Tan square

[caramarie]

Because someone mentioned sweetened condensed milk last week, I have been thinking about tan square. This is a kind of caramel slice which I think is peculiar to New Zealand, and it is my favourite!

This is adapted from a family friend's recipe for caramel slice, at my mother's request - it makes a lot of caramel. This means you get a very thin, buttery base, so if you like base, you might want to double that part of the recipe. If you're just in it for the caramel, no need ;)

Also: a NZ cup is 250ml - I don't know if sizes are the same everywhere.

Base

125g butter
½ cup castor sugar
1 cup flour

Cream butter and sugar until light. Stir in flour in two lots until well-mixed. Use baking paper to line a shallow baking tin (19x29cm or whatever you have that's closest). Press two thirds of the mixture evenly over the base of the tin – you'll probably need to use your hands for this. Put the tin in the fridge while you make the caramel.

Reserve the leftover base mix – you probably want to add a dash more flour so that it will crumble properly.

Caramel

400g can condensed milk
½ cup castor sugar
3 tbsp golden syrup
125g butter
1 tsp gelatine dissolved in 2 tbsp boiling water

Combine all ingredients (except gelatine in water) in a saucepan. Stir over a low heat until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves. Continue stirring while the mixture comes to the boil, then add the gelatine mix.

By our powers combined...

The oven should be pre-heated to 180°C/350°F. Get your base out the fridge, and pour the caramel mixture evenly over it. Then crumble over the reserved base mix. If you are feeling extra fancy, add some chocolate chips or chopped walnuts to the crumble.

Bake for 30 minutes. Cool and cut into squares. You can eat it then, but it will taste even better the next day.

Comments

[redsnake05]

*blinks* we cannot be the only people who make tan slice. It is so delicious.

[stripped]

Can you translate golden syrup please? This looks like something that'd kill me with one bite, but making it for the family and office would be fun.

[sporky_rat]

Golden syrup is kind of hard to translate, it's an actual product called 'golden syrup'.
Wikipedia calls it a 'treacle', which I suppose you could use light corn syrup for, but it's not the same, since Golden syrup is made with real sugar and corn syrup's not. Try the ethnic aisle at your local megamart. Sometimes I can find it there.

[stripped]

It sounds sort of like a light molasses, which is sort of a US equivalent to treacle, I think. Molasses is a cane sugar syrup, as opposed to corn syrup. I'll take a look around for it, thanks!

[caramarie]

It's just as well someone else knew, because here, molasses is something you feed to cattle ;)

[stripped]

Really? Is it still a super-thick gooey sugar syrup? We have two types of molasses we cook/sweeten with here, regular and black-strap. The black-strap is really dark and gooey and I think a little bitter but I can't be sure of my memory on that.

I do know that it is sometimes mixed with feed for livestock, but it's also definitely an ingredient in the US. Especially for things like ginger cookies and spice cakes.

[caramarie]

I think it's like the leftover stuff from making other sugar syrups? You do get it in the supermarket, but it's in the health food aisle. Maybe more like what you call black-strap molasses?

Probably we would just use golden syrup for all the same things - that's what I'd be expecting for spice cakes and so on. Oh, the mysteries of inter-global baking!

[acelightning]

Golden syrup is originally a British thing. It's technically "refiner's syrup", made from sugarcane, and it tastes like a very thick, very sweet, very mild-flavored molasses. Many US supermarkets now carry it - it'll be either in the baking aisle, or near the maple syrup and honey. The only brand I've ever heard of is Lyle's. It comes in a green-and-gold can with a pry-off lid (like a small paint can), or in a bottle, but I think the bottled kind is a little thinner. You can substitute with light corn syrup, or maybe half light and half dark.

[stripped]

Oh awesome, that gives me something specific to look for. Thanks!

[acelightning]

You're welcome. And I translated the NZ/UK measurements into US approximations:

"Caster" or "castor" sugar is plain granulated sugar.
125g of butter is just over 1 stick.
A US cup is just a bit less than a metric cup.
Teaspoons and tablespoons are the same as US.
A 400g can of sweetened condensed milk is a standard "15 ounce" can.
19x29 cm is approximately 7.5" x 11.5" - 7x11 is a relatively common US pan size, or you could use a 9" square pan (it's the area of the pan you want to keep vaguely the same).

I'm just going to round off to a stick of butter (twice), a half-cup of sugar (twice), and a cup of flour.

In fact, I think I'm going to go do that now... ;-)

[stripped]

Thank you so much for translating! I really want to try making these this weekend. My whole office will be on a massive sugar high come Monday. *grins*

[acelightning]

I have lots of friends in Australia, Canada, and the UK, and I've gotten used to translating back and forth between American and worldwide conventions ;-)

[acelightning]

Oh, this sounds delicious! And I just happen to have some condensed milk and some golden syrup on hand. I'm going to make this today!

[caramarie]

Condensed milk and golden syrup are about my favourite combination ever. Enjoy!

[acelightning]

I took it out of the oven about twenty minutes ago; I'm just waiting for it to cool off a bit more...

Edit: It's delicious. Very, very gooey, hard to slice neatly, and sweet enough to induce sugar shock from across the room, but DELICIOUS!

[greenbirds]

*saves recipe* OMG, I ate this while I was on a riding holiday in NZ a couple of years ago, and it was pretty much the best thing I've ever eaten. (Then again, I'm the world's biggest caramel fiend.) Thank you! :D