Mocha Caramel Nut Slice

I have always assume that caramel slice is an aussie dessert. But wikipedia said it is of a scottish decent! How surprising is it! I suppose with the scottish shortbread, creamy filling and chocolate topping, it makes sense that the Scottish invented this.

Caramel slice is such a popular dessert in cafes and bakeries though. It's everywhere! At first, caramel slice is a tad too sweet for my liking- sugar in shortbread, sugar in caramel and sugar in chocolate seems overkill to me.

But like all things, I have grown to appreciate it and do like the texture that comes with it. The crunch from the shortbread, chewiness from the caramel and the smooth chocolate won me over!

I adapted this from Delicious Sweets cookbook- it's a coffee version of the caramel slice. A lovely twist and worth your time in making this. Coffee was pretty much in everything but the chocolate. I omitted the essence and used instant coffee instead which I think tastes more real than essence. ;P  It is probably not a good idea to add coffee while melting the chocolate though as it will seize and you would have to add butter to make it smooth again!

Mocha Caramel Nut Slice (cut into around 30 tiny pieces)
395grams can of sweetened condense milk
1/3 cup brown sugar
50 grams butter
3 tsp of coffee (i mixed 2 tsp of instant coffee with 2 tsp of water)
1 cup or 100 grams walnut pieces
200 grams dark chocolate (

Base
1.5 cups of plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup of brown sugar
150 grams butter melted
2 tsp of coffee (as above)

Preheat Oven to 180C. Line slice tray with baking paper.

whisk flour, sugar baking powder together. Whisk melted sugar and coffee into it. Press it to base and bake it for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a saucepan, heat up the condense milk, sugar, coffee and butter. Whisk till it becomes thick. Don't take your eyes off the pan and the caramel could burn. It should take around 10 minutes.

Remove base from oven and cool, Sprinkle walnuts onto base. Pour caramel on it and smoothen it. Bake for another 10-12 minutes till it bubbles around edges. Cool completely.

Melt chocolate in a microwave- blitz it every 30 seconds stirring it. Pour chocolate on slice. Fridge it for it to set for 2 hours or so. Cut it in small pieces-it's rice so it goes a long way!