Monday, April 23, 2012

Chocolate Caramel Shortbread... Homemade Twix

 Chocolate Caramel Shortbread / Homemade Twix

These bars! I've been waiting so so long to be able to post. For once, I made my Secret Recipe Club assignment almost as soon as I got it. Turns out, this isn't always the best idea, since I had to wait almost a month, and these bars were so good, it was like slow torture. They rank high up, in my top 10 recipes for sure. They had the perfect slightly crunchy crispy shortbread base, exactly like a Twix base, but more substantial, with more win in it. The caramel is a modified dulce de leche, just with extra butter and extra goodness. It was the perfect goeey, stringy soft caramel that I love. And ofcourse, the chocolate layer. I used good quality dark chocolate, and that just took the bars to a whole other level.

This recipe is one of the easiest I've made, but also is one of the best. I can't stop raving, I made the mistake of making only half a recipe, since I didn't have a big enough pan. I'm just waiting to go buy a nice big pan now so I can make a full recipe. Don't make the same mistake I did.

Chocolate Caramel Shortbread / Homemade Twix

I got Sara's blog, which has probably given me the most options to pick from ever. Since I now cook, there were a few cooking recipes that I bookmarked too, but since I want to keep the blog only about baking, I picked this. Sara chose to decorate it with some colored white chocolate, and while I considered that, for me, nothing looks better than a nice smear of dark chocolate.

Chocolate Caramel Shortbread / Homemade Twix
I always leave nice overhang so that removing and cutting becomes easy. I sometimes lay two strips of foil out in a cross pattern if the foil won't cover the pan entirely.

Chocolate Caramel Shortbread / Homemade Twix
The shortbread, nice and golden brown-y, will make your house smell amazing!

Chocolate Caramel Shortbread / Homemade Twix
One of the best things in this world!

IMG_2296 - 2
Your finger should leave a dent like shown in this picture. This is post cooling, so it aim for a little runnier.

Chocolate Caramel Shortbreads / Homemade Twix
Recipe adapted from Cook with Sara

Shortbread Crust -
1 cup [2 sticks / 226 g] butter, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups [240 g] flour
3/4 tsp. salt

Caramel Filling -
7 Tbsp. [100 g] butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 cans (14 oz each) sweetened condensed milk
Pinch of salt

10 oz. dark [or semi-sweet] chocolate, chopped
3 tbsp [ 42 g] butter

Instructions - 
  1. Preheat oven to 350 F [180 C]. Grease and line a 9x13 pan with parchment, leaving some overhang on the sides.
  2. In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Now add in the vanilla, the flour and the salt. Mix until just combined.
  3. Pour into prepared pan, and pat the crumbs down lightly, to make sure they stick. Bake for around 15 minutes, until golden brown around the edges. Remove to cool completely.
  4. For the caramel filling - In a large saucepan, combine together the butter, brown sugar, sweetened condensed milk and salt. Bring to a boil, constantly stirring. Reduce heat to medium low, stirring constantly and simmer until it turns a deep caramel color, about 15 - 18 minutes. Pour onto cooled crust, and refrigerate for an hour. It might seem runny at first, but the refrigeration makes it firm up a bit. Post refrigeration, your finger should make and leave a dent, as shown.
  5. Once the caramel layer is ready, melt the chocolate and butter together. Pour onto the caramel layer, just making lines with the spatula if you want, and refrigerate for another hour.
  6. Cut into bars, [I prefer using a pastry scraper], and serve.





37 comments:

  1. Aren't these just the BEST??? I love the combination of shortbread, caramel and chocolate. Yummmmm.... I'm so glad you tried them and liked them!

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  2. These look sinful. I'm so glad to hear it's easy because I haven't made these yet because I wasn't quite sure of all the steps. But now they are on my to do list for sure. Thanks!

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    1. It is very easy. Active time would be half an hour total. There's just some cooling required. In the cold cold fake spring of UK, I didn't even have to wait between steps, it was ready in an hour.

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  3. Oh my - this has to be the next thing I try in the sweets/chocolate bar department - after doing homemade snickers, this doesn't look to complicated. Could eat one right now.

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    1. Oh this would be so much easier than Snickers. They're ready in an instant!

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  4. Oh, yummy!! I've seen this around the blog world and have been wanting to try it. Great choice!

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  5. this looks absolutely glorious! I also use the foil-pan technique and it seriously makes cooking and baking so.much.easier. and just better! Yay for easy clean up and easy-out-of-pan!

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  6. Oh! My fav chocolate bar in an even better format!

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  7. Yum! What a perfect treat. Looks delicious!

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  8. Wow that looks really easy! Much more so than anticipated

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    1. These recipes tend to scare people off, but if you break each down into steps, you realise that they're hardly any work at all.

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  9. I just wanted to let you know that you were my buddy for this month's secret recipe club. I made the crunchy chocolate bars off your site and they were so much fun! I was very curious because I had absolutely no idea how they would taste but I loved the nice crunch from the oats and the cornflakes. The only thing I did was add even more chocolate!

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    1. I'm so glad you tried that recipe. It's one of the more under-appreciated ones, but a great winner.

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  10. Love it!! I made something similar a couple of months ago and I couldnt' stop eating them!!! So good. Great choice for SRC!

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  11. Oh this looks divine!! Definitely one of those recipes that will be a crowd pleaser :)

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    1. Crowd stealer more like it. I only got to eat like 2, out of which one I'd eaten before I even took it to my friends!

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  12. Twix are my absolute FAVORITE candy bar so you can betcha I'll be making these soon! Great pick!

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  13. You had me at "absolutely like a Twix bar"!

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  14. This looks like one delicious bar. I must make it soon. I do love a good shortbread base, yummy!

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    1. This base was one of the better ones I've made, it had the perfect consistency

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  15. Let me tell you, Twix is my absolute favorite chocolate bar in the world! Nothing can lift my spirits up like Twix... and I'm thrilled that you have a recipe that can duplicate the Twix taste!! Amazing...

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    1. Oh this one's better, with all the dark chocolate and the better ingredients :)

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  16. These look amazing!!! I love Twix and I gave a similar twix recipe a shot one time. But my shortbread just crumbled when you touched it! So I will definitely try this recipe my next time around! : )

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    1. Hi Anne. That sometimes happens, from what I've observed, by not packing it in at all. People, including me, tend to take the 'don't handle the butter too much' too seriously sometimes. The dough on the bottom needs to be slightly packed, with your fingers or the bottom of a meausuring cup.

      Try this recipe, I'm sure you'll love it.

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  17. I love the generous layer of caramel you have there-so blissful! :D

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  18. I've been wanting to make these for so long now! i need to get around to doing it :)

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  19. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. THANK YOU! I can't wait to try making these Twix bars at home. I love Twix and I'm so excited to find this recipe on your blog :-)

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