It’s Twitter’s Hottest Home Baker time again, (what?) and now bakers can suggest themes to go into the pool. On Friday at midnight this month’s theme was drawn – Caramel!
Caramel Slice sprang to mind immediately, I love the stuff. It’s so so bad, but so so good, and I actually haven’t tried making it before.
I had a look through my recipe books, and did a little browsing through some baking sites. In the end I chose the best sounding aspects of a range of recipes, and melded them together into my own little plan of attack.
Instead of the baked flour base most recipes seem to have, I went for a base that I use for cheesecake and just adore – it makes the slice a little crunchy too as it’s baked. I added ground almonds to the base but it would also rock with desiccated coconut.
Most recipes use two spoons of golden syrup in the caramel, but I like it to be darker so doubled that to great effect. I was using lite condensed milk (haha!) which is a little less sweet than the normal one, but the slice is still really rich.
Whittker’s milk madagascar chocolate has a very distinct flavour, it matches beautifully with the caramel.
This time I cranked out the tripod and took photos all the way through too.
Check out (and vote for!) my entry in the competition on the Twitter’s Hottest Home Baker website.
Crunchy Baked Caramel Slice
Ingredients
Base:
½ packet Super Wine biscuits
100g butter
40g ground almonds
Filling:
1 tin lite sweetened condensed milk
4 tbsp Golden Syrup
30g butter
Topping:
250g Whittakers Milk Madagascar Chocolate
Method
Preheat your oven to 180 degrees.
Blend the biscuits to crumbs, and add the ground almonds.
Melt the butter, mix it incrementally into the biscuit mixture, it looks a bit like wet breadcrumbs.
Line your baking pan with baking paper, and give it a spray of cooking oil to help with the sticky factor.
Press the biscuit base into the baking tin, I use a big, quite flat spoon. Pack the crumbs in tightly and evenly. Put the base into the oven for ten minutes.
Combine the condensed milk, golden syrup and second measure of butter in a thick-based pot and stir over medium heat. Be careful not to burn the caramel – it starts to stick to the base quite quickly. You can remove it from the heat when the butter has melted and the mixture has thickened slightly.
The base should be out of the oven by now, pour the caramel over the base and spread it evenly. Put it back in the oven for ten minutes.
Melt the chocolate in a double boiler (my preference) or in the microwave. If you don’t want the chocolate to set solidly on your slice, add a tablespoon of oil or cream as you’re melting the chocolate.
Pour the melted chocolate over the slice and spread it so it covers the slice evenly, up to all edges. Let the slice cool a little longer, then put it in the fridge. In about fifteen minutes, take it out and cut the slices before the chocolate has set hard. Put it back in the fridge.
When it’s all set, you can take it out of it’s pan. It apparently keeps in the fridge for about four days – if you/family can resist eating it for that long!