EASY CRUNCHIES

Don't you just hate it when a recipe doesn't work? I understand that when it comes to baking you will always have slight variances due to different altitudes, slight differences in ovens, size of pan etc but sometimes it is just so wrong that you wonder if the recipe was ever made by the author.

Today was one of those days.  I had an hour or so to myself this afternoon and decided to make some crunchies for the biscuit tin.  I turned to one of my favourite cookery books - Home Cooking by Francois Ferreira.  What could go wrong with a simple recipe for crunchies? 

I first looked at the quantity for the dry ingredients and thought it looked far too much for the amount that I wanted to make - 1 kg of oats!!  I decided to halve the quantity and it was still a lot but everyone loves crunchies so I thought it wouldn't be a problem to make a big batch.  As I had halved the dry ingredients I then halved the liquid ingredients.  It was completely wrong - I ended up using 4 times the amount in the recipe book.  How can it be so wrong in a published book - don't they use proofreaders?  Anyway - the end result was delicious .  Crunchy and chewy - perfect with a glass of milk. 

Here is Francois Ferreira's adapted recipe:

Prep time: 15 min

Cook time: 20 mins

Total time: 35 mins

Yield: 24 - 48 depending on size

For the printable version - click here

Ingredients

• 5 cups oats
• 1 cup desiccated coconut
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 360 g butter
• 60 ml golden syrup
• 10 ml bicarbonate of soda

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius.
2. Combine the butter, syrup and bicarb in a pan and heat until melted.
3. Combine the dry ingredients, add the melted liquid and mix well.
4. Press into a baking tray with the back of a spoon (mine was 30cm x 30cm).
5. Bake for 20 mins.
6. Remove from the oven, cut into squares and allow to cool before storing.

 

Written by : Angela Darroch