Recently The Gentleman turned 10 (I know! How did this happen?!) and he requested this slice to take to school for his class birthday cake. It was the perfect choice for him because A; it's a delicious crowd pleaser and B; it is entirely egg free, which is a big win for the egg intolerant Gentleman. Also, his teacher loves caramel and a little brown nosing never goes astray.
My mother in law is the queen of making this, however she wasn't available so I had to roll up my sleeves myself. This was no hardship, because despite having a few steps it's a very easy recipe. Many 'new' cookbooks say to make the base from crushed biscuits and melted butter, but I went old school and baked it, which turned out beautifully.
Chocolate Caramel Slice
Ingredients
- 2 cups of plain flour
- 1 cup of raw sugar
- 1 cup of desiccated coconut
- 250g of butter
- Another 120g of butter
- 4 tablespoons of golden syrup
- 2 x 400g of sweetened condensed milk
- 500g of cooking chocolate (with cooking chocolate I prefer dark, it seems to not have that weird compound taste that milk chocolate has.)
Method
Biscuit Base
- Mix the flour, sugar, and coconut together.
- Melt the 250g of butter and stir it into the dry ingredients.
- Press mixture evenly into a baking tin lined with oven bake. My baking tin is approximately 30x60 cms, which sounds like a lot of slice. It IS a lot of slice, but I was making it for a whole classroom, and even if I wasn't, it wouldn't go to waste!
- Bake in a medium oven for approx 20 minutes, check to ensure it doesn't burn.
Caramel Filling
- While the base is in the oven, make the caramel. Melt the 120g of butter, then stir in the golden syrup and the sweetened condensed milk. If you need to taste the condensed milk, don't cut yourself on the tin. Mmmmmm.
- Stir constantly over low heat for a few minutes. It won't thicken but it will burn easily, so take it off the heat the second it catches.
- Pour the caramel over the cooked base and return to the oven for 20 minutes.
- Set aside to cool.
Chocolate Topping
- Chop the chocolate roughly, and microwave for 1 and a half minutes or less. Take it out and stir it well. Chocolate will burn easily in the microwave, yet hold it's shape even though it's completely melted, so don't let it fool you into thinking it's not melting! After the first 1 and a half minutes, take it out every 10 seconds and stir well. Play it safe, if it burns you will have to throw it away and that would be a terrible waste of chocolate!
- When it's completely melted, pour over the cooled caramel slice and spread out with a spoon so the whole thing is covered. Return to the fridge to set.
- Before it sets completely, cut through the chocolate layer to mark where the slices will go, then return it to the fridge. This will save it breaking it into uneven shards when you go to cut it properly. I cut this into 30 squares.
The gentleman assured me that not only did the teacher have second helpings, but the girls in the class absolutely loved it, which pleased him greatly. Do you send your little ones to school with a cake or cupcakes on their birthday? At birthday time in this house we seem to have the class cake, the cake on your actual birthday, then another cake if there is a birthday party. That's a lot of cake, lucky a birthday only comes around once a year!
xx