Condensed Milk Lemon Slice

I recently thought that it would be a good idea to have a tin of condensed milk on hand, to have with my coffee.  So, I purchased some condensed milk, and made myself that coffee. Yum yum.  But then, my coffee craving was satiated, and I still had a tin of condensed milk lying around!  I didn't want it go off, but wasn't quite sure what to do with it, until I flipped the tin around and saw this recipe...

Lemon slice!  It used up a whole tin of condensed milk, and I had the rest of the ingredients at home.  Perfect! (Although after I made this lemon slice, I realised that Nigella's blondie recipe in Kitchen also uses a whole tin of condensed milk. And I've wanted to make that one for ages!  D'oh!)

Anyhoo, this one is a bit different from the standard Aussie lemon slice.  It's a shortbready base, covered with a sweet and densely creamy lemon topping. 

You start by mixing 1.5 cups plain flour with 1/2 cup icing sugar and 150g melted butter.  Press it into a tray (I used a 20 x 30cm foil tray - I bought some recently because Nigella has a zillion recipes using foil trays in Kitchen.)...

... and bake for 15 mins in a 180C oven, until golden!

For the topping, you mix a 400gm can of condensed milk, 1 egg, 1 tbs grated lemon rind, 1/2 cup lemon juice, 2 tbs plain flour and 1 tsp baking powder.

Pour it over the shortbread base...

...and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until set.

The recipe says to let it cool in the pan and refrigerate, before eating it.  Y'all know I wasn't gonna do that, haha.  I prised out the slice while it was still warm, dusted it with icing sugar, and sliced it into squares.  On a side note, the foil tray worked really well!  The base was crispy all the way through and there was no greasing or lining required.  (On an environmental note, the trays are recyclable and no detergent is needed to clean them, yay!)

As you can imagine, it was very sweet, so was best enjoyed in small slices with a cup of tea or coffee.  Although there was something very compulsive about it... with its rich, caramelly filling, and crispy base, I found it hard to stop at just one piece!