Do you like Toffee Crisp bars? Well, now you can make them at home for half the price!
I love Toffee Crisp bars (well, the ones you get in Ireland and the UK): the lovely chocolatey rice crispie bar, the chewy caramel layer, covered in chocolate.... it's absolutely delicious! They used to sell homemade toffee crisp squares in the college cafeteria where I studied for my bachelor degree.
Making them at home is super simple: the layers are all very easy to make, and doesn't require any oven baking! Just a hob to make the caramel.
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DIFFICULTY
No baking required, but uses stove top cooking
No baking required, but uses stove top cooking
TIME
About an hour
RECIPE RATING
Easy!
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INGREDIMENTS
For one 8 inch (20 centimetre) square tray of squares
For crispy base
150 grammes (5⅓ ounces) rice crispies or cocoa pops
250 grammes (9 ounces) plain or milk chocolate
50 grammes (1¾ ounces) margarine, or butter
For caramel
200 grammes (7 ounces) condensed milk
75 grammes (2½ ounces) salted butter
35 grammes (1¼ ounces) light brown soft sugar
1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence
Salt, to taste
For chocolate topping
125 grammes (4½ ounces) milk or plain chocolate, or a combination
20 grammes (¾ ounce) sunflower oil
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METHOD
- Line a 20 centimetre (8 inch) square tin with non-stick baking paper.
- Melt the margarine, or butter, and chocolate for the base slowly together in a heatproof bowl over low heat. If you're using butter, the microwave works well, but not with margarine.
- Once completely melted, stir in the rice crispies or cocoa pops and mix thoroughly until each crispy is coated.
- Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and flatten the top. Pop in the fridge while you make the caramel.
- Make the caramel according to the instructions in my millionaire's shortbread recipe, or on the Carnation UK recipe. Pour the caramel over the top of the crispy layer and spread out well.
- Melt the chocolate for the topping with the oil, either in the microwave or in a bowl over hot water, stirring well. Pour over the caramel while everything is still warm.
- Allow to cool completely to room temperature before chilling in the fridge for about an hour, or until the topping is set, before cutting and serving.
These sound yummy, I've never heard of them. One question for you. Here in the U.S. (and probably in your country too) we have sweetened condensed milk and evaporated milk. I think of evaporated milk, as milk that is quite thick, i.e., condensed. Of course sweetened condensed milk is very sweet. Needless to say two different animals. So which one should I use in this recipe. Also, is the chocolate in candy bar form, or would chocolate chips work? I always enjoy your posts and would love making these. I so appreciate you adding the measurements in ounces. We Americans never got the hang of metric.
ReplyDeleteHi Roz! These are good questions:
DeleteIn this recipe, you definitely want to use sweetened condensed milk, NOT evaporated. You need the sugar in the condensed milk to make the caramel thicken.
As for the chocolate, any chocolate you use in the USA to coat cookies or make candy bark would work: it has to be a chocolate that sets hard when it's cool. I'm not sure how chocolate in the USA behaves when mixed with margarine or butter, so you'll have to be the judge based on your own experience :) I've never eaten American produced chocolate, oddly enough: I wonder if it's significantly different to European chocolate....
Also, the ounces I use are WEIGHT, not VOLUME. If you want to use volume measurements, you're probably best checking up on Google "how many cups is 225g of..." etc. Here in Ireland, people mostly use weight, and hardly ever use volume/cups, so people go for pounds/ounces or kilos/grammes.
I hope that answers your questions! Let me know if you want more information ^_^