Caramel Slice with Bliss Bomb Popcorn Sable base, Chewy Fantale-style Caramel, Roasted Milk Chocolate Crémeux and Whipped Milo Milk Chocolate Chantilly by Anna Polyviou
The first known recipe for Caramel Slice was published in the Australian Women’s Weekly cookbook in the 1970s and it’s since achieved icon status. In its most basic iteration, a buttery shortbread base is topped with a gooey, sweetened condensed filling and finished with a slab of dark chocolate. It’s a mouthful, but Australia’s dessert doyenne Anna Polyviou’s “pimped out” version 2.0 evokes other iconic flavours such as chewy caramel Fantales (RIP) and malty Milo. The decadent dessert is so good that Polyviou regularly makes it upon request for pop star Kelly Rowland when she’s in Australia.
An award-winning pastry chef and frequent Masterchef guest judge, Polyviou regularly explores the sugary classics. “Nostalgic flavours take me straight back to the local milk bar. As a kid, my grandfather would take my cousin and I, and we’d grab 20 cent lolly bags, crisps or dive into the freezer for an ice cream. For me, these desserts bring back childhood memories of joy, family, emotion and familiarity.”
Polyviou has also created a fairy bread cake with cereal crunch and chocolate brownie Honey Joy inspired by food from the school fete. “It’s a big throwback, but with a bold twist,” she says. “It’s all about taking the flavours we grew up with and re-creating them in unexpected ways. I think the classics still resonate because they’re tied to our culture – the lunchbox snack, the lolly shops, homemade cakes. They bring back feel-good flavours, and when you reimagine them with a little flair and technique, they become even more special while still feeling like ‘home.’”