ANZAC Biscuit Caramel Tart Recipe
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Recipe Overview
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour 10 minutes
Serves: 12 people
Ingredients Needed
For Base
- 355g/12.5ozs ANZAC biscuits (see ANZAC biscuit recipe here, use crunchy recipe)
- 45g/1.6oz butter, melted
For Filling
- 1200g/42oz (3x400g/14oz tins) sweetened condensed milk
- 225g/8oz butter, cubed
- 70g/2.5oz golden syrup or brown sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
For Topping
- 200g/7oz dark or bittersweet chocolate
- 25g/1oz coconut oil
Step-By-Step Instructions
Step 1 CRUMBS - Blitz the ANZAC biscuits in a food processor until very fine in texture. Mix with the melted butter until you get a damp, sandy texture that you can press together and will stick together (troubleshooting: if it doesn't stick together, add a bit more melted butter until it does).
Step 2 BASE - Press into an extra deep tart tin making sure to press it into a thin, even layer. I use a flat bottomed glass to smooth it out. This takes time so be patient with this part (it sometimes takes me 10 minutes). Place on a baking tray in the freezer until needed.
Step 3 CARAMEL - Preheat oven to 160C/320F fan forced or 180C/350F conventional. Empty the condensed milk tins into a heavy based saucepan (scrape out every little bit from the corners of the tin). Then add the butter, golden syrup or brown sugar and salt. Heat on low to medium heat and stir until butter has melted. Then turn heat to low and cook until thickened stirring consistently - this will take 25-30 minutes. Go low and slow so that the caramel doesn't catch and produce brown little floaters.
Step 4 BAKE - When the caramel is thick enough, gently pour it into the tart tin retrieved from the freezer and bake on the baking tray to catch any butter drips. Bake for 20 minutes, then turn around and bake for another 15-20 minutes or until mottled on top. Cool.
Step 5 CHOCOLATE - Melt the chocolate in a microwave on 60% power in 30 second bursts until soft. Stir in the coconut oil well and spread over the set caramel. Cover and allow to harden or place in the fridge. Finish with a sprinkle of flaked salt.
Personal Note
One night, we were both exhausted and we were sitting down to a piece of this tart that I was testing. Over this mouthful of this tart Mr NQN turned to me and announced with aplomb, "I'm exhausted...".
But then a car alarm started blaring. Insistent. Urgent.
"That's our car," I said to Mr NQN. He grabbed his key fob and opened the front door and turned it off.
"Was someone there?" I asked when he returned. "Nope, no one," he answered.
10 minutes later the car horn went off again. We had just finished this tart.
Frustrated Mr NQN marched out and I followed him.
This was around the time of the petrol price spikes and I wondered aloud if someone was trying to steal the car or petrol. It's a safe area but who knew and besides which, the alarm kept going off.
Then the third time I followed him out and noticed that the neighbour across the road (my mortal enemy) had his sensor lights on and they turned off a few seconds before ours did.
"Was it him?" I whispered to Mr NQN. It didn't really make sense, he has much nicer (and multiple) cars than ours but the timing of his light being on and then turning off was strange. It hadn't happened during the day, only at night.
The car alarm went off a total of 8 times and Mr NQN sat in his office at the front and turned it off as soon as it happened. Then he finally found the button to disengage the alarm and that gave us some peace that night.
The next night it happened again and the next night and next. It got to the point where we had to disengage the alarm every night.
A few days later we were driving and a moth flew past my face. "That's it! That's the little bugger!!" said Mr NQN excitedly. He had been researching it and apparently flies or moths in the car are a trigger for car alarms. And after I had dispatched the moth, the car alarm didn't trigger again!
So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever had the same thing happen to you with a car alarm?