Welcome to How To Cook That: A Giant Twix Bar and a Heartwarming Giveaway

I am Ann Reardon, and today we are making a giant Twix bar that is sure to satisfy any sweet tooth. But before we get started with the recipe, I want to take a moment to talk about something that is very close to my heart: deafness. As someone who is profoundly deaf herself, I have seen firsthand the challenges that come with this condition, and I am passionate about helping those in need.

As we make our way through this recipe, I want to introduce you to Virginia, an amazing young woman who is also profoundly deaf. She has been working tirelessly with children who are born with hearing loss, and her dedication is truly inspiring. But before we meet Virginia, let's talk a bit about why she is so passionate about her work.

Virginia's journey began when she was just a university student studying Forensic Psychology in Australia. She had recently moved to Fiji for a holiday, where she met a man who had the same hearing loss as herself. The conversation was awkward at first, but Virginia soon realized that there were many similarities between their experiences. As she continued to work with this individual, she began to see the impact that lack of access to hearing aids and speech therapy could have on people's lives.

Armed with a newfound passion for helping others, Virginia changed her degree to Speech Pathology and enrolled in a program at a local university. She was initially concerned about whether she would be able to complete the degree due to her own hearing loss, but she persevered and eventually graduated with excellent marks.

Now, as a speech pathologist working with the Carabez Alliance, an organization dedicated to supporting children with hearing loss, Virginia travels to Fiji regularly to provide hearing aids and rehabilitation services to those in need. The team works closely with local organizations to up-skill their staff and provides early intervention settings to help these children develop essential skills.

The partnership between the Carabez Alliance and Phonak, a leading hearing aid manufacturer, is instrumental in providing free hearing aids to families in Fiji who cannot afford them. With the support of organizations like this, Virginia is able to make a real difference in the lives of these children.

Now that we've met Virginia, let's get back to making our giant Twix bar! The recipe is quite simple: all you need are 2 kilograms of chocolate bars, some caramel sauce, and a few other ingredients. But don't worry if you're not feeling confident in your baking skills – this recipe is easy enough for anyone to follow.

To start, preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius. While that's heating up, let's talk about the importance of early intervention when it comes to hearing loss. Children who receive speech therapy and hearing aids at a young age are significantly more likely to develop healthy language skills and achieve their full potential.

Once the oven is hot, we'll need to unwrap our 2 kilograms of chocolate bars and cut them into manageable pieces. You can use any type of chocolate you like for this recipe – milk chocolate, dark chocolate, or even white chocolate will work just fine.

Now that we have our chocolate ready, let's make the caramel sauce! In a large saucepan, combine 250 grams of sugar, 100 milliliters of water, and 50 grams of unsalted butter. Place the saucepan over medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture reaches 300 degrees Celsius.

While the caramel is cooking, let's take a break and talk about some of the amazing work that Virginia and her team are doing in Fiji. It's truly inspiring to see the impact that one person can have on so many lives.

Now that our caramel sauce is ready, we can start assembling our giant Twix bar! Place one layer of chocolate at the bottom of a large baking dish, followed by a layer of caramel sauce and finally another layer of chocolate. Repeat this process until you've used up all your ingredients, finishing with a layer of chocolate on top.

Once the Twix is baked, let it cool completely before slicing it into manageable pieces. And that's it! Our giant Twix bar is ready to be devoured. But don't worry if you're not feeling like eating a whole 2 kilograms of chocolate – there are plenty of ways to enjoy this treat in moderation.

As we take our first bites of the giant Twix bar, let's take a moment to appreciate the incredible work that Virginia and her team are doing in Fiji. Their dedication to helping children with hearing loss is truly inspiring, and I feel so lucky to have had the chance to meet them today.

