Along the Way: Chocolate Caramel Slice Take 2

 

Chocolate Caramel Slice, now with more (and better) caramel!

INGREDIENTS

Base

• 1 cup (150g) plain flour
• 1/2 cup (40g) dessicated coconut
• 125g unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 cup (90g) brown sugar

Caramel filling (see notes)

• 190g unsalted butter, chopped
• 3 x 380g cans skim sweetened condensed milk
• 1/2 cup golden syrup

Chocolate topping

• 200g milk chocolate melts
  
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• salt (optional)
  

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F). Place all base ingredients in a bowl - flour, coconut, butter and brown sugar, and mix till it's just combined. Using the back of a spoon, press the mixture into the base of a lightly greased 20cm x 30cm tin, lined with non-stick baking paper, and bake for 15-20 minutes.
2. While the base is cooking, make the caramel filling. Place the butter, condensed milk and golden syrup in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Whisk until the butter is melted and continue whisking for 7-10 minutes, or until you detect the mixture thickening slightly. In any case, turn off the heat after whisking 10 minutes after the butter has melted. *Scrape the sides and bottom of the pan as you go, to make sure it doesn't stick, clot or burn. Pour the caramel over the cooked base. It should be runny enough to just spread evenly by itself but, if not, spread so that it's an even depth with a palette knife, and then cook for 15-20 minutes or until golden on top. Cool slightly, and then refrigerate until cold.
3. Place the chocolate and oil in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, and stir until melted and smooth. If using salt, sprinkle or grind it to taste over the caramel, right before adding the chocolate to the slice. The, pour the chocolate over the caramel mixture and spread evenly. Regrigerate for 30 minutes, or until firm. Using a warm knife, cut into slices or squares to serve.

NOTES - 18 August 2020

The experience of Chocolate Caramel Slice Take 1 convinced me that, whatever else needed to happen, the caramel quotient was insufficient, so I upped the quantities of that layer by half again. In doing so, you may note that I translated 1/3 cup of golden syrup up to 1/2 cup. Given that a strict translation would be 0.495 of a cup, 1/2 cup as a rough approximation seems just fine.

The other thing that happened with the caramel layer was that, when I went shopping, they only had skim condensed milk on the shelf, so I bought that instead. It was actually a little easier to work with and delivered a very nice caramel consistency, as well as backing off the potential for a really saccharine effect. I think the fact that it didn't really thicken in the saucepan is probably down to the "skim" quality, but it doesn't really matter - it's going to be baked, and it does thicken up properly in the oven, so there's no need to get too worried about pouring a runnier-than-expected caramel layer onto the base. 

My experience is that the skim condensed milk goes golden in the oven a bit more quickly than the non-skim version, so do keep a close eye on it from around the 15 minute mark. By all means, let it get golden, but it could brown and crisp a bit much around the edges if you're not vigilant.

On this attempt I managed to waste 200g of chocolate melts by attempting to prepare them in the microwave. The surface appearance doesn't change when you do this, so if you don't take them out and stir them regularly, you have no idea that you've baked the stuff in the middle stiff, and rest of it smells burnt. I returned to using the double-boiler and haven't looked back. I'm not sure what function the vegetable oil serves in this recipe, other than perhaps to ensure that the chocolate stays glossy and is easy to spread on the slice. But it hasn't offended me yet, so it stays in the recipe.

I also added salt to the recipe this time, being a fan of salted caramel. I have a rock salt grinder, with adjustable setting, so it's possible to get little zings of salt into the final product if you wish using a coarse settig, or just a background saltiness which balances the sweetness, with a fine setting. With zero guidance, rather than putting it in the caramel layer, I decided to sprinkle it at the top of the caramel before adding the chocolate. This was entirely my decision and doesn't have to be yours. But it worked nicely.

I was quite pleased with this second attempt, and I've stuck with these ingredients and quantities when creating variations. As you might note from the picture, I still didn't have my portioning game down pat, but I'm getting better. I tried using a long curved pizza cutter for this one, but it really needed heating and wiping between each cut, a job for which I ran out of patience. But the effect is worth it, so stick with heating (in warm water) and wiping between each cut.