Tag Archives: Caramel

caramel oat slice

05 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by in Baking, Desserts, Recipes, Uncategorized

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This has got to be one of the most delicious baked slices I have ever tasted! You can kid yourself into thinking it is healthy because it has rolled oats in it (oats are a superfood you know!) but the truth is, it really should be served with a defibrillator on standby.

I was given a copy of the Jo Seagar book “It’s easier than you think” for Christmas a couple of years ago and this recipe caught my eye immediately.  I think it had something to do with the gooey caramel layer in the centre. Anything with a visible layer gooey caramel gets the thumbs up from me!

I tweaked the recipe a bit, using the dulce de leche I have in the pantry rather than making the caramel as per Jo’s method (see below) which made the recipe even simpler than the original, but no less delicious, and probably no more healthy… but as a treat for special occasions (e.g. any day ending in Y), it’s perfect.

Get those ingredients ready! You will need…

2 cups plain flour
1 cup self-raising flour
1 cup desiccated coconut
2 cups brown sugar
3 cups rolled oats
2 eggs
300g butter
2 cans dulce de leche
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Grease and line a 25 x 35 cm slice tin with baking paper.

Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl. It really does have to be large. There are 9 cups of dry ingredients in that list.Yes… NINE! Then add the beaten eggs and melted butter and mix well. Press two-thirds of the mixture into the prepared tin.

Open two cans of dulce de leche and spread over the base. Add the chocolate chips to the remaining crumbly mixture and sprinkle over the sweet caramel layer.

Bake for 30 minutes.

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Jo recommends you let it cool in the tin and refrigerate a few hours or until the next day before cutting it. Good luck with that! I swear, nothing I bake is ever allowed to cool properly before cutting. Unless I bake at 9am when the rest of the household are at school or work. And to tell the truth, it really is even more delicious when still warm… but then, most baking is, right?

Enjoy!

(If you don’t have any ready-made dulce de leche on hand, you can make the caramel layer as follows. Melt 400g butter, 2 x 400 cans sweetened condensed milk and 4 tablespoons golden syrup together. Mix well and add 1 teaspoon vanilla. )

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dulce de leche

03 Sunday Jun 2012

Posted by in Desserts

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dulce de leche

Dulce de leche is a sweet caramel which is popular in South America. Literally translated it means “candy of milk” and is prepared by slowly heating and stirring sweetened milk until much of the milk liquid evaporates and the mixture caramelizes. This can be a long process and we all have better things to do than stand at the stove stirring constantly for an hour or more.

But there is an easier way, and you only need one ingredient – sweetened condensed milk.

Actually, there is another ingredient. And that is time. But fear not, you do not have to stand for hours over a hot stove! You can get on with other things while the magic happens.

As this is a slow process I tend to make a few cans at a time. That way, any that are not required immediately can just go back into the pantry until they are required. Or until they are discovered by marauding teenagers.

It’s as easy as this. Place as many cans of sweetened condensed milk as will fit in the base of a large saucepan. Cover with hot water and bring to the boil, then reduce heat so the water is simmering slowly.

Leave for 2.5 to 3 hours, checking regularly to ensure the cans remain completely covered with water as allowing the pot to boil dry could result in the cans overheating and exploding. This has not happened to me but I imagine it would not be a good thing!

The length of time left simmering determines how runny the end product will be. For a runny caramel sauce, one and a half to two hours should be sufficient. For a very thick spread, up to 4 hours. When the desired time has elapsed, take the pot off the heat, carefully pour the water off, dry the cans and place them in secure storage away from marauding teenagers.

It can be used anywhere a sweet caramel sauce is required. Warmed up and poured over ice cream, as the caramel in banoffie pie, as a filling in caramel muffins or just eaten off a spoon… apparently. Not that I would know anything about such behaviour!