Fiona Weir is Starts at 60’s resident cook, sharing a new recipe every Tuesday. She is based in Gerringong on the NSW South Coast and runs hands-on cooking workshops from her family’s Buena Vista Farm.
Everyone needs a simple chocolate slice in their arsenal.
Something quick and easy that never fails, and frankly that contains no actual chocolate – which you perhaps finished the last row of last night. Of course you can buy supermarket slices, but making them is cheaper, makes your house smell amazing as it bakes, and more importantly has none of the shelf-life-extending preservatives that a bought one always contains. Homemade short cuts. It’s what I’m all about.
After I almost lost my hair one night in the fireball I created by spraying Canola spray directly into a pan on the stove (a gas stove, yes, I know I’m an idiot), I reflected on the effects of my short-cutting, my quick-fixing and my life of interruptions.
I’d like to blame my mother. The master of the domestic short-cut. If there’s a way to do a chore quicker and better she’ll find it because when you finish doing whatever it is, you get to read. Or play in the garden. Or do something fun. And that’s worth a short-cut.
So, no ironing. I grew up clothed exclusively in non-creasing polyester cotton, folded off the line. Hemming tape. Scuff stuff. Nail polish on a laddered stocking.
The slice we’d make for morning tea was actually called ‘Lazy lady’. (It was EXCELLENT. Essentially, a speedy chocolate brownie. Recipe following.)
When I’m done blaming Mum for introducing me to aerosol Canola I can consider the influence of my friends.
One of my dearest pals of all time doesn’t even use pegs on her clothesline. She hangs the washing out and when it’s dry it falls off the line and onto the ground. She and her family always look very clean, so this system obviously works. Love you, Nessie.
I short-cut every single day. Some days it’s no underwear. No butter under the vegemite. And don’t even get me started on the cleaning short cuts I make.
Maybe that’s why, for a few early years, I was doubly killed by the occasional need to write ‘home duties’ next to ‘Occupation’. I’m so unbelievably crap at home duties that I almost set myself and the house on fire. When young, my children frequently left the house with spectacular bed-head and I would occasionally notice a child wearing pyjama bottoms while out shopping or visiting. I had a tendency to note appropriate top half and shoes before leaving the house but neglect the flannelette Elmo at the bottom.
And it’s not that I’m short-cutting and reading or gardening, greater the shame. Some days it feels like roller skates down a really steep hill, you know? On concrete. Without the exhilaration (and the great early eighties perm and short skirt. And legs, for that matter.)
Right now, I’m off to make a quick espresso, speed-read the news headlines online and not do any cleaning. Again. No cleaning except for the big black smudge on the wall behind the stove, which is all that’s left of my eyebrows.
Makes 16 pieces
125 g (½ cup) butter, melted
230 g (1 cup) Brown Sugar
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
150 g (1 cup) Self-raising Flour
45 g (½ cup) desiccated coconut, plus extra to decorate
125 g (1 cup) icing (confectioners’) sugar
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons softened butter
1 ½ tablespoons full-cream milk
Make this in one saucepan – save the dishes.
Preheat your oven to 175°C (345°F).
Stir the sugar into the melted butter.
Stir in the egg.
Stir through the cocoa and then the flour and the coconut.
Spoon in a greased and lined slice tin (18 cm x 28cm), smooth it out and cook for 15–20 minutes at 175°C.
While the brownie’s cooking, make the icing. Mix all the icing ingredients together and spread on the brownie while still hot. Sprinkle with coconut. (Or hundreds and thousands.)
Oh, those cut-off end bits! I grew up with these bits saved for the family while the rest of the slice was given away or taken to a function. The best bits. Like life, really.
Note: Lazy Lady pictured is without icing, just sprinkled with a little icing sugar for a slightly lower sugar version!
Recipe adapted from Fiona’s book “From Scratch” published by Hardie Grant 2022, photography by Alan Benson
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