And speaking of luck, it seems like we've got a bit of good fortune on our side – a giant Twix bar that's sure to bring smiles to everyone's faces! So go ahead, grab a bite, and enjoy every last morsel of this delicious treat.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enWelcome to How To Cook ThatI am Ann ReardonToday we are making a giant twix bar and atthe end we'll be giving it away to an amazingyoung lady so make sure you hang around tomeet her as well.But firstly to make it we need two rectangleboxes out of some thick cardboard and thenwe want to make a rounded base so we are goingto insert an extra piece of cardboard intoeach one.Then staple them into place and line it withsome non-stick baking paper.Now I have made a bit of a mistake here I'vejust lined it to the length of it but I suggestyou make it longer to cover the sides allin one piece instead of in a seperate piecebecause my caramel leaked around the backof that curve there.To make the biscuit you will need some flourwater, butter, egg yolks, sugar, skim milkpowder and salt.All of the recipe quantities are on the websitehowtocookthat.netPlace your butter and sugar into the bowlof an electric mixer and beat it on low speeduntil it is smooth.Then addthe salt and the egg yolksand continue to mix that on low until it iswell combined.Then add in your skim milk powder and thewater and mix it again.Once it's all evenly incorporated swap overfrom your scraper mixer to your dough hookand then add the flour.If you don't have a dough hook you can mixthe flour in by hand that's totally fine.Place the mixture between two sheets of bakingpaper and spread out until it is big enoughto make at least four biscuits.And to get it thick enough we are going toneed to use two biscuits a double layer.We can't just bake it double the thicknessbecause then it doesn't go crisp it just goescakey.So we are going to bake it thinner and puttow of them in.Bake it in the oven for around 20 minutesthen take it out and immediately cut it intolengths that will fit into your box.Spread them out and put them back in the ovenjust turn the oven off and leave them in thereto dry out.To make the caramel place the sugar, milk,cream and the glucose syrup into a pan.Now you can use light corn syrup here insteadof the glucose syrup if you can't get glucosesyrup where you are.And then stir it over the heat for severalminutes until the sugar dissolves and themixture starts to boil.Add a candy thermometer to the side of thepan and let it bubble away until it reaches240 degrees F or 115C.Now for those of you without a thermometerwho are trying to guess when it's ready at224F if you take a spoonful out and put iton a cold surface it looks like this it isa thick smooth liquid.At 235 it's looking like this it's startingto get thicker and it will make strings ifyou lift up the spoon.At 240 which is what we want it is thickeragain and it's starting to set on the countertop.As soon as it reaches 240 take it off theheat and pour it into your mold.Now this is where I was saying I lost someof my caramel going around the edges of thecurve.So if you've just got that one piece of bakingpaper that should solve that problem.While the caramel is still hot add in onebiscuit.Then some extra caramel and a second biscuiton top of that.Let that cool down completely and then poureither tempered chocolate or you could usefake or compound chocolate over the top.If you have no idea what I am talking aboutwith types of chocolate there is a video explainingthat on the channel.Just click on howtocookthat under this togo to the channela nd look in the chocoalteplaylist.Tap the mold on the bench to let the chocoalterun down the gaps and the edges and then letthat set completely.Rip open the your mold and take out the bodyof your twix.Then balance it on two cups.Then take a ladle and smother it from oneend to the other in more tempered chocolate.Use a spoon to drizzle a pattern of extrachocolate across the top just like the barshave.Then repeat that for the second bar and thenyou need to allow them to set.To wrap them place the twix upside down onyour paper and then place a piece of cardthat you've covered in baking paper on thetop.And then use glue to secure the paper intoplace and then flip it over.At the ends push the sides in and then flattenthe paper down.Open it up and add glue then refold it alongthe lines you've already made.Cut off the extra paper using zigzag shapedscissors.And then use the back of a knife to push indentsinto the paper along the join and then printout a logo and then stick that on.Now who should we give this giant twix to?In Fiji there are a large number of childrenwho are born every year who are profoundlydeaf.And without treatment the future for thosechildren is very bleak.I have here with me today an amazing youngwoman who is profoundly deaf herself but withthe aid of lots of therapy lots of hard workand with a hearing aid now as well she canspeak normally and she can hear fairly wellwith the hearing aid as well.And she is helping those children.So Virginia why are you so passionate aboutworking with deaf kids?Um its funny I wasn't, I actually wasn't whenI was younger it wasn't something that I waspassionate about at all.Mum just started working in Fiji and I wasat university at the time and studying Forensicpsychology and I thought I'd go for a holiday.So I went over to Fiji and I met a man whowas 30 and he had the same hearing loss asI do.When you lay our audiograms over each otherit was an identical loss.Umm And this guy was actually not able tospeak.Umm had never had hearing aids in his lifewas signing to me and my signing wasn't greatat the time so it was a very sort of jarredconversation.And he was asking me these questions, so you'reat university and your friends are they deaf?Or are you half deaf, are you deaf are youhalf deaf?And was going no, no it's the same its thesame.And then um he's asking me do you go and shopfor yourself and all these things and it wasa really embarrassing conversation for meto have.And I remember looking at some of the littlekids that were there and just thinking that'skind of the trajectory of what happens withoutwhat I have access to here in Australia.And so I think at that time I just couldn'tshake it and I came back to Australia formFiji and changed my degree and enrolled inspeech pathology and sort of from there Ihave been up to my eyeballs in it.So you enrolled in speech pathology how didthat work, how did the university react tothat someone with profound hearing loss doingspeech pathology?Yeah look it was a challenge initially umI was approached and asked did I think I wasgoing ot be able to get through the degree.So much of what you do as a speech pathologistinvolves the ability to listen and discriminatesmall sounds.Um and I understood the concern and I thoughtcome back to me in a year and if you don'tlike how I'm doing then I'll leave and I endedup doing quite well and graduating with reallygood marks.And what exactly do you and the Carabez Alliancedo when you go to Fiji?OK so we go over with a team of people thatis always changing.We have surgeons we have audiologists, speechpathologists, we recently started taking occupationaltherapists um teachers of the deaf auditoryverbal therapists.We all go over and we are working with localorganizations to up-skill those organizations,up-skill their local staff.And with them we are working in early interventionsettings and providing hearing aids.So the diagnosis of hearing loss, what typeof hearing loss how severe, all of those things.Umm we provide hearing aids free of chargewhich phonak have very generously donatedto the Carbez alliance.Um and they are amazing hearing aids, stateof the art hearing aids so yeah we providethose to the families for free and then wedo the rehabilitation process with them.That's awesome.Yeah, it's fun, I enjoy it.It's so good.Well to say thank you for everything you'redoing we've got a little donation to helpyou on your next trip to FijiOh thank youAnd we also have a giant Twix whichis not going to help anyone hear.That is amazing, it's so heavy, that is amazing.2 kilos of TwixWow, yeah wow oh that's incredible.Look at thatSee if you can get a bite.mmmmthat is awesome, that's amazing.Tastes like a twix, like it tastes like atwix with all the good bits I really likethe caramel.That's amazing wow thank you.If you'd like to find out more or if you'dlike to help the Carabez alliance you cango to their youtube channel or their website,I'll put a link to both of those in the descriptionbelow.Subscribe to How To Cook That for more amazingcakes chocolates and desserts.Click here to go to the channel,here for last weeks videoand here to go to the websiteHave a great weekand I'll see you on Friday\n"