Channel Your Inner Great British Bake Off Champion With These Oatmeal Ginger Slices

We've finally reached the season of cozy sweaters, warm spices, homemade treats and, most importantly, The Great British Bake Off Baking Show. If you're serious about living your autumnal life to the absolute fullest, you've no doubt spent the past few weekends filling your house with the scent of cinnamon rolls and apple cider doughnuts while furiously tweeting about season 12 contestant Lizzie getting attacked by an ostrich, or Paul Hollywood engaging in lightly sweetened cannibalism two weeks in a row.

This weekend, celebrate all your favorite fall things at once: The very first Great British Baking Show grand champion, Edd Kimber, is releasing a new cookbook next month. It's called One Tin Bakes Easy, and it's full of spectacularly simple recipes, like these ginger-heavy oatmeal bars. They can be whipped up in a flash, giving you more time to tweet about your new favorite GBBO contestant, Jürgen. (You know you want to.)

Reprinted with permission from One Tin Bakes Easy (Octopus Books, 2021) by Edd Kimber.

A slice, for the uninitiated, is the Australian and New Zealand equivalent of a British tray bake, a super-simple recipe baked in a rectangular tin. The range of Antipodean slices is seemingly never-ending, from the traditional and classic to the modern and inventive. This recipe is inspired by a classic New Zealand slice that is traditionally made with a shortbread-style base, but my friend Erin Clarkson, an NZ food blogger, makes them with an oatmeal-style base, and now I make them no other way. The chewy base is topped with a sweet but fiery ginger icing, so I serve the slice in smaller pieces than other bars. The flavours make them hard to resist, so make these when you have a crowd to feed.

For the oatmeal base:

• 160g (5¾oz or ⅔ cup + 2 teaspoons) unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
• 165g (5¾oz or 1½ cups) all-purpose flour
• 220g (8oz or 2¾ cups) rolled oats
• 4 tablespoons golden syrup or clear honey
• 180g (6¼oz or ¾ cup + 1 tablespoon) light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

For the ginger icing:

• 150g (5½oz or ⅔ cup) unsalted butter
• 4 tablespoons golden syrup or clear honey
• 2 tablespoons ground ginger
• 240g (8¾oz or 2 cups) powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
• Pinch of fine sea salt

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Lightly grease your 9 x 13in baking tin and line with a strip of parchment paper that overhangs the long sides, securing it in place with metal clips.

For the base, combine the flour and oats in a bowl. Put the butter, golden syrup and sugar into a saucepan and heat until melted and smooth. Remove from the heat, add the bicarbonate of soda and mix briefly to combine.

Pour this mixture into the dry ingredients and mix until thoroughly combined. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and spread evenly. This is best done with a small offset spatula or the back of a metal spoon as the layer is thin. Bake for 20–25 minutes, until the base is golden, a little darker around the edges and a touch paler in the centre. Set aside for the moment.

For the icing, put all the ingredients into a saucepan, place over a medium heat and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture is fully melted and smooth. Pour it over the still-hot base and spread evenly. Set aside at room temperature until the icing has set.

Use the parchment paper to carefully lift the slice from the tin, then use a sharp knife to cut into small pieces. Stored in a sealed container, these slices will keep for about 3–4 days.