No-Bake Lemon Slice

Update: Last minute Christmas ideas for gifting/bringing-a-plate.

This slice is an absolute God-send, especially at Christmas time. Easy, economical, fast and, best of all, very moorish. This is the recipe for last minute homemade gifts, cake stalls, drop-in guests and generally giving the impression of great baking and organisational skills. Even if you happen to possess neither. There is no baking involved, bar a little melting of butter on the stove, so children can help (if you’re not in a hurry) and you can make it at ill-equipped holiday houses (as Mel has done).

Upon reading the recipe you will find only half a can of sweetened-condensed milk is called for. While I will admit that it never goes astray in our house, I almost always pair this recipe with  Chocolate-Honeycomb Cookies. Read on to find the tastiest way to stretch one can of sweetened-condensed milk into 30 pieces of lemon slice and 60-odd chocolate-honeycomb cookies.

Firstly, place all of the dry ingredients for the base in a bowl, including the lemon rind.

Next, place the sweetened condensed milk and butter into a saucepan and simmer gently, until the butter is melted. Stir briskly to amalgamate.

Pour the mixture over the dry ingredients and stir to mix. The mixture will clump together loosely.

Press the base in the pan and pop in the fridge for (at least) 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, make your icing, sift the icing sugar into a bowl, add softened butter and lemon juice as required until you reach the right consistency.

Ice the base and put it back in the fridge for another half an hour, or overnight if possible. Slice into rectangles roughly 2x3cms and enjoy!

I should warn you that, despite the simplicity of the recipe, it is very moorish; perfect for hungry colleagues and grateful family members.

This recipe came from the Taste website and, notably, I have not done a tremendous amount of fiddling with it.