Chocolate Slice ~ "Just like Grandma used to make"

For the past year, my partner has been talking about these amazing brownies his grandma used to make. I scoured the internet searching and searching for every brownie recipe possible, but not a single one of them compare or was even similar to his grandma's famous creation.

Finally, after one batch that was delicious but still didn't meet expectations, he says to me, "Aren't brownies supposed to have chocolate icing on top too?"

I blinked. "No?" I responded, rather haughtily.

"Oh, maybe grandma wasn't making brownies then... maybe it was some sort of chocolate slice."

All of this time, I was trying and trying every brownie recipe possible, when it wasn't a brownie recipe at all! I flailed my arms and sighed, a lot. Because now, with that knowledge, I was pretty certain I knew exactly what recipe his grandma used to use.

The same one all Australian mothers and grandmothers used to use back in the 90s! The same one I used to devour all the damned time. The Australian Woman's Weekly chocolate slice.

All I remembered from that recipe was that there was definitely coconut in it. And then I googled. And LO! I was correct. Plenty of coconut.

I had all the ingredients in the cupboard. It was time to make this 30 year old recipe of our youth. With a few minor adjustments -- just increasing the amount of cocoa and butter.

 

For the Slice itself

• 125g melted butter
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup self raising flour
• 2 heaped tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup dessicated coconut

For the Icing on top

• 1 cup icing sugar
• 2 tablespoons cocoa
• a tablespoon butter, melted
• a tablespoon hot water
  (plus and minus here and there to get to the consistency you personally prefer)

 

First, preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Honestly. This recipe is very, very basic. There is no need to whisk an egg, gently combine this or that, fold in things separately, etc.

Literally just throw all ingredients for the slice (not the Icing ingredients, just the Slice ingredients) straight into a bowl and mix it all together.

Butter up a tray so that the deliciousness doesn't stick.

And chuck it all into the tray and smooth it out to all edges and corners.

Then, place the tray into the oven and bake for 20 minutes. You may or may not need an extra minute or two more depending on your oven. We all know our own ovens best!

Take it out of the oven and allow it to cool.

Once cooled, mix all the Icing ingredients together until smooth and slather it on top of the cooled slice. You might not feel as though there is enough icing, but you only want that thin covering. Nothing thick and wild.

Chuck it in the fridge and allow the Icing to set.

And then chop it up and into bits and pieces of your choosing! Squares, rectangles, triangles, halve it and eat it with a knife and fork! However you fancy!

I have a family so no knife and fork with a giant slab for me.

And voila! All done.

And to my relief... my partner took a square, devoured it, and smiled.

"Yes! This is the one! This is what grandma used to make me every time I visited her! This is the taste of childhood memories!"

I finally figured out what he was going on and on about! 😅 And there was much rejoicing!

 

Until next time!!!! 🍰

 

---

 

_{All photos in this post are courtesy of me, @kaelci, and my Samsung S21's phone camera.}