Asking what my favourite anything is — colour, song, movie, production of Sondheim’s musical Company — will not warrant a simple response but instead invites you to a dialogue, no, a diatribe, where I meticulously explain the respective merits of my many, many favourite things. I’m indecisive, sure, but may I reframe it: there is just so much in this world for me to love, and who could possibly commit to a singular favourite under such circumstances? That being said, slices — both the baked and the melt-and-mix-and-refrigerate type — are high up in the echelons of my favourite sugar-based foods and possibly, if I really had to choose, they could be my actual favourites (along with cakes, cookies, muffins, puddings, ice cream, pastries…) It’s that texture-forward focus of slices that makes them so inviting to the bite, and their oddly alluring ability to hold numerous pre-packaged ingredients; this Pecan Pie Crunch Slice absolutely delivers on both fronts.

The title is possibly doing heavier lifting than the recipe has arms for, but the power of suggestion is important and there’s just enough crossover with the titular pie that I grant myself permission to use it. Although I’ve only had pecan pie two or three times in my life — sadly not being an everyday recipe here in New Zealand — it’s an undeniably spectacular merging of form and ingredients, the latter of which is no less honoured in this slice. Lodged between the airy crunch of rice bubbles and the maltily crisp cornflakes are soft splinters of smoky, woodsy pecans, somehow suggesting the presence of equally smoky maple syrup despite there being none. You can’t really taste the chocolate — it merely offers further glue to bind the grains — but it lends a subtle, sharply earthy cocoa backdrop to all that sugar. It’s spectacularly good straight from the fridge; chewy, crunchy, snappishly fragile yet robust, powerfully caramelised yet manageably sweet.

This Pecan Pie Crunch Slice is a chassé to the left from my earlier recipe for Chocolate Caramel Rice Bubble Slice; somewhat more refined but only just — it takes some exertion to imbue elegant dignity into a recipe based on breakfast cereal and this is neither the time nor the place. Should pecans elude your budget, the original is more friendly, on the other hand it uses more chocolate, and on yet another hand, the downside of inflation is that a quick shop for bread and milk costs $40, but the upside is that with the price of everything lumbering out of reach it’s hard to remember what used to be expensive. Like pecans. Might as well get ’em instead of paying the same price for a slender, limp cucumber or a grey-lipped half-cabbage, right? And if you’re truly rolling in pecans you could also consider making these Rum + Pecan Cookies or my Kale, Pecan, and Fried Carrot Salad.

Also — Mānawatia a Matariki! Love to have a public holiday that represents who are are and who I am, I happily spent it with the whānau and if you’re reading this from New Zealand I hope you had a terrific long weekend too.

Pecan Pie Crunch Slice

A simple melt, mix, and refrigerate slice that evokes the flavours of pecan pie amidst a ton of snap, crackle and pop texture. It seems unfair to reference such an American recipe and then insist on (the far superior) golden syrup; if you’re stuck with corn syrup simply use the same quantity here instead by all means. Recipe by myself.

• 200g (1 cup) brown sugar
• 250ml (1 cup) golden syrup
• 3 tablespoons refined coconut oil
• 1/2 teaspoon table salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 25g (4 squares) dark chocolate
• 120g (4 cups) rice bubbles
• 60g (2 cups) cornflakes
• 140g (1 cup) chopped pecans

1: Line a 25cm square cake tin with baking paper. Place the cup each of brown sugar and golden syrup in a large, heavy saucepan, and drop in the three tablespoons of coconut oil.

2: Stir the sugar, golden syrup, and coconut oil over a medium-high heat for a few minutes, until small bubbles appear on the surface. The second those small bubbles grow larger, remove the pan from the heat and pour in the half teaspoon of table salt and the two teaspoons of vanilla extract, and add the 25g dark chocolate. Stir till the chocolate has melted in the considerable residual heat of the sugar mixture.

3: Carefully fold in the four cups of rice bubbles, the two cups of cornflakes, and the cup of chopped pecans, stirring till every piece of cereal and nut are coated in sticky syrup. Spatula this mixture into the prepared tin, and press it out into an even layer with the back of a spoon (you may want to rub it with a little coconut oil first to stop the cereal from sticking.) Allow to cool slightly then refrigerate till firm and cut into squares.

Makes 25 small squares or 16 solid slabs depending on how you slice it. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.

Notes:

• The first time I made this I reserved some of the pecans and pressed them into the surface of the slice, as you can see in the photos — this looked nice but was a pain as the pecans kept falling off; second time around I folded them all into the sugar syrup and the lack of fuss made up for the missing decorative quality.
• Again, for the American audience, rice bubbles here are what you call Rice Krispies there.
  You can — and I have — melt about 50g chocolate and drizzle it over the slightly cooled slice before cutting it up.
• Feel free to sprinkle over more salt at the end, this can certainly handle more.

music lately:

Strange by Galaxie 500, it has that same cryptically yearning quality — and perhaps one or two similar chord progressions — as Where Is My Mind, that specific quality that makes me instantly drop face-forwards to the ground without putting my hands out to break the fall.

You Wish by Flyana Boss, look, the piano riff is killer and the rhymes are disarming but it’s the hundred-times-over replicated videos of the duo sprinting towards the camera while lipsyncing that also sprinted this song into my heart, that’s charm and marketing smarts and genuinely mind-blowing cardio all in one right there. Not since Wannabe has an expression of best friendship been so sincerely, sublimely exuberant.

Whatever Lola Wants, performed by Gwen Verdon with Tab Hunter from the film adaptation of Damn Yankees, a film I love more with every rewatch. The way her body melts and resolidifies in this deceptively complex dance number! We were so lucky to have her, we should have cast her in dozens of dance movies.