Babble and Bake

This has been one of my favourite treats for as long as I can remember, my Granny has always made it, and it has become quite famous amongst our friends and family! She has no idea where the recipe came from, but I'm sure it's just a recipe book somewhere... all I know is that it's absolutely delicious!

It's also really easy to make, and serves so many people!

But I'm warning you that it's incredibly more-ish, so I wouldn't blame you for eating the whole tray...

Ingredients

For the base

280g self raising flour

140g unsalted butter

115g caster sugar

For the filling

115g unsalted butter *

115g caster sugar

2 tbsp golden syrup

1 large can sweetened condensed milk (397g)

For the topping

140g plain chocolate **

* I've used baking spread in place of butter

** you can use any chocolate you'd like, I just like using plain chocolate as it isn't overly sweet, but it's quite nice using two types of chocolate and marbling them

Method

- Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/350F/Gas 4. Grease a large baking (12” by 9” if best).

- In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.

- Sift in the flour and work the ingredients together.

- Once completely combined, with a crumbly texture, press the mixture into the base of the prepared tin.

- Bake for 15 minutes and leave to cool completely.

- Heat a large saucepan over a low heat and add in all of the filling ingredients, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has melted.

- Increase to a medium heat, then boil for 5 minutes, stirring continuously. (Try not to let any of the mixture stick to the base of the pan).

- Remove the pan from the heat and leave to cool for a minute.

- Pour the mixture over the base and leave to set.

- Melt the chocolate (I do this by breaking into pieces in a heat proof glass bowl, and heating over a pan of boiling water, stirring gently, being careful not to burn it).

- Pour the melted chocolate over the caramel, my Granny usually uses a fork to mark the chocolate in a decorative pattern.