An Australian version of the Twix Brownie // Twix Slice

I'm really quite proud of this recipe! Recently, a picture of a Twix Brownie floated into my universe via Instragram - no questions asked, this had to be made. But when I found the recipe, it was all Weird and American. We just don't have some of those ingredients down here.

The Twix thingy needed to happen regardless, so I made up my own version and the crowd was pleased. So was I!

Also, it's no longer a brownie, it's a good old Aussie slice.

This is pretty much a standard caramel slice with a few tweaks: the base is shortbread (because you know it's all about that base), the chocolate on top is milk chocolate (always) and I incorporated chunks of actual Twix into the top layer.

It's Twix on steroids. This one is definitely going into the book.

Recipe

Base
125g butter, softened
3 tablespoons caster sugar
1/2 tablespoon water
1 cup plain flour
1/4 cup rice flour

Preheat oven to 160 C / 140 C fan forced. Grease a 27.3cm slice tin with butter.

Beat butter and sugar in medium bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Stir in the water and flours, in two batches. Knead mixture until smooth, then press into the slice tin.

Bake for 40 minutes then allow to cool for about 30 minutes before you add the caramel.

Caramel Layer
400g can sweetened condensed milk
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons golden syrup

Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan. Stir with a wooden spoon over moderate heat until boiling. Continue stirring constantly for 5 minutes. Spread evenly over the base. Return to oven and cook for a further 10 minutes. Cool before adding chocolate.

Chocolate Layer
350g milk chocolate
Packet of Fun-Size Twix; each Twix cut into 5 pieces

Place the milk chocolate (not the Twix) in the top of a double saucepan. Stir over a gentle heat until melted. Spread over the caramel. Press the chunks of Twix into the top of the chocolate layer. Refrigerate until set, then turn the slice onto a board to cut. Trim off the four edges before cutting into pieces.

Tips

• Ingredients: always use BUTTER, never margarine (mortal baking sin!) and make sure you use good quality chocolate in baking - NEVER that nasty Home Brand Cooking Chocolate stuff! On the other hand, Home Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk is perfectly fine and it's half the price.
• Caramel is easy to make once you've done it a couple of times, but my first attempt at caramel a few years ago was a concrete disaster (you could have built a house with that stuff). So, I'm going to spell this out. You want the stove temperature to be 'moderate', so set it just below the halfway point (maths for dummies: if you have 9 dials, put it on 4). The most important thing with caramel is that you must dedicate your life to it for 10 minutes - no texting or toilet breaks. Stir the mixture continuously until it begins boiling. Once it begins boiling you might start to fret that it's catching on the bottom - it will be catching on the bottom, but that's okay - the trick is to keep stirring continuously and very quickly for 5 minutes (time it from when it starts boiling) making sure that the caramel catching on the bottom doesn't get a chance to stick and burn. You might notice a few little lumpy bits floating around - don't fret - just keep stirring quickly. Stop at 5 minutes. The caramel consistency might seem runny, but just trust me, it's done.