crypticgirl | (no subject)

Current Mood: annoyed

(no subject)

The caramel slice I just made is going to taste like crap.

How do I know? Well, it might be because the base got spread everywhere and is all uneven, courtesy the too-large pan. It could possibly be because, in the process of annihilating the smaller blue and white pot*, the caramel got all lumpy and burn-y. But I'll go with the fact that I used olive oil with the chocolate mix instead of, something, oh, I don't know, BLANDER.

I can't even cook something OUT OF THE FREAKING PACKET. I belong in a special facility. No, not for the deafblind. One where ovens do not exist.

*The larger blue and white pot fell prey to my cooking attempts not long after Matt and I met. Those pots had it in for me from day one.

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Be of good cheer. I find that reports of the flavor-effect of olive oil in most cooking situations have been greatly exaggerated. Since I always have olive oil but rarely have other veg oil, I've frequently had to substitute it in recipes where it's seemed drastically inappropriate, and this has resulted in no discernable difference.

(Now must go find out what caramel slice is.)

Though it did turn into a flat, lumpy mess with chocolate that wouldn't set, the olive oil didn't actually prove to be problematic. Well, not for Matt anyway. I think my senses of taste and smell are probably a bit more sensitive than most; that's not to say I can always identify what I'm tasting or smelling, but I do seem to pick up on stuff other people don't. In retrospect, the "OMG it smells of OLIVES! I must go and flay myself with a wet teatowel NOW!" reaction was probably not the most level headed.

You've never heard of caramel slice? What about the vanilla variant (also known in the charming Aussie slang as 'snot blocks')?

Candy setting is, of course, a whole other kettle of olives. I haven't even ever attempted it. If this is a mostly-uncooked food, I can see the oliveness being more of a problem.

Don't know from any slice--we don't have any food called that here. And Wikipedia fale us. (It's offering random shit like French Onion Soup, Toaster, Rum, and McDonald's; don't ask me.)

They're quite common over here in cafes and the like, but I had a Godawful time tracking down a decent recipe (on a non-annoying page) for either caramel slice (http://recipefinder.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=41779) or vanilla slice (http://www.abc.net.au/melbourne/stories/s938778.htm).

Oh, and I wouldn't even begin to worry about the reference to a lamington tin. :) They really just mean a baking tray.

I've found that the best way to cook caramel slice is to actually bake the caramel on on the base, after only a tiny bit of saucepan based cooking, this avoids the whole pan-wrecking caramel burnage.
Olive oil? Weird... and possibly gross.
I can try to dig out the recipe for you if you want, I also know a brownie recipe to kill for.

Oh, that does sound like a better way to do the caramel. It probably didn't help that the saucepan in question was one of those ones that claims to be non-stick, but only ever really fulfills said requirement with pure liquid. It meant that by the time I'd finished carefully scraping the caramel off the bottom of the pan in one spot it had gotten stuck down in another. Lower heat on the stove might've also helped, but I doubt it would've solved the problem entirely.

And both recipes would be very gratefully accepted, if it's not too much trouble. I was trying a packet version of the slice simply to get a feel for consistency and such, but since that method has gone down like a lead balloon I might as well strike out and try it from scratch...

I think the usual solution to that problem would be a double boiler, which no one actually has, so putting your saucepan into a larger saucepan with a couple inches of water ends up being the practical answer.

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