Caramel Crunchy Slice

This square is delicious and very quick and easy to make. Like my other post, this is not your typical caramel slice. It is uncooked (so easy!) and does not use biscuits in the base, but a combination of cornflakes and coconut. Mmmm, salivating already.

I recently worked out that this recipe came from one of those collaborative community cookbooks where well-known people nominate their favourite recipe. This one came from the mayor of Palmerston North, at the time it was published.

Caramel Crunchy Square

For the base:

• 250 grams of Kremelta
• 3 tablespoons of cocoa
• 1 cup of coconut
• 3 cups of cornflakes
• 1 cup of icing sugar
• Vanilla

For the caramel:

• ½ a cup of brown sugar
• ½ a can of condensed milk
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 2 tablespoons of golden syrup

Mix all the dry ingredients together and mix well, add the melted Kremelta. Mix until well combined. Grease and line a square baking tin and press half the mixture into the bottom. Press down with a glass until very compact. Put the tin into the fridge to set.

Meanwhile melt together all ingredients to make the caramel. Cook and stir gently for 4-5 minutes. Pour over the set mixture and then cover with other half of the base mixture. Chill slice and cut into squares when set.

Caramello Balls

Ah, the classic classy brandy ball. Yum! Although I have quite the soft spot for these, lately I have come across a ball of another kind. The one and only caramello balls! I thought I should credit slash ask my friend before blogging about this recipe. So I did, yesterday, only to find…she pinched it from the fabulous Griffin’s :-)……turns out they have quite a few different recipes and each one illustrated with the type of biscuit featured in the recipe. Nice.

So here is a treat for the weekend! By the time you read this, RWC fever should be well underway in the capital. I, thankfully, have escaped to the Manawatu for the weekend.

Thank you to my friend Steph for this recipe!

Caramello Balls

• 100g butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 a tin of sweetened condensed milk
• 2 teaspoons cocoa
• 1 1/2 cups finely crushed biscuits
• 1 block caramello chocolate
• Coconut to roll balls in

Heat a large saucepan on a medium heat. Melt the butter, brown sugar, condensed milk, cocoa and vanilla essence. When this has melted, add the crushed biscuits and leave to cool. I left my mixture for about 15 minutes or so. When cooled, wet your fingers and roll a full teaspoon of mixture around a square of caramello chocolate. Roll the balls in coconut. I think you could use any kind of chocolate in the middle, particularly types with a runny centre. I am yet to try with my favourite chocolate of all time: Whittaker’s Ghana Peppermint. I will be sure to update this post when I do!

Mum’s Apricot Fudge

Fudge is a delicious combination of sugar, butter, milk and flavours like chocolate, vanilla, passion fruit, the list never ends! The tricky part of making fudge is combining these items and cooking them properly.

When it comes to making fudge, I’m not really interested. Let’s be honest here, I kind of lack patience. All that stirring and time spent bent over the stovetop waiting and watching as sugar seems to take foreverrrrr to dissolve.

All that said some people make wonderful fudge! I envy places like a wee shop in Palmerston North called Munchkins. They make all sorts of flavours like cookies and cream, Baileys Irish crème, passionfruit (my favourite) and many others. Do check them out – they are definitely worth a visit next time you’re visiting the Manawatu. Chocoholics rejoice! Look at me; I’m doing a better job of selling the store out of fudge than I am blogging about my delights.

Now we’ve got fudge on the radar, I think apricots are hugely underrated and what a great way to use them. The following recipe is a favourite of mine or my mother’s. Perfect for gifts and much simpler time wise than most fudge recipes.

I have since discovered you can now purchase Munchkins fudge online. Go on, I dare you. You don’t even have to leave the house!

Have a good weekend and enjoy the recipe!

Mum’s Apricot Fudge

• 1 packet crushed biscuits
• 75g brown sugar
• 500g apricots, chopped
• 200g butter
• ½ a can of condensed milk
• Coconut to sprinkle

I recommend using quite a large saucepan for this recipe, just to give you a bit of stirring room! Heat pot over a medium heat and melt the butter, brown sugar and the condensed milk. Chop up the apricots into bite-sized pieces and add to the cooked mixture. Add the crushed biscuits and mix like you’ve never mixed before. Fudge tends to get very thick very quick and you want to try and get this mixture as smooth as you can.

Line a baking tin with greaseproof cooking paper and press the mixture firmly into the tin. Sprinkle with the coconut. I have always thought apricots go really nicely with nuts of most kinds so if you wanted to make this item slightly more nutritious, you could add nuts in with the apricots.

Put the tin into the fridge to set. Fudge doesn’t generally take very long to go hard so no need to make this one well in advance. Fudge also travels particularly well so makes an excellent homemade gift!