INGREDIENTS
Marie biscuits 200 g
Margarine 250 g
Icing sugar 500 g
Cocoa powder 38 g
Egg 1 unit
Chopped nuts, optional As needed
METHOD
- Crush the Marie biscuits.
- Melt the margarine.
- Add the icing sugar and cocoa to the margarine and stir well.
- Remove from the stove and very quickly stir in the egg.
- Add the biscuit crumbs to the margarine mixture and combine well.
- Pour into a greased dish.
- Put in the fridge to set—about 2 hours.
- Cut into smallish squares and keep refrigerated.
YIELD MANY
PREPARATION TIME 10 MINUTES
TOTAL TIME 20 MINUTES
HISTORY OF MY DISH
A neighbour gave me this recipe more than 40 years ago—we both had small boys who were always hungry and constantly nagging us for sweet treats. I have made this ever since, and my sons grew up with this as one of their favourites. The promise of making chocolate squares kept them out of my hair during those long PhD days!
More recently, my granddaughters started making these, so it is becoming a kind of family recipe, never thus intended. At the time, it was a time-saving, effortless and relatively affordable recipe that the boys loved. But beyond ease and family stories lies the history of cacao. The tree was domesticated more than 5 000 years ago in Equatorial Central America and, before the Spanish conquest, even served as a local currency in the region.
Over time, African countries like Ghana also started growing cacao, mainly for export to Europe. Several African countries became single-crop exporters, increasing their dependence on raw material exports. So, not meaning to spoil your appetite, do spare a thought for the difficulties of structural change in terms of international trade patterns still suffered by many economies in the global South.