I’ve just returned from a mini break down South. While I’m not from Southland, I feel incredibly connected and have loved visiting over the past almost 20 years.

Not many people will believe this, but the weather is often brilliant (sorry Wellington, but way more consistent). The seasons are real seasons, the playgrounds have old school roundabouts, the pubs serve fresh blue cod, sections are huge, and, most of all, the people are lovely.

There’s always a smile and more often than not, a “you’re right” when you talk to someone. It seems to be a bit of a ubiquitous phrase that can mean, “you’re welcome”, “sweet”, “as you were”, “don’t’ worry”, “OK” and a bundle of other things.

Perhaps it is because I’ve been running around juggling too many balls recently, but life certainly seems more measured down there. People genuinely are interested in chatting and appear to have more time. I was blown away when the sales assistant in a small town asked if I wanted a tiny purchase gift wrapped. Really.

Which got me thinking about today’s recipe. It’s good old ginger crunch – reliable and quite something (a bit like Southland). But sort of without the crunch. It’s more of an oaty base and is delicious. There are loads of iterations of this recipe. My original one was given to me by my friend Donna, and I’ve pimped it up a little. This makes a mammoth amount, so can easily be halved. Enjoy. Remember, ‘you’re right’ – there is no such thing as too much icing!

What you’ll need

200 grams butter

200 grams brown sugar

4 tablespoons golden syrup

150 grams rolled oats

100 grams coconut – I use thread coconut

230 grams plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoons ground ginger

Icing:

250 grams butter

4 tablespoons golden syrup

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

4-500 grams icing sugar

Topping:

Whatever you have lolling about the pantry – I use a mix of pistachios, dried apricots, thread coconut and glace ginger.

What to do

Heat oven to 180°C. Spray a 33 x 22cm baking dish with spray oil or line with baking paper.

Chop the butter into cubes and pop into a medium sized saucepan. Add the brown sugar and golden syrup. Mix over a medium heat until butter has melted.

Meanwhile, put all of the dry ingredients in a medium bowl and mix together. Pour the butter mixture over the dry ingredients and mix through.

Press the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for around 20 minutes (might be a little more, depending on your oven). You’ll want it to be golden and cooked through.

While the base is cooking, make the icing.

Pop the butter, golden syrup and vanilla into a saucepan. Heat until melted, then mix in the icing sugar and ground ginger. If you have too much of a pool of butter (how can that be a bad thing?), mix in extra icing sugar until everything is combined.

When the base is cooked, remove from the oven.

Pour the icing over the base and spread it out evenly. Sprinkle with whatever topping you choose.

Let the slice cool completely, then chop into equal size pieces. Yum!