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Gingerbread Baked Donuts

Fresh ginger, golden syrup, water, butter, brown sugar, plain flour, mixed spice, baking soda, icing sugar, lemon juice, crystallised ginger

Put 1 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger, ½ cup golden syrup, ¼ cup water, 40g butter and ¼ cup sugar in a pot and heat to melt the butter. Remove to cool. Sift 1 cup plain flour, 1 teaspoon mixed spice and ½ teaspoon baking soda into a bowl. Stir the wet mixture into the dry mixture to form a smooth batter, then pour into a 12-hole greased donut ring tin. Bake at 170°C for 10-12 minutes until set. Combine ½ cup icing sugar with enough lemon juice to make a runny icing; drizzle the icing over the donuts. Garnish with thinly sliced crystallised ginger, if desired. Makes 12 donuts

New Zealand’s teenagers are among the world’s biggest internet users, and now the general population is catching up. Covid-19 has digitised all aspects of our lives, from banking and grocery shopping to video-calling loved ones and working from home or remotely.

Smarter-thinking companies like financial services company ASB have a series of tools to help all Kiwis move forward with global online trends into the digital future.

Building digital dynamos

In 15 years, over 65s will make up one quarter of the New Zealand population, according to the Ministry of Social Development. But for much of our older population, digital technology has not been a way of life.

Some forward-thinking institutions have already started the journey with their customers by equipping them with the right tools so they too can become digital dynamos and have confidence to embrace the digital revolution.

Re-programming a technophobe Stella Clarke has banked with ASB for more than 55 years, opening her first school account at age eight. A recovering self-confessed technophobe, Stella downloaded the ASB Mobile Banking app to her smartphone a year ago and has never looked back.

“I use the app for everything, to check my account, to check my investments, and to pay bills,” she says.

Clarke learned the ins and outs of online banking and how to identify online fraud and scams from a Better Banking Workshop.

“I used to think I was a technophobe but since I started using this app I have grown a lot more confident, and the workshop really helped,” Clarke says.

Bridging the gap for a brighter future Supporting customers to confidently use technology with their banking is the key motivator behind the Better Banking Workshops, says Karina Marsh, ASB’s Wellsford branch manager.

Alongside the workshops, ASB has several other services to help its customers make the transition to online banking, including:

• The FastPhone service is for customers who are not online or who can’t make the transition to online, Karina says, giving them access to their accounts 24/7.

• The How-to Hub is an online service providing customers with step-by-step guides on how to do the most common online banking transactions. “We find that there are some things that take our customers a bit of time to get the hang of, so the guides really help,” Karina says.

• An over-65s priority phone line was established in last year’s lockdown, with specially trained staff to answer any banking questions, says Karina. “ASB needed to be able to support our customers one-on-one, particularly our customers facing tough times, so it’s great to be able to offer a dedicated priority phone line. The team is also there to support our 65+ customers with digital banking questions if they get stuck.”

For Clarke, the switch to digital banking has been life-changing.

“My only regret is that I didn’t make the switch sooner,” she says.

“I used to think I was a technophobe but since I started using this app I have grown a lot more confident”

FOOD / FAST & FLASH

en-nz

2021-10-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-10-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://stuffmagazines.pressreader.com/article/283768497110230

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