Cooking School Saturday

Well, I can hardly believe a week has gone by since my previous cooking post last Saturday. I shouldn't be surprised, life has a habit of doing that around here.

Those yummy Choc Chip Jaffa Muffins didn't last too long, and there was much lamenting once they were gone from our lives.

But the woeful cries of my family soon turned sounds of happiness as the day was saved by the other sweet treat I had baked that day. The equally delicious Chocolate Caramel Slice.

It's an easy peasy recipe, which is my favourite type of recipe. I even successfully managed to bake this slice whilst blogging about the muffins and posting that recipe.

For the first step I made the base with flour, coconut, sugar and butter. Unfortunately I was so excited to try this recipe I forgot to take photos of this part of the process. But imagine, if you will, a big bowl, a wooden spoon and the aforementioned ingredients.



But I did get a shot of the finished base for you all.
This is after it's come out of the oven and cooled down a tad.



Step two is to combine butter, maple syrup and condensed milk in a pan ready to heat.

Do you have any idea how much willpower it took for me to resist grabbing a spoon and eating that whole tin of condensed milk, straight out of the tin?

It's a bad habit I picked up from my mum. Sorry.



Heat this wonderous concoction until it smooths out nicely.



Something like this.

Except maybe a little more.

Keep heating and stirring until it's nice and smooth and creamy. Mmmmm.



Then pour carefully over the base you made earlier.

Left handed pouring of scalding hot, yet delicious, mixture whilst taking photos with right hand not recommended.



Next it's back into the over to bake until the kitchen is filled with the most divine smell of caramel and it looks all bubbly and caramel-ly. (That's the technical term, I'm sure).

Although it looks good enough to eat right now, do restrain yourself as the third step and the icing on the cake, so to speak, is yet to come.

Yep, it's the chocolate.



Combine choc chips and a little oil in another pot and gently heat until it's all gooey and yummy.



Then spread that yummy, gooey mixture all over the cooled base and caramel filling, and refrigerate for around 3 hours or until set.



3 hours????

That sounds way to long to wait doesn't it? But we managed to hold out that long. Cleaning the utensils helped pass the time.



After being asked "is it ready yet" about a thousand times, it finally really was set and ready to cut into pieces. Make sure you have a really sharp knife for this part. Or extremely strong arm muscles.



Somehow these don't look quite the same as the picture in the cookbook. The edges of those ones were so straight and precise I swear they must have cut theirs with a guillotine.

But no matter, it's the taste that counts right? And these were DELICIOUS. Yes, they were so good it warrants capitals.

Here's the full recipe for anyone who wants to give them a try. You won't regret it.


Chocolate Caramel Slice

3/4 cup plain flour
1/3 cup desiccated coconut
1/3 cup brown sugar
90g melted butter
395g can condensed milk
60g extra butter
2 tbsp maple syrup
200g dark chocolate
1 tsp vegetable oil

1. Combine flour, coconut, sugar and butter in a bowl then press into a lined square cake pan, and bake for 15 minutes at 170 degrees C. Then cool.
2. Combine condensed milk, extra butter and maple syrup in a saucepan and stir over medium heat until smooth. Pour over the base and return to oven for 25 minutes. Cool.
3. Combine chocolate and oil in a saucepan and stir over low heat until smooth, then pour over caramel and base. Refrigerate for about 3 hours before cutting into squares.