Malteser Slice

My 10 year old son changed schools this year. It's been a fantastic change on the whole. He's moved from a large badly run school to a lovely small school out of town. We've gone from providing permission notes every week to say that he can eat a particular food (complete with medicare number) to a school where every Thursday is Cake Day. Four families each week provide 2 dozen cakes for the day. Students go to school clutching a 50 cent piece with which they can pick their own treat for the day. Such a change. Such a revelation. Such a normalising influence in a crazy world. I just love it.

So it was with mounting anxiety that I approached my first Cake Day. There was a lot of things to juggle. Cake Day is a Thursday. Which is tricky for working mothers. Especially those working an evening the day before. I saw the recipe for this slice a few months ago and thought it would work perfectly for Cake Day. I could make it the day before. And I figured that the kids would love it. And they did! A Cake Day triumph!

The recipe I found was on a fellow Australian blog Les Reve d'une Boulangere. I'd never heard of Eric Lanlard before, perhaps because I don't have pay tv. I tried the recipe as it was with digestive biscuits, but found the base too heavy, so I substituted arrowroots. To my mind this was a great improvement, but I think it could possibly do with some more tweaking. I'm sure any plain sweet biscuit would be fine.

Malteser Slice

100 gm unsalted butter
200 gm milk chocolate, chopped
3 tblsp golden syrup
225 gm arrowroot biscuits, finely crushed in a food processor
225 gm Maltesers

100 gm Maltesers, extra, for topping
50 gm white chocolate, melted, for topping


Method

Grease a shallow 20 cm square cake tin and line bases and sides with baking paper.

In a medium pan, melt together the butter, milk chocolate and syrup until smooth and combined.

Add the crushed biscuits and stir until well mixed. Leave to cool slightly.

Add the Maltesers and stir together quickly so that the chocolate on the outside of the Maltesers does not melt.

Tip into prepared tin, spread into an even layer, sprinkle the extra 100 gm of Maltesers on top. Gently press the Maltesers into the base.

Set in fridge until set, 2-3 hours, or overnight. Once set, drizzle the melted white chocolate on top of slice. Cut into small squares to serve.

Notes
I made a double recipe to pack off to the little darlings at school.

Today I've just found what is possibly the original recipe. There are a number of differences. He drizzles with both milk and white chocolate. He chills the base and then sprinkles cut maltesers on top. These wouldn't stick in my experience. Which would be annoying. The Maltesers don't fully stick as it is.

I was tempted to melt the chocolate and butter in the microwave, but never got around to doing it. I think it would work well, on a medium temperature, and save on washing up, which is always worthwhile.

This post is linked to Weekend Cooking, a fabulous weekly meme at Beth Fish Reads.