My Mum Susie's Salted Chocolate Caramel Slice

Dave describes my mothers salted chocolate caramel slice as:

"Lethal. It will cut your liver in half. You cannot get enough."

We are a big chocolate caramel slice family, have had a few in our time. NOTHING tastes like this slice. Unbelievable ... I'm sorry in advance. Here's the recipe and method, then underneath is how NOT to make it. (Aka, how I made it.)

Susie's Salted Chocolate Caramel Slice 
280 g unsalted butter
2 cups self raising flour
2 cups desiccated coconut
1 cup castor sugar
Cocoa powder to decorate

Salted Caramel 
3 x 395g cans sweetened condensed milk
1 cup brown sugar
5 tablespoons Golden Syrup
2 teaspoons salt (use good quality salt flakes or fine Himalayan Rock Salt)

Chocolate Topping
400g dark or milk chocolate chopped
120g unsalted butter chopped

1. Grease a 23cm x 34cm x 6.5cm baking tray. Line with baking paper.
2. Place flour, coconut and castor sugar in bowl, gently melt butter and pour into dry ingredients, mix together and press firmly into base of pan.
3. Cook in a moderate oven (180c) for about 10 minutes or until light golden colour, cool.
4. To make caramel, place sugar, milk and syrup in heavy base saucepan, bring to boil, simmer, stirring constantly ( careful not to burn) for 5 mnutes or until starting to thicken and be golden in colour. Add salt starting with 1 teaspoon and gradually add more to achieve subtle saltiness. Pour over base.
5. Cook in same moderate oven for ten minutes, remove and cool.
6. To make topping, melt chocolate and butter in heatproof bowl over pan of simmering water. Spread over caramel, refrigerate until set.
7. Dust with sifted cocoa powder. Cut into pieces.

::

I had a big hankering to make this the other day. I said, Dave .. if I make it instead of making dinner, then surely that's ok? We drove to the shops and got the ingredients.

The biscuit base turned out really well. My helper pressed it down for me.

And here's where things went wrong.

While I was cooking pasta for the boys, I burnt the caramel. Black flecks swirled around the mixture in the pan so I switched it off, swore, told Dave it was ruined. He begged me not to throw it out.

"Keep going, hon! It tastes fine!"

Dave likes the taste of burnt things. After a brief five-minute sooky sojourn on my bed, I got back up on on the choc-caramel slice bike.

After burning the bottom of the biscuit base while I lay on my bed deciding whether to still make the slice (!!!!) - the chocolate melting went off without a hitch. I smooshed it all over the burnt caramel, then realised it was almost 9pm on a hot summer night, so was going to take a long time to set.

Here is the slice the next day after a couple of hungry vermin took to the not-yet-set mixture with SPOONS the night before. (Confession: I was one of those vermin.)

And here it is ready for eating. Didn't taste or look as good as mums, but it was STILL ridiculously divine.

It sat in the fridge for a few days until Dave and I agreed we had to get rid of it. For our own good. He gave some of it to his mum, and the rest to our neighbour. I clutched it a bit, felt how I always do when I must say goodbye to something I love: like Meryl Streep in Sophie's Choice.

"Take it! Take my creamy slice away!"

He did. No demons are calling me from the fridge, I've been on two long walks to come good ... but I will make it again one day. I will get that caramel right if it kills me.

Dave and I took mum and the boys to see Life of Pi yesterday. SO GOOD.

It was as amazing and beautiful as she is.

Let mum know if you make the slice ... just watch that caramel like a hawk!