toffee pie and bears

I’m a big fan of baking, and I have two pieces of news on this score today.

The first is, kind of for my dad’s birthday but also just for fun, me and the boy tried our hands at toffee pie (or caramel slice/ millionaire’s shortbread as the rest of the world knows it).

We got the recipe off the back of a tin of condensed milk, but modified it as we went along. I think it’s funny when these companies print a pretty complex recipe on a tin as if anyone can do it and it’s easy! This one is not for the baking faint of heart – it needs a bit of skill and timing.

For our first attempt (well first.5 I’d say because we did try before, but had a really crappy recipe that just wasn’t right at all), anyway for our first attempt I’d say it came out pretty well, and I’d give it a solid 7/10 ;)

Here’s our modified recipe if you’re interested:

*coming soon*

The things that I’d change about it were: The chocolate was a little too dark and bitter. I think I’d change it to solely milk chocolate as it’s a lot lighter and doesn’t really take away from the other flavours. I’d also make the shortcake base a little more squidgy – by adding a touch more butter, and baking for less time to keep it moist. It might be an idea to brush it with milk while it’s cooling too. The toffee was a bit hard, but this just takes finesse and judging how long to reduce it for.

But it was edible, rich and yummy, and I am a bit of a perfectionist. Hopefully our next attempt will go up to at least an 8 ;)

The other baking news is that a little boy on the street came up to my dad and had this conversation:

Boy: “Are you going to be selling buns again soon?”
Dad: “Yes, it’ll be in November. For Children in Need.”
Boy: “Last time it was for that bear thing. I bought loads!”

I’m glad I’ve got a following! The bake sale is gathering fame! Hopefully one day he’ll understand about charity (as apposed to profit) and where his money is going, and maybe one little boy will get a free teddy this year ;)