Oaty chocolate coconut slice

This week we're busy getting stuck into our downstairs bathroom reno. It's actually more a build than a reno, since the room is a shell and has never been completed. That's why things have been a bit on the quiet side around here - I'm attempting to be useful, despite having very little clue what I'm doing.

Proper labouring work calls for morning tea (not something I indulge in every day) and slice is a Kiwi classic. My all-time favourite is chocolate caramel slice, followed by ginger crunch, but both of those are fairly insane in nutritional terms (maximum butter and sugar, minimal anything else), so while nice for a treat, I reckon they're best served to a crowd so they are shared out widely and vanish quickly. This recipe is still definitely treat food, but it's a bit heartier so will keep willing workers going until lunchtime, while clinging onto the indulgent factor to make them happy too.

This is a good pantry classic, too - mostly staples that you'll hopefully have on hand. It's a forgiving recipe so if you're short on coconut or oats you can leave either of them out without much ill effect. If you don't have chocolate for the icing you can do a classic cocoa / icing sugar version (1.5 cups icing sugar, 1 Tbsp cocoa, 20g melted butter and enough water to make it spreadable).

And it's easy - one dirty saucepan and five minutes prep and you'll have it in the oven.

It seems to have gone down a treat - there's just enough left for morning tea this morning - and the framing for our bathroom is almost done, with pre-wiring and plumbing going in today so it's having the desired effect. Chocolate slice for a bathroom seems like a good trade to me. If only we could pay for the whole thing in baked goods... ;-)

Do you have a go-to recipe to provide fuel when hard labour is required?

Oaty chocolate coconut slice
250g butter
1 cup / 240g sugar
2 Tbsp / 15g cocoa
1 Tbsp / 30g golden syrup
2 cups / 340g flour
2 tsp  / 8g baking powder
1 cup / 75g coconut
3/4 cup / 90g oats
pinch of salt
Icing
150g chocolate
50g butter
coconut flakes or threads

Preheat oven to 160 C. Line a brownie or slice tin with baking paper.

Melt the butter, sugar, cocoa and golden syrup in a saucepan over medium heat. Once combined, remove from heat, add the remaining ingredients and mix to combine,

Press into pan and bake for 25 minutes.

To ice, gently melt the chocolate and butter, mix to combine and spread over the slice. Sprinkle coconut over the top. Allow to cool slightly before cutting into small pieces. (If you cut it too soon it will crumble heaps - but you can of course make your own crumbly edge vs delicious warm slice trade-offs. Maybe you're okay with crumbly edges!).