LEMON AND LIME CAMPING SLICE

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A very ‘a-peeling’ camp treat

Citrus is great to take camping – it is robust against all that 4X4 touring and can last a long time out of the fridge. I’m a bit of a sucker (pun intended) for a sweet and tangy dessert combination, but nothing leaves me more sour than a big pile of baking dishes – especially when I am camping. This recipe is so quick and easy, you’ll be back in the camp chair wondering what drink to put that extra slice of lemon into in no time.

Slice ingredients:

• 1 x 250g packet of plain biscuits (e.g. Nice™, Milk Arrowroot™ etc)
• 1 cup desiccated coconut
• 200ml (2/3 cup) sweetened condensed milk
• 4 tbsp butter
• 1 large lemon
• 2 limes  
  (or for a subtler flavour, replace lemon and limes with 2 oranges)

Icing ingredients:

• 2 tbsp (approximately) citrus juice from above fruit
• 1½ cups
  icing sugar
• 1 tsp butter

 

Method

• Line a lidded slice container or metal slice tray with baking paper.
• Melt butter in a large saucepan and allow to cool slightly. The saucepan will be your mixing bowl – yippee, less washing-up!
• Finely grate all of the rind from the lemon and two limes.
• Crush biscuits to a fine crumb – see Hints.
• Stir condensed milk and grated rind into saucepan with melted butter.
• Add coconut and biscuit crumb to saucepan and mix until all ingredients are moist and well combined.
• Press mixture firmly into container/tray with a metal fork or spoon.
• Wipe out saucepan with some paper towel.
• Melt extra butter and add icing sugar to saucepan.
• Initially add about 1½ tbsp of combined lemon/lime juice and combine well. Add more juice if needed to make a spreadable consistency.
• Spread icing evenly over slice, cover and pop in the car fridge to set for at least an hour.
• Cut into slices and enjoy. But I warn you – one is never enough!

Hints:

Pre-crushing biscuits at home

This is the easiest approach. A day or two before you leave for camping, break the biscuits into a food processor and chop to a fine crumb. Add the coconut (this does not need to be processed) and pour into a sandwich-size snaplock bag.

 

Crushing biscuits at camp

A little more work, but this can be quite satisfying to release some tension. Break the biscuits into smaller pieces by hand and put into a plastic bag. Expel all the air and wrap in a tea towel. Get the hammer from the peg bag and crush away – but don’t go all Ninja Warrior on it as you may split the bag.

Unsealed 4x4