“Healthy” Caramel slice

Let me start by clarifying what I mean by healthy, as your idea may differ from mine.  I was recently perusing the shelves of a health food shop and found a new product which made me think, I could make “healthy” cake with this…..

Linwoods Milled Flaxseed, Cocoa and Berries says it is high in antioxidants (that’s got to be good, no?), it contains iron, zinc and omega 3.  I wondered if anyone else had tried using this ingredient before and came across this website, passionate about baking, where it had been used in brownies.  Great recipe but I couldn’t help looking at the other recipes listed on the site and tripped over this beauty, Dark Chocolate Caramel Oat & Almond Shortbread {vegetarian}, which looked irresistible.  Usually when making something for the first time I like to follow the recipe but I was so keen to use my new nutty cocoa I made a few adjustments.

“Healthy” Caramel slice base

110g plain flour
35g rolled oats
65g ground almonds
60g brown sugar
100g unsalted butter, chilled, cut into cubes
50g Linwoods milled flaxseed, cocoa and berries

I put all the ingredients in a food processor and pulsed until it started to clump like crumble mixture.  The mix looked a lovely colour and patted down well into the 8″ square tin.  I was very pleased with my adjustment so far.  I baked it in a 150’c fan oven (my oven is fierce) for 40 minutes.  It was difficult to tell on baked colour but it was firm to touch and in hindsight I would only bake for 30 minutes.

 

I then thought I’d be clever (really shouldn’t bother) and cheat with the caramel…. I used a 397g tin of carnation caramel instead of making the correct salted caramel butter sauce.  It looked great, spread nicely but obviously didn’t harden at all and is really meant for desserts rather than bars!  I melted 150g of dark chocolate over the top and chilled until the chocolate had set.

Cutting didn’t go as well as expected!

 

The caramel was so soft  the thick chocolate moved about when I put pressure on the knife and the base was also firm. It is good enough to get on my repeat list but I won’t take any more short cuts and hopefully it will all be firm enough to cut out bars on my next attempt.

As for the Milled Flaxseed Cocoa and Berries, lets not kid ourselves any longer, it’s just a lovely nutty ingredient which adds a new texture to food.  I intend to try it in chocolate fruit cake (watch this space), fruity flapjack, carrot cake and refrigerator cake.

Thanks for reading and credits to passionate about baking