African Vanielje on Feb 17 2008 at 1:50 pm | Filed under: apples and thyme, baking, chocolate, food blogging events, sweet kitchen
This month for our ongoing Apples & Thyme event I am going a bit further afield. Apples & Thyme is all about celebrating time in the kitchen with mothers and grandmothers, and today I am extending that to friends’ mothers.
From the day Dani and I first met when we were 12, to the day she left for Canada when we were 16, we virtually lived in each others houses. I’m sure that our parents sometimes felt they had an extra daughter.
Although I never spent time in the kitchen with Dani’s mom, we were far too busy being teenagers, I did manage to consume heroic quantities of her amazing Chocolate Crunchies.
Now I should mention that just about every South African household has a recipe for crunchies, but these were chocolate crunchies. And not only that, but the best chocolate crunchies ever. Not too sweet, with just a touch of rich chocolate topping, you could, and we frequently did, eat an entire batch at one sitting.
Considering the fact that Val also had two sons, and their friends also practically lived at her house, it seems in retrospect that she must have spent her entire life in the kitchen making these crunchies. If she did, I never remember her complaining, or being anything other than a completely calm, loving and always utterly glamorous mother.
For this Val, I thank you. Your efforts did not go unappreciated. In fact, your baking skills made such an impact on my life that as an adult, when Dani and I were once again virtually living in each others houses (this time in London) I felt compelled to ask for the recipe so that I could revisit these moments of childhood utopia.
The recipe arrived from Dani entitled: The delectable, unforgettable Valerie crunchie recipe. That is how I copied it down into my recipe book, and that is how I give it to you today. I hope Val won’t mind me passing on this recipe. But bounty this good is meant to be shared.
Check in the VKCB for the recipe, I’m off to make some delectable unforgettable Valerie crunchies, and will post pictures once I’m done.
In the meantime, don’t forget to send your memories for Apples & Thyme to Jeni at the Passionate Palate for February’s A&T roundup. For rules and info just check out the Apples & Thyme link at the top of my page. We look forward to hearing from you.
Mmm my kids would like these too. I grew up calling them flapjacks in the UK and it was one of the cultural differences between me and my husband that we squabbled about for years – what to teach our children to call them – nowadays though, living in SA, I’ve surrendered and call them crunchies too!
Kit, don’t feel too bad. I too have gone native, and now say yogg -urt, instead of yoh-gurt. It happens to the best of us.
ooooooo…simply yummy. The recipe looks sinfully easy and as you said, good enough to eat them all in one sitting. I love remembering childhood friends that were more like siblings…and their parents who became like second parents.
I think I need a glass of milk, because that’s what I like with crunchies – at night when nobody is looking and you can eat as many as you like…..
Mmmm…I think some melted Nutella would be great on top of these
Inge-what a fabulous story. Howblessed you have been with the women in your life.
Can’t say that I have had these, although my English guests introduced me to flapjacks, which this seems like is in the the same family. I look forward to trying these, as they look easy and I have all of the ingredients on hand. Yum. Thanks
Mmmmm, crunchies. I have a great chocolate crunchie recipe too, although without icing, that is sooooo easy and sooooo delicious. Will have to give these a try, and can convince myself that they are halfway healthy, what with the presence of so much oats! Re. the flapjack/crunchie debate, I always thought that flapjacks were a lot softer than crunchies, even though the ingredients were the same? I would draw a clear textural distinction between them…