Biscuit base falling apart

sillysocks

So I decided to help out the mother-in-law by making a few sweet things for visitors she's having. Made a choc biscuit cake which came out fine (phew) - have made it lots of times so played it safe there.

Someone in work was telling me about caramel squares she makes from a recipe on the tin of condensed milk so decided to try that too. Now only problem is I dont think the biscuit base is sticking together at all. Its been in the fridge a while and the caramel/choc top looks great but I think when I try to take away the baking paper at the bottom of the tin the base is going to fall apart. Anyone have any suggestions on how it can be saved?

Was thinking of maybe if I wait til its fully set, turned it upside down and then put a small layer of choc over the biscuit it might help keep it all together? Any other ideas? Don't want to be throwing it in the bin when the top looks lovely!!

Planet X

Butter the greaseproof paper.
Is there butter in the biscuit base? It will help it to stay together when it sets.

Outkast_IRE

butter is key alright , are you using a springform tin ?

sillysocks

See the recipe said 1oz of butter and 200g of biscuits. When I put in 1oz melted the biscuit seemed very dry so I threw in another oz. Was afraid to put in much more.

I've taken them out of the tin & baking paper now, and just as I thought the biscuit is exactly as if I'd just crushed it and put no butter in! But luckily because next layer was caramel a small amount of biscuit has managed to stick so its not a total disaster.

Anyone any tips for next time? would it be too much or too little butter causing the biscuits not to stick? Other issue might be that recipe said shortbread biscuits and someone told me digestive were nicer with it so maybe different biscuits would need diff amnts of butter.

Faith

You have to really press it in to the tin to get it to stick.

Magic Monkey

sillysocks wrote: »

Anyone any tips for next time? would it be too much or too little butter causing the biscuits not to stick? Other issue might be that recipe said shortbread biscuits and someone told me digestive were nicer with it so maybe different biscuits would need diff amnts of butter.

You need about 40% melted butter to biscuits for biscuit bases, depending on the biscuits. Shortbread have a higher amount of butter than digestives, so you'd use less. For 200g biscuits, 75g-100g melted butter is good. 1oz/25g is much too little for digestives.

Don't pack the base down too tightly, as this makes it harder to cut - the correct amount of butter is the most important thing to ensure it all stays together.