Coconut caramel crumble bar

It’s a fact of life that any successful recipe will eventually fall prey to my “maybe it will be better with coconut” philosophy. Because everything is improved with coconut. Or bacon. Or cinnamon. In fact, the perfect recipe would include all three, but I’ll save that for another day!

So after my chewy caramel oatmeal crumbles worked out so amazingly well, I immediately thought of trying to tinker with the recipe to add some coconut elements. The flavour profile definitely has that rich, sweet, caramel flavour from the addition of coconut palm sugar, which is only further elevated with the use of coconut oil. Because I didn’t want to lose these flavours, I reduced the amount of dark chocolate and even added some white chocolate and unadulterated fudge in there to complement the taste. My children prefer this one, while my wife prefers the original version so, like everything in life, it’ll be up to personal taste.  In any case, you have to give it a try to see on which side of the fence you sit!

Ingredients

• 8 ounces / 230g plain flour
• 7½ ounces / 210g porridge oats
• 9 ounces / 260g coconut palm sugar
• 1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
• ¼ teaspoon of salt
• 7½ ounces / 210g coconut oil
• 13 ounces / 370g milk chocolate chips
• 2½ ounces / 70g dark chocolate chips
• 3½ ounces / 100g white chocolate chips
• 14 ounces / 400g fudge chunks

Method

Pre heat the oven to 350°F / 180°C (320°F / 160°C fan).  Line a 13 × 9½ inch / 33 × 24cm baking tray with greaseproof paper.

Mix the flour, oats, sugar, bicarbonate of soda and salt in a bowl.

Melt the coconut oil in a small saucepan before pouring into the dry ingredients and combine well until you have a crumbly dough mixture (see Tips below).

Put a layer of 2/3rd of the dough mixture into the lined baking tray and press it down so it is packed tightly in the bottom of the tin.

Mix together 12 ounces / 340g of the milk chocolate chips, all of the dark chocolate chips and 2½ ounces / 70g of the white chocolate chips and sprinkle these in an even layer over the mixture in the tin.  Sprinkle the fudge chunks in an even layer over the top of this (crumble the fudge into smaller pieces if necessary).

Sprinkle the remaining dough mixture over the top by crumbling it in your hand so that it forms an even topping.

Cook in the oven for 27 minutes before removing to cool completely.

Once cool, cut into bars (they’re very rich so small squares might be preferable).

Melt the remaining chocolates separately and drizzle over the top as desired.

Trivia

The word caramel was first recorded in the English language in 1725. Its roots are from the French and Spanish word caramelo, meaning a piece of candy (US), or a sweet (UK).