Ask a Chef: Cider House Cafe gluten-free date and ginger slice

Ask a Chef reveals the secrets of those superb dishes you ate in cafes and restaurants and wanted to try yourself.

Gluten-free date and ginger slice from Cromwell's Cider House Cafe. Photo by Lynda Van Kempen

1 ½ cups chopped dates (approx 230g)

170g butter

85g sugar

2 tsp ground ginger

½ cup finely chopped crystallised ginger

3 cups gluten-free cornflakes

180g dark chocolate chips for icing 

Method

Put dates, butter, sugar and ground ginger into saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring to make sure dry ingredients don't stick. Heat until almost amalgamated, then add crystallised ginger and stir in well. Remove from heat and mix in cornflakes well.

Press firmly into a lined slice tin, 30cm by 20cm. Chill.

Ice by melting chocolate in microwave for about one minute, stirring, then spreading over slice.

Requested by Judy Marsh, of Dunedin.

This recipe comes from The Cider House Cafe, in Cromwell.

• If you have enjoyed a dish in an Otago cafe or restaurant and would like the recipe, write to Ask a Chef, Features, Otago Daily Times, PO Box 181, Dunedin, or email odt.features@odt.co.nz, including your name, address and a daytime telephone number, and we will request it.