Soph’s away this weekend, so I’m baking something for work that she won’t mind missing a taste of: Liquorice All-Sorts Squares. Also it’s a good way to use up more of the stale crackers I’m working my way through! Due to excesses of various ingredients I ended up using…

For the base:

• 140g butter, chopped
• 300g sweetened condensed milk
• 1 tablespoon golden syrup
• 275g stale crackers, crushed
• 60g desiccated coconut
• 400g liquorice all-sorts, coarsely chopped

Sling-line a 20x30cm baking tray.

Melt butter, syrup & condensed milk on the hob.

Mix in crackers, coconut & all-sorts.

Press into tray and chill for 1 hour.

For the topping:

• 100g dark chocolate chips
• 100g milk chocolate chips
• 30g vegetable shortening

Melt in bain-marie, pour over set base, tipping the tray to cover the whole top.

Chill for an hour to set, then cut into squares. Which was much easier than last week’s cutting into squares! The chocolate layer was nicely softened by the shortening, plus of course no caramel layer to deal with!

 They are incredibly sweet, unsurprising I guess with all the condensed milk and sweets in them. However the coconut and liquorice do cut through it and make for quite a nice snack.