Chocolate-Caramel Slice
October 5th, 2009
When I first came to be introduced to this, er, dessert, I was underwhelmed. One could even say I did not like it. At all. Boring, insipid, blah, came to mind.
I heard the name, and a different sort of caramel than the one who met my mouth, upon eating said thing, had been my wish. I wanted buttery, creamy caramel, and instead it was merely milky. Dulce de Leche, to be exact.
The dough was dark as darkest chocolatey night and what happened on my tongue was a dry midnight desert sandy storm. ick.
Why, you might be asking, am I reviewing a confection I seem to despise so much?
Because my thoughts have recently changed. Now every time I make this easy going treat, I secretly slice off a piece of my own and eat it in tiny slow savoring bites.
The story of Shuna and The Chocolate Caramel Slice is one of many layers.
Let me first say this:
You do not know what a good, bad or indifferent baker/pastry chef you are until you work alongside someone who is better/worse than you. This is not at all to say that if you are an outstanding home baker, you are deluding yourself. But as far as professional cooking & baking go, it is my experience that unless you push yourself really hard to stay away from your sweet spot comfort zone of I-Know-All-I-Need-To-Know-And-I-Feel-Very-Comfy-In-This-Job/Kitchen-Thank-You-Very-Much, and move kitchens or chefs or hire people who are much closer to your level than you feel comfortable having them, you will become stagnant in your baking skill and knowledge.
The professional cooking & baking world is alive, like bread dough. Just following a recipe, whether it be the one of your life or one for a soup, isn't enough.
Unless it is.
In which case you should stop reading now and move onto another blog/book/TV show that fits your mediocre lifestyle/career.
Becoming a better pastry chef isn't about copying all the bigshots and making food from non-soluble powders and mists and freeze-drying every plant you can get your tongue around. You can become a better ______ and still follow your heart.
This is what you have to ask yourself at some point: what am I learning? who is challenging me? why am I fighting change so violently? what scares me? how much failure can I live with? what are the absences/holes in my career/education and where can I go/who can I work with to fill them?
My inner critic demands a spot: How on earth can Chocolate Caramel
Slice stand in for life lessons? Come on now, you have to be kidding
me. Haven't you seen the headlines? The world is in crises.
But everything is everything, yes? In my world, all is language and all languages are about communication, right?
And when I ate this fine looking sweet treat and I hated it, I delved into why. When I asked the baker about it, she became defensive and said, "People like it! It's a regular thing of ours!" And I thought, that's not an answer, it's an excuse.
Because, let's face it y'all, People Like Things Made With Sugar. Very fucking few people are critical about sweet things. It's the baker, the author, who needs to be discerning. JUST FOLLOWING THE RECIPE IS NOT ENOUGH. No, it ain't. "Well, I followed the recipe…" Is not an excuse for mediocrity. A recipe is merely a guide. It's a secret language for people at various levels understanding its hidden grammar, meaning, message.
Ever wonder why one recipe can achieve countless results?
Because IT DEPENDS ON THE BAKER/COOK, yo.
Make that recipe yours.
Own it.
Learn it.
Make it more than once, more than thrice.
Taste it as you go along.
Eat it. In full. Taste every component/ingredient as you assemble it.
Find out why the author cast flour as the leading role, or butter, or egg whites!
Sing it.
Whisper it close.
Sleep with it under your pillow and ponder it while sitting on the dock watching the buggy skaters do their thang.
I'm serious, yo.
Learn, don't just follow.
And so, without further ado, I introduce you to
'the recipe' for the Chocolate Caramel Slice:
Here's the thing. It's dead easy.
Line a shallow baking pan (preferably with removable bottom) with parchment paper. Make sure parchment reaches up sides at least one inch above pan's edge.
Line with chocolate short dough, let's say 1/2 to 3/4 inches thick.
Bake until just done (best to err on the side of under-baking here).
Spread slightly salted (I prefer sea or Kosher) dulce de leche [ddl for short] over cooled chocolate crust. Thick, at least 1/4 inch thick, but really I don't know the amount. (recipe for dulce de leche – boil one unopened can of sweetened condensed milk, with water covering the can completely, for at least 3 hours. open can when it's not super duper hot. voila! caramelized milk. if you want a much more complicated, highly finessed method, please climb over the wall to Chez Pim's house.)
"Crumble" chocolate short dough over top of ddl & bake again until crumbled dough on top is done.
While I agree it's difficult to tell if chocolate dough is 'done,' look closely at how the colour of it changes in the oven. Touch it–it's shouldn't feel like mashed potatoes, but it shouldn't feel like wood either.
Pull parchment away from slice when cool-ish. Parchment walls are there to hold caramel in place during baking.
Slice with non-serrated knife, straight down motion, when cooler. (I'll admit I prefer eating it when it has a bit of warmth to it.)
Refrigerate slices you're not going to inhale the day you bake it. While I don't usually believe in refrigerating pastry, this one could use the extra hit of moisture it will get inside your cold box.
I have come to like and appreciate the Chocolate Caramel Slice because of it's stupid simplicity. That's a compliment. Sometimes the easiest things are the easiest to mess up. Look at bread. Flour and water. And who the hell makes it at home anymore?
I have come to enjoy eating and making the Chocolate Caramel Slice because I made that recipe mine:
- I cooked the dulce de leche until it was nice and dark. {colour is flavour in baking}
- I added delicious tasting salt to the ddl. {I have been appalled at the use of Table Salt in professional kitchens in London.}
- I under-bake the bottom crust slightly.
- I taste every component and make sure they're just right before I bake it. {I am not relying on the recipe, I am relying on me as a baker/taster of many a baked good [of my own and others' making]}
- And I do not sell the Chocolate Caramel Slice after more than a few days of it sitting out at ambient (= retail bake speak for room temperature.)
Do tell me what you think if you make it. Perhaps you'll have a process too?
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