
  4. Melt the butter in a small pot on a medium heat, add the honey and sugar and stir until the sugar is starting to melt. The mixture will be thick and not all the sugar will melt.
  5. When the butter is bubbling add the bicarb and stir through and remove from the heat.
  6. Pour the butter mixture into the dry ingredients and stir together, mixing well.
  7. Add the mixture to the lined baking tin.
  8. Using the back of a flat spatula, or your palm, gently press and flatten the crunchie mixture into all the corners of the tin.
  9. Bake for 20 minutes and then turn the oven down to 160c for a further 10 minutes until golden brown (see kitchen note)
  10. Allow to cool in the pan before slicing

Kitchen Notes:

How do you like your crucnhies? Soft or crunchy?

If your crunchies look golden after 20minutes, the inside might still be slightly under baked, so do give them a little while still.

However, I do like mine a very crunchy especially the sides and is thus not completely against the idea of over baking these. If you are like me give it an extra 5 or 10 minutes.

Kitchen Story:

A school cake sale is a busy parents worst nightmare, yes there is irony in this, but as a chef my time in my own kitchen is quite limited. I decided I was going to be super organised with this bake off by bringing some of Gina’s lovely crunchies home for the sale. Rushing, I added these to tupperware before heading home. The next afternoon I was shocked to see some cookies left over from the sale, what happened, why did they not sell? Mamma, they taste funny? Oh, can’t be, so I tasted one only to realise that I placed them in a tupperware that tasted of Chilli Con Carne. Great, I thought, I  managed to make chilli flavoured crunchies, we cant’ win, can we!

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