I hadn’t cooked all day, well nothing to speak of. So this evening I thought I’d make a little something sweet. I rather fancied chocolate caramel slices from an old Women’s Weekly cookbook – for those who know this recipe, it’s the one made with ice cream wafers.

I had all the requisite elements – including two half tins of condensed milk in the fridge, a couple of odd bits of chocolate, peanut butter, butter and wafers. Also a tin of condensed milk that some time ago I’d cooked to a caramel and never actually used it.

Breaking all rules of chocolate, I combined both lots and of course it seized. So I melted more of one type and tipped the seized bit in, little by little, and wonder of wonders, it came together.

Next the caramel – all went well until I added the tin of cooked condensed milk. It had gone a bit sugary, a fact I noticed belatedly. No amount of heating and beating would fix it. Add nuts I thought, to distract from the crunchy bits of sugar. That fixed the texture issue, as did crunchy instead of smooth peanut butter. For good measure I stirred in half a cup of chopped naked ginger that was lurking in a jar in the pantry.

And so now the slice is setting in the tin. It barely resembles the original recipe.  Glad it seems to have worked as I had also decided to make a double batch. It will be ready to cut in the morning once it sets, so if it turns out and tastes half ways decent, I’ll post a photo.