Ask a chef: Port Royale's ginger crunch

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

Port Royale's ginger crunch

Photo by Jane Dawber.

Base

3 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground ginger
1 cup sugar
250g butter, softened

Icing

300g butter
½ cup golden syrup
4 cups icing sugar
2 Tbsp ground ginger
½ cup chopped crystallised ginger

Method

Heat oven to 180degC

To make the base: Combine the flour, baking powder, ginger, sugar and butter in a food processor.

Press into lined tray and bake for 15 minutes.

For icing: Melt butter and golden syrup together in a medium saucepan.

Mix icing sugar and ground ginger into the butter and golden syrup and simmer for a minute. Pour over the cooked base.

When the icing is half set, press crystallised ginger on to the top.

Requested by Dianne Wild, of Sawyers Bay.

This recipe comes from Victor Daniel, of Port Royal Cafe in Port Chalmers.

• 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, fax 474-7422, or email odt.features@odt.co.nz, including your name, address and a daytime telephone number, and we will request it.