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:
- Pre heat the oven to 180c
- Line a square baking tin or ceramic with baking paper, ideally overhanging over the sides
- Mix the flour, oats and coconut in a bowl
- 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.
- When the butter is bubbling add the bicarb and stir through and remove from the heat.
- Pour the butter mixture into the dry ingredients and stir together, mixing well.
- Add the mixture to the lined baking tin.
- Using the back of a flat spatula, or your palm, gently press and flatten the crunchie mixture into all the corners of the tin.
- Bake for 20 minutes and then turn the oven down to 160c for a further 10 minutes until golden brown (see kitchen note)
- 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!