Caramel Squares

I love making things, however i don't generally cook! so this is a Bit Beyond the comfort zone!

My mum used to make these and they were the best, so i thought i would give it a go! They are called by a few different name including Caramel Squares, Wellington Squares, and Millionaires shortbread.

They are pure badness! full off butter and sugar and calories! but who cares?

This is simple enough to make, but a bit messy. if you have young kids get them to help!

Add the Ingredients into a large bowl, its best to cut up the butter into small chunks and don't use straight from the fridge. then its time to get messy and rub the mixture together until it looks like bread crumbs. it its a hot day or you over work the mixture you may end up with sticky mixture which binds altogether to make a ball, but it doesn't really matter it just makes the next stage more difficult.

Grease and line a 9" by 12" tin and empty the mixture in. shake the tin a bit to even out the mixture then, with the back of a spoon even and flatten it out.

Once you are happy it is even then prick the surface all over with a fork then shove in the oven set at 175°C (fan on) for about 18 minutes. it should just start to go golden brown. if its under done then it will crumble when you try to eat it and make a mess!

Once cooked leave on the side to cool down before starting the caramel.

180g butter

90g caster sugar

230g plain flour

The Caramel is a bit tricky to do, and once the mixture starts to boil you need to watch it carefully and take care.

Add the butter into a heavy bottomed big pan and let that start to melt as you weight out the rest. If you measure out the sugar next and then make a well in the middle of the bowl you should be able to add the golden syrup without messing up the bowl! (i hate washing up) then add that to the butter and then open up the tin of Condensed cream and chuck that in. At this point i use the middle gas ring and have the flame set to the lowest.

Once all the mixture has melted and combined you can turn up the heat a bit. You need to keep an eye on the mixture as it can very quickly catch in the bottom of the pan, i tend to stir frequently.

Once the mixture starts to boil, set a timer for 6 minutes and stir constantly. What you are looking for is a distinct change in color from yellow to caramel! and this should be after boiling for about 5-7 minutes. This is one part i wouldn't let the kids help with, this is hotter than boiling water BEWARNED.

When you have boiled the mixture for about 6 minutes and the color has changed take the pan of the heat and continue to stir to prevent it cooking anymore and burning in the pan. what i found is that after about 6 minutes it was very hard to stop the caramel burning and you could clearly see darker bits of caramel coming from stirring the bottom this was the best sigh it was done!

Once cooled a bit pour onto the base and even up. this needs to totally cool before you add the chocolate.

225g butter

1 tin condensed milk

225g normal sugar

60-90g golden syrup

This is definitely the best bit for the kids to help!

I use 150g of milk cooking chocolate, 50g of normal milk chocolate and 50g of plain chocolate, nothing fancy just the cheap own brand chocolate from the supermarket.

I melt the chocolate in a microwave one minute at a time on 40% power, after each minute check and stir.

Once all nicely melted pour on top of the cooled caramel and level out.

Give the bowl to a 4 year old girl and see how messy she get!

Once the chocolate has cooled slide a butter knife around the edges of the tin and turn out the slab. Turn the slab the correct way up and cut into suitable sized squares, i use a big bread knife for this.

Then make a cup of tea and eat.