July 30, 2011: Perfumed chocolate slice

A couple of years ago I had an online conversation with Anna. She was adapting her mum's chocolate slice recipe to suit her friend's dietary needs, had good replacements for flour and butter on the go, and was exploring her options for eliminating the egg. She found success with Orgran. These days one of my own friends is on a similar diet and I pulled this recipe out for her.

It's the kind of thing that my mum made when I was a kid too - a simple crunchy chocolate-coconut base spread with chocolate icing. Overconfident with a one-bowl recipe, I managed to completely mess up my first batch by forgetting to add the coconut. Ridiculous. That slice was one oily, black over-baked puck. Thankfully the ingredients are quite straightforward and, in my pantry, plentiful so I was able to start over. This batch fared much better although it was still very oily, soaking through the kitchen paper I stored it on. I wonder if my chunky, home-processed almond meal might have affected the texture, as I can imagine finer almond meal mixing through the wet ingredients more effectively.

I dressed the slice up a little, adding rosewater to the icing and sprinkling crushed pistachios over the top. They really alter its look, aroma and taste.

Perfumed chocolate slice
(adapted from a recipe on Anna's Sharing My Interests)

slice
1 cup almond meal
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
2/3 cup brown sugar
150mL sunflower oil (this seemed too much)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 teaspoon Orgran No-Egg, mixed into 2 tablespoons water
3/4 cup dessicated coconut

topping
1 cup icing sugar
1 tablespoons cocoa
1 teaspoon rosewater
1-3 tablespoons hot water
1/4 cup pistachios, chopped

Preheat the oven to 170°C. Line a baking tray (mine was 22cm square) with paper.

In a bowl, stir together the almond meal, bicarbonate of soda, cocoa and sugar. Whisk in the oil, vanilla and egg replacer. Add the dessicated coconut and stir well to combine. Pour the mixture into the tray, smooth over the top with the back of a spoon and bake until cooked through, about 20 minutes.

When the slice is ready and cooling on the bench, chop the pistachios and make the icing. Stir the icing sugar and cocoa together in a bowl and sprinkle over the rosewater. Add a little hot water at a time, whisking together the mixture until you have a consistency you like. Spread the icing over the slice and sprinkle over the pistachios, pressing them lightly into the icing to stick.

Slice and serve!