Need a recipe for a school fair, work event or church gathering? Want something that stands out from the crowd of “usuals” on a crowded buffet table, will please both young and old, is easy to sling together and which is made with just a few standard store cupboard ingredients? If so, have I got the recipe for you… one of my all time favourite recipes: “Gabrielle’s Apricot Slice” which I got many years ago from a friends in New Zealand.
Gabrielle’s Apricot Slice (photo © Kiwidutch)
First a small note: I usually double all of these ingredients simply because using only half a tin of condensed milk is really messy to measure and secondly because in the rare event that there is any left over, friends, family or neighbours are always very happy indeed to relieve me of it very quickly indeed with a very big smile… 
Warning: a double mix makes a LOT…
Second, some very handy tips from years of making this:
- I line my dish with plastic cling wrap and then press the mixture in, once it’s been in the fridge and firm, all you have to do is to cut it down the middle first and gently ease it out on both ends.. peel off the plastic wrap and cut it easily into squares on a cutting board.
- the best way to mix everything together is to wait until the liquid has cooled a little so you don’t burn yourself, then with scrubbed clean hands get in there and mix it by hand in a large bowl by hand, a double mix will take some mixing ! ( this is the workout to burn off a few calories) press into a large container as firmly as you can.
- lastly, try and make this the evening before you want it.. the result will hold together a LOT better and somehow a night in the fridge improves it… don’t ask why, ¨cos I don’t know….it just does LOL
-plain sweet biscuits = Superwine or Roundwine in NZ/ Maria biscuits in NL. ( watch out Maria’s come in smaller packets of 200g!)
Ingredients
1 (250 g) packet plain sweet biscuits (Superwine or Roundwine in NZ/ Maria biscuits in NL)
1 cup dried apricot (chopped)
4 ounces butter (113g) 3 ounces light brown sugar (85g)
1/2 of one (395 g) can of sweetened condensed milk
180 g chocolate chips
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Directions:
1) Crush the biscuits ( make some into very small crumbs and keep some still in quite big-ish bits) and mix with the chopped apricots.
2) In a pot, melt the butter then add the condensed milk, and brown sugar together (Do not boil). LOW HEAT and stir well or it will burn. The butter will start out as a separate layer on the top, keep stirring until the butter becomes a small ring around the edge of the pot and then disappears completely. ( if you don’t melt the butter first then it will sit on the top of the condensed milk in lumps that are stupidly hard to mix in with the rest later)
3) Mix the liquid mix into the biscuits & apricots. Add chocolate chips if using… try and wait a few minutes whilst your liquid mix cools a little, before putting them in our they will melt completely instead of staying as chips.
4) Press firmly into a straight sided container.
5) Refrigerate and cut into blocks when cold.
… and if it’s for a gathering outside home, hide it from your family so that it makes it to the stomachs that it’s intended for…
Gab’s Apricot Slice (photo © Kiwidutch)
Gab’s Apricot Slice (photo © Kiwidutch)
Gab’s Apricot Slice (photo © Kiwidutch)
Gab’s Apricot Slice (photo © Kiwidutch)
Gabrielle’s Apricot Slice (photo © Kiwidutch)
