Deliciously golden and crunchy, these traditional South African crunchies leave no stone unturned when it comes to delivering the ultimate biscuit experience. It’s no secret that my family simply adore biscuits. So much so that I’m always looking for a variety of new biscuit recipes to add to my repertoire to mix things up. We have the cookie jar neatly stored next to the coffee machine, leaving no cookie untouched with every passing moment.
For those of you who are not familiar with crunchies, they are similar to the Australian Anzac Biscuit, and are crisp and “crunchy”. I have found most American cookies are soft, and Americans find crispy sweet cookies unusual as it is normally just the savoury crackers that are crisp. If you have not tasted a South African crunchie please try this recipe and see what you think. Let me know if you like them.
I know every South African has grown up on crunchies, whether made by their mothers or grandmothers. They were usually one of the first things that your mom let you bake and kept forever in an airtight container, so we all grew up on crunchies. This recipe, published in The Huisgenoot, Top 500 Wenresepte is one to keep on hand. The book is available at Amazon.
There are thousands of different crunchy recipes out there, making it one of the easier biscuit bases to adapt. If you live in New Zealand, an ANZAC biscuit is what we would compare these crunchies to. I’ve tried a few crunchy recipes before, and have had some of them not set and others become too hard. So when I made this recipe and it set to perfection, I knew I had to save it for future use.
You may think that these crunchies are healthy as they contain oats, however, with a cup and a half of sugar and 2 tablespoons of honey or syrup, this is not the case. However, they do not let down in the taste department. And now that I have a base, I’m going to experiment by adding other ingredients next time, and possibly seeing if I get the same results with less sugar. I’ll keep you posted.
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🇿🇦South African crunchies | The ultimate recipe!!!
Ingredients
- Oats
- Coconut
- Sugar
- Flour
- Salt
- Butter
- Syrup or Honey
- Bicarbonate of Soda
Instructions
How to make Crunchies: These are quick to mix up and are easy enough for the children to help.
- Preheat oven to 180˚C (350˚F). Grease a baking tray. I use a lamington tray lined with baking paper.
- Add the oats, coconut and sugar to a large bowl. Sift in the flour and add the salt. Make a well in the middle.
- Melt the butter and syrup together in a saucepan. When bubbling, add in the bicarb of soda.
- Pour the butter mixture into the dry mixture and mix together. It will be slightly crumbly.
- Press the mixture evenly into prepared tray.
- Alternatively, use a sheet of wax paper and press down firmly. The mixture need to be compacted well.
- Bake at 180 degrees Celcius for approximately 20 minutes or until golden brown.
- Remove from oven and cut immediately, but let cool down in tray.
Want to make some crunchies? Melt the Huletts Golden Syrup and butter together. Press the mixture into a Swiss roll tin (or for a thicker crunchie, bake in a square 20cm x 20cm tin) and bake for 20 minutes at 150ºC. When light brown, remove from the oven and cut into squares. Switch off the oven.
Remember to cut the crunchies whilst still warm, but allow them to cool in the tray. Butter a baking tray 9x13in or 8x8in depending on how thick you want them. The size of the pan is the real secret to getting crunchies right. You use the smaller of the two standard sizes, so that the crunchies come out thicker and don't dry out in the oven.
Tips and Variations
- Sometimes i substitute the coconut for "tennis biscuits" (coconut biscuits), i use about 50g more butter, i dont use quite as much milk in the icing and i often leave them in the oven for a little longer to really crisp up.
- Also, as a South African, I've always made my crunchies with baking soda. You mix the baking soda into the syrup and marg, so that it bubbles up and you pour that over the dry ingredients. That's what gives the recipe its proper honeycomb flavour.
- These are great! So easy to make too. A classic South African favourite!
- They are also very adaptable for the healthy peeps- throw in some pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and raisins. All the guilt of these crunchies could be off set the by using some of the afore mentioned ingredients.
Nutritional information is an estimate and provided as a courtesy. The values may vary according to the ingredients and tools that are used.
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