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.



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.


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.


The shortbread, nice and golden brown-y, will make your house smell amazing!


One of the best things in this world!


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.

Millionaire's Shortbread

The passing of Independence Day here marks the beginning of festival season. When I was in school, I used to love this time, we had a lot of holidays, leading up to almost a whole month of vacations for Diwali. It's a time where family keeps meeting up. One of those festivals just passed a few days ago, called Raksha Bandhan, where a Hindu girl ties a rakhi [piece of string] to her brother and gives him sweets, in exchange for a lifelong promise of protection, and a gift [raksha means protection, bandhan means bond]. It started off as a North Indian tradition, but is practiced almost throughout


Even though nowdays it's turned into more of a fun occassion, an excuse to get gifts, somewhere in the bottom of my heart, it holds a lot of meaning. We usually just buy sweets from the local sweet shop and give to our brothers, but I wanted to make something myself this time, especially since they all have seen the blog, but haven't yet tasted much of what I make.


It is also the month of Shravan [a holy Hindu month], where people refrain from eating non-vegetarian food, even eggs. Even though I don't personally follow it, I know that family does, so I had to look for something that was eggless, delicious, and easy to mulitply and bake in large amounts. I settled on these delicious bars that I've seen around a lot, but avoided making because of the high amounts of fat it.





Millionaire's Shortbread
Adapted from SGCC and Nestlé
Makes about 24 3"x1" bars


For the crust - 
2 cups [240 g] flour
1/2 cup [75 g] cornstarch
1/2 cup [120 g] sugar - Use about 3/4 if using salted butter
1 cup [226 g/2 sticks] unsalted butter, cut in small pieces


For the caramel layer - 
You can either use straight up dulce de leche, or use the following recipe. I found that the caramel below isn't sickly sweet, and more of a goeey yet firm mixture.

1 14 oz [400 g] can sweetened condensed mik
1 1/3 stick [150 g] butter
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp [150 g] sugar
 4 tbsp corn syrup - I used honey
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp vanilla


For the chocolate layer -
200 g [7 oz] semisweet chocolate
1/4 cup [1/2 stick / 57 g] butter
1 tbsp corn syrup - I used honey

Tools used - 
Pastry blender
Candy thermometer
Pastry scraper


Instructions -


 For the shortbread crust - 

1. Preheat oven to 375 F [190 C]. Line a quarter sheet pan, or a 9"x12" cake pan, with foil or parchment, leaving a little overhang on both sides for easy removal.
2. Sift or whisk together the flour, cornstarch and sugar. Add the pieces of butter, and work them in with your fingers, a pastry blender [my favorite way], or a food processor. 
3. Work it all together until it is sand-like in texture. Don't be too afraid, this dough will take a little handling.
4. Dump the dough into the prepared pan, and pack it in together. Prick the dough all over with the tines of a fork, you don't it puffing up!
5. Bake for about 30-40 minutes [I took 35], until light golden brown all over, and not doughy to the touch.
6. Set aside to cool to room temperature while you begin preparing the caramel.

For the caramel - 

1. In a medium saucepan, mix together all the ingredients except vanilla. Constantly stir over medium heat until the sugar dissolves, and the mixture darkens and begins to bubble, about 237 degrees F on a candy thermometer.
2. Remove from the heat, whisk in the vanilla, and pour over the cooled shortbread crust. Set aside to cool to room temperature.

For the chocolate layer - 

1. In a double boiler, or a saucepan over low heat, melt together the chocolate and the butter. Stir in the corn syrup, and pour over the caramel, spreading to the edges.
2. Chill in a refrigerator for about half an hour to achieve cleaner cuts. Using the overhang, take the bars out of the pan. Cut into bars using a knife or my all-time favorite way for bars/brownies, a pastry scraper.

 

Caramel Popcorn

Yesterday, I had my first caramel disaster. It was long coming, I know. But I tried a second time, just to make these delicious morsels. Read on to know what happened.


Caramel popcorn is only available in the theatres here, and I was craving some bad!! Looked over a few recipes, combined them, and set off to make some popcorn.



Get a cup of unpopped corn ready. I only used half, but it was wayy too much caramel. A second batch with a whole cup worked out much better. This would roughly be equal to 1 1/2 microwaveable bags.



Pour a little oil in the largest pan you have, that has a lid, over high heat. Throw in a few kernels, and once they pop, the oil has heated up enough, and you can throw the rest of them in. Immediately place the lid on top, and let the kernels pop, shaking every once in a while to ensure fewer unpopped kernels. This will take about 5 minutes.



You should get double this amount. Grease a large bowl, enough to toss all the corn in, and two spatulas well. Also line three baking hseets with parchment paper. Transfer all the popcorn into it, and now you can start with the caramel.



Over high heat, combine the sugar, butter and water. This will ulitmately become a nice thick caramel for coating the popcorn. It will change in appearance slowly.



Here it is after 5 minutes of cooking. All the butter has melted, and the sugar is starting to melt. 



At a rolling boil at 10 minutes



The color is beginning to mature at 15 minutes.



In another 2 or 3 minutes, it is ready for the baking soda mixture to be poured in. And it here that disaster struck!!
Baking soda causes the sugar to bubble up an aerate, and more than half of my mixture ended up on the stove, that I spent around 3 hours cleaning. [Note - Pepsi is a great cleaner. Who'd have thought?] You do not want to add it if the pan is already as full as mine, it should be no more than half full.

So on my second try, I was extra vary of the caramel bubbline over, dreading that cleaning again, and I used the same pan I popped the popcorn in. Even if the caramel multiplied 10 times, I would still have enough space in the pan! Anyway, once you reach that color, you take the pan off the heat, and add the baking soda.



It looks like very little, that's just because this pan is ginormