Caramel Slice

There is nothing better than summer in New Zealand.

Now don’t get me wrong, I like cuddling up with a hot drink in winter as much as the next person. But I love nothing more than being able to swap my jumpers and scarves for a shorts and a pair of sunnies.  It seems to me that once summer arrives no-one wants to do much besides laze around on the beach with a good book and make up for the Vitamin C lost over winter. So I present an easy yet amazingly delicious recipe, which will ensure you aren’t wasting any tanning time inside your kitchen!

While I was weary of making my own caramel for the first time it is incredibly easy and doesn’t have the same dense taste you get when using bought tinned caramel.

CARAMEL SLICE

Base:

1/2 cups self raising flour

1 cup plain flour

1/2 c coconut

1/2 cup brown sugar

125 g unsalted butter, melted

Filling

60g butter, extra

1/4 cup Chelsea Golden Syrup (Tin)

1 X 395 g can sweetened condensed milk

*¼ LSA

*¼ Almonds, Finley chopped

*Now in an effort to make these little more guilt free I added LSA and chopped Almonds to the base, which created a lovely subtle nutty taste in the slice. LSA is ground Linseed, Sunflower seeds and Almonds, which can be found at most supermarkets and is super healthy!

Icing:

150 g Cooking Chocolate, broken into pieces

50 g unsalted butter

METHOD:

BASE:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease and line a 17cm x 30cm sponge roll pan with baking paper.

2. Combine the flour, baking powder, LSA, almonds and brown sugar in a medium-sized bowl. Stir in the melted butter. Press the mixture into the prepared pan.

3. Bake for 12-15 minutes. (If your base looks a little uncooked its ok as you will bake it again once the caramel topping is added)

FILLING:

1. Combine the HIGHLANDER Sweetened Condensed Milk, golden syrup and butter in a small saucepan. Cook over a low heat, stirring constantly, until boiling. Continue to cook for 5 minutes, while stirring constantly (During this step it is extremely important to keep stirring as if the caramel burns you will have dark specks in the mixture)

2. Spread the filling mixture over the base, then return to the oven for a further 8 minutes. Place in the pan on a wire rack to cool.

ICING:

1.   Place the Cooking Chocolate and butter in a bowl. Bring a small quantity of water to the boil in a saucepan, remove from the heat and place the bowl firmly on top (I just combined the ingredients in a pan over a moderate heat for faster melting time). Stir until the chocolate and butter melt. Spread the icing over the cooled filling

2.   Wait until the chocolate has totally set before cutting with a hot knife and store in the fridge until serving

Enjoy!