She'll Be Right

This semi-baked slice has legendary status in our household. I have made this countless times, before we moved here thanks to the Edmonds cookbook my mother-in-law gave me as a present one year. I’m pretty sure I even made Ginger Crunch as a birthday present for my husband one year when we were particularly strapped for cash.

Edmonds have been making recipe books since 1908, which is impressive for somewhere that was only recognised as a separate country in 1841.

Edmonds is a bit like our Homepride in that they’ve been manufacturing flour for decades and are a trusted brand. I found a picture of the Homepride recipe book that my mother had. She’s probably still got it somewhere!

If I remember, there was a real arty seventies look to the photos which as I child I thought made the food look slightly creepy. In true kiwi fashion, the Edmonds cookery book doesn’t go in for all that drama and only has a few pages of photos seemingly shoved into the book at random.

I digress. This post is all about the magnificent Ginger Crunch and how you absolutely HAVE to make it. It has a surprising kick from the ginger which takes the edge off the sweetness making it incredibly moreish. It’s also easy to make, uses minimal ingredients and keeps really well.

I’m lifting the recipe directly from the book and have only made a couple of tweaks. The eagle-eyed among you will notice that in New Zealand, recipes use cup measurements, like in Americans recipes. If you don’t have cups, you can easily use an online converter to get the measurements in grams.

As is the case with a typical slice, it has two layers; the base and the ginger icing.

For the base you will need:

• 125g butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cups plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp ground ginger

First, start pre-heating the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Then cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. I use my standing mixer but a handheld is fine. If you’re up for the challenge then by all means use a wooden spoon.

Sift the flour, baking powder and ginger together and then add to the butter and sugar mixture. You may need a smidgen of water to bring it together.

What you’re looking for is something that is about to become dough. At this stage you can tip it out on to your surface.

A few good kneads and you’ll have a nice smooth dough.

Here’s where I deviate from the recipe. It says to press it into your tin but I don’t have the patience for that. I roll mine out to roughly the size of my tin.

I also don’t have a sponge/swiss roll tin so I use a roasting tin that is roughly 20cm x 30cm. It works fine; it just won’t give you sharp edges. Whatever you use, make sure you either grease your tin or line it. Or in my case, throw in a piece of hastily ripped parchment paper and called it ‘lined’.

Then take your rolled out dough and press it into the corners of the tin with your fingers.

Bake for 20 – 25 mins until slightly golden brown.

In the meantime, you can make the icing for which you will need:

• 150g butter
• 1 1/2 cups icing sugar
• 4 tbsp golden syrup
• 6 tsp ground ginger

Now here’s where I deviate from the recipe again. In my opinion, the original amounts of ingredients don’t make anywhere near enough icing. So I double them. If you’d rather have a thin layer of icing then by all means half the amounts above.

Put all the icing ingredients in a saucepan and gently heat until the butter is melted, stirring continuously.

When your base is cooked and your icing is ready, take the base out of the oven and immediately pour over the hot icing.

When the icing is set but before it gets cold, take it out of the tin and cut into squares.

I know you’ve seen this picture before but you need to see it again to appreciate all the gingery glory…..

EDIT: Well, I was right. My mother still has a copy of the Homepride book and has kindly sent through some nightmare inducing photos. Sleep well, folks…….