Chocolate Caramel Slice - Updated

 

Chocolate Caramel Slice - the definitive article!

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

• 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 to taste (optional)
  

METHOD

Base ingredients

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.

Base, ready to bake (L), and baked (R)

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. 

Filling ingredients

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.

 

 

Pouring the filling (L), and ready to bake (R)

Baked filling

 

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. Then, 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 - 25 August 2020

This is the definitive recipe. On this occasion there were two minor improvements, and one discovery:

• I somehow got a better caramel colour and consistency by concentrating on not trying to cook the caramel in the saucepan. I just whisked it for the time in the recipe, and then poured it without worrying about consistency. It worked a treat, and the finished caramel consistency was the best yet.
• The base was better and firmer on this one than previous attempts, and I can only put it down to making sure the base was nice and level when I pressed it into the pan, something which I'd neglected a bit in the first two takes. I think this resulted in a bit more pressure being exerted all over the base than before, meaning it was more firmly packed, and the result was a really good, non-crumbly base on which all else was built. This isn't advice to go over the top on packing the base, only to give attention to making sure it's firm and level.
  
• This was the version where I discovered the danger of trying to put a really fat chocolate layer on top. It just doesn't work. Not only does it throw the flavour balance out of whack, it makes it quite difficult to cut - see image above. So my advice it to resist tempatation on the chocolate, and stick to the quantities given, which results in a neat, thin chocolate layer which complements the rest of the slice.

NOTES - 3 September 2020

I decided to do a white chocolate drizzle on a version of this slice, and it worked out really well:

Chocolate Caramel Slice with White Chocolate Drizzle

This is a pretty easy effect to achieve. You can add the drizzle immediately after pouring the milk chocolate topping, or after the slice is completely set in the fridge. You'll achieve better adhesion between the two chocolates if you do it before the main chocolate topping is set - the white chocolate will be more prone to coming away if it's done after it's all set.

This was just done with about 80g of white chocolate melts from the supermarket, melted in a double-boiler, and then, using a teaspoon, drizzling the chocolate over the slice in a close cross-hatch pattern. You can suit yourself about patterns, but I find once you've portioned the slice, any grand effects are kind of lost, so I reccomend a surrender to the abstract.

NOTES: 21 October 2020

Exemplar

Just when I thought I had this recipe nailed, this batch has blown me away. Following my own recipe and advice above, this slice sits up nice and firmly, but the caramel still yields in the proper, inviting way to each bite. The chocolate is not overwhelming or too thick - and the base complements the whole, with its coconut and brown sugar. Past examples have sometimes been too sweet, so remembering to salt the caramel before pouring the chocolate this time may have helped (I've forgotten in the past). I also used salted butter throughout, instead of the recommended unsalted butter, only because that's what I had in the fridge. Lastly, the baking of the caramel seems to have contributed to a more satisfying result - the stove-top work was as per the recipe, bringing all ingredients up to temperature in the saucepan from room or fridge temperature, and timing 10 minutes of whisking over a medium-low heat, from the moment the butter is all melted, seems to be key. It still looked very runny going over the base, but it firmed up a treat in the oven. On this occasion, baking the caramel got away from me a bit, as I was distracted washing up some utensils, and it came out a much darker brown on the surface than I've been accustomed to. You can see this in the picture above - what looks like chocolate smear from cutting, just under the choc layer, is actually the colour of the top surface of the caramel. However, it did still have only the regulation 15 minutes of baking. I just wasn't as vigilant as usual. So this appears to have given the caramel it's slightly better, less saccharine, flavour. If you've managed to combine the recipe above with the advice in notes, there's no reason you can't produce this very pleasing slice yourself.