Oh, humble slice. 

Of church fete and morning tea at Grandma's.

I've been so rude about slices. Really, why? They have neither the crunch of a biscuit or the wonderful texture of a cake.

And then I moved to the country. 

Where slices are everywhere. And they are GOOD.

So I'm posting a slice a week on a Wednesday until I run out. Which may be some time. 

I made this one last weekend for a picnic. Passionfruit slice. Incredibly quick to make and so yummy. If you're Australian and outside of a major city (even then) you've probably tried it. 

The bottom layer has crunch and chew and the top is a firm and creamy condensed milk and passionfruit combination. What is not to love. Really.

This one (above) is actually a gluten-free version (in honor of the girls I made it for today) so the base looks a bit anemic. Tasted great, sort of shortbready. I just used gluten-free self raising flour which is based on tapioca and rice flours. 

This one is the one I made on the weekend:

Type 'passionfruit slice' into google and you'll get this recipe twenty times. No one owns it. Not the CWA ladies. Not taste.com.au and certainly not Gourmet traveller. Pfft. 

My Mum gave it to me, photocopied from the Mayflower Retirement Village Gerringong Cookery Book. We used that book for everything when I was growing up. I think it's out of print, you should call it a pamphlet rather than a book I guess. Mum's copy has almost disintegrated – there's just time for me to scour it for all the classic slice recipes. On a mission. 

PASSIONFRUIT SLICE

Ingredients:

1 cup SR flour

1 cup coconut

Half cup white sugar

125g butter, melted

1 tsp vanilla

1 395g tin condensed milk

1 lemon

2 fresh passionfuit or 3 tbsp tinned pulp

Method:

Mix flour, coconut, sugar, vanilla and melted butter together and press into greased slice tin. Bake in moderate oven (180°) for 15 mins. Allow to cool.

Mix condensed milk, zest and juice of lemon and passionfuit together. Spread on cooled base and bake in slow oven (120°) for 10 mins. 

Allow to cool.

In some versions you now spread it with cream but if it's sitting in the fridge next to the apples even without the cream it's going to call and call me. Apples or slice. Apples or slice. 

Put it in a container and take it to friends. 

The WHOLE slice, Fiona. 

Cough. Maybe there is just one or two pieces that didn't quite fit into the container. In the fridge. 

What apples?

xxx