Caramel Slice

This was yet another pregnancy craving, and a somewhat (I feel) epic undertaking of food-creation. I refused to drive across town and buy expensive vegan caramel sauce (or condensed milk), nor do I feel you should have to do this either. The flip side being that I had absolutely no idea how to make caramel sauce – of course, I didn’t dare tell the pregnant person this, and with utmost confidence declared that I could make caramel sauce easy-peasy.

If you do have an easy, delicious, cheap caramel sauce recipe you use, please do send it to me :)

INGREDIENTS

Base

50g Margarine
1/4 C Sugar
1 C Flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 C Water

Caramel

150g Margarine
1 1/2 C Brown Sugar
1 C Soy Milk
1 tsp Vanilla Essence

Chocolate Icing

100g Chocolate
1 1/2 C Icing Sugar
2 Tblsp Soy Milk

INSTRUCTIONS

Blend (or mush it all together with your hands) together the marg, sugar, flour and baking powder to form crumbs (or mush it all together with your hands). Stir in the water to produce a thick dough. Push this into a lined, greased tin and bake at 180ºC for 25 minutes, or until the top is just starting to brown. Leave the base to cool completely (feel free to accept the fridges help, but make sure the tin has cooled down first!). Keep the slice in the tray, as it will stop the caramel and chocolate going everywhere when you add it.

Melt the caramel ingredients in a pot over medium heat, and then turn the heat up until it starts to boil. Reduce the heat again and leave to simmer for about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat, and give it a good mix (you really want to try whipping it with a wooden spoon) – it should start to thicken. If it doesn’t start to thicken, boil it for a few more minutes then try again. Don’t worry about over boiling, it will take a long time for this; you may have to boil/whip a few times before it behaves right. Pour the sauce over the base, and again leave to cool completely.

Over a low heat, melt the chocolate. Remove from the heat and mix in the icing sugar and milk. Spread this on top of the caramel, and again leave to cool. Once it has cooled completely you can remove it from the tin and cut it up.