Guilty Caramel Slice
The Ultimate Guilty Pleasure.
This is my FAVOURITE dessert to make of all time. The base is buttery, the caramel is chewy and the milk chocolate seals the whole slice together. It’s a great afternoon or after dinner snack. Not so great on the calories side, I don’t know and I don’t care. Cheat days are important too!
I’ve been making this since I was 18, way before I developed any food intolerances. So this is obviously not gluten free or vegan. It’s just the ultimate guilty pleasure.
Ingredients
150g of butter biscuits (crushed)
1 cup desiccated coconut
175g butter (pastry butter preferred)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons of maple syrup
1 can of condensed milk (standard 395g can)
200g milk chocolate (usually one standard block of chocolate)
2 tablespoons of coconut oil or Copha (a type of coconut oil which helps melts and set chocolate).
Method
Base
CRUSH the butter biscuits. You can do this via a rolling pin with biscuits in a ziplock bag; or with a food processor, NutriBullet or similar tool (I use this ‘Veggie Chop’ it’s actually on sale at Crate & Barrel for $39!). You’re looking for a fine crumbly texture.
ADD 1 cup of desiccated coconut biscuit crumbs in a big bowl.
DRIZZLE 1 tablespoon of maple syrup in the bowl. Or, I like to do a big spiral around the biscuit crumbs.
Step 1: Crumbled biscuits for the base (the pieces here are still too big so I usually roll them out in a ziplock bag.)
Step 2: Base mix of biscuits, desiccated coconut and some maple syrup. Spiral not so good this time lol.
The base before oven time.
4. ADD the butter and vegetable oil to the bowl and mix well. You want the mixture to be tight enough to make a ball in your hand.
5. PRESS firmly on a tray around 28cm x 18cm.
6. BAKE for 10 mins at 180 deg on the fan setting. I also like to turn the tray around after 5 minutes so it is cooked evenly.
7. REMOVE and let it cool outside the oven for 5 minutes.
Caramel
8. HEAT up a pan with 1/2 tablespoon of butter and wait until melted.
9. POUR the can of condensed milk into the pan, stirring with a spatula.
10. COOK for around 8 minutes, until the caramel is bubbling with a golden brown colour.
11. POUR it over the base and bake again for another 10 minutes. Once done, remove and cool at room temperature.
Step 10: Wait for the caramel to start bubbling.
Step 11: Pour onto base. The darker bits are the caramelised bits of the condense milk, which are scraped from the bottom of the pan. It’s ok to have these as it makes the caramel more chewier once it’s baked.
Chocolate
12. MELT the coconut oil or copha in a pan on medium heat.
13. BREAK up the chocolate into pieces and place it in the pan. Mix until melted.
14. POUR melted chocolate over caramel and base. Let it cool and then place in fridge for at least 1 hour to let it set.
This is totally addictive. Every time I make this I give half away because I know how much I can eat. It’s a great after meal dessert and PERFECT with a coffee.
Happy treating yo’self!
Tips:
Biscuits: I love Arnott’s Scotch Finger Biscuits if you are in Australia. Or in Europe, I use Bio Carrefour Butter Cookies.
You can also use any plain coffee biscuits, as you will get more of the flavour from the butter, desiccated coconut and maple syrup.
The base must cool before adding on the caramel. If you directly put the caramel on whilst the base is still hot (or worse still in the oven), the base deconstruct as you even out the caramel with a spatula.
Make sure the caramel (condense milk) is really bubbling, almost overflowing and scary looking. That’s when you know you’ve got great caramel.
Treat the Copha as a ‘melting’ liquid to the chocolate, if the chocolate is still clumpy, add more Copha. Just be sure to keep mixing so it doesn’t burn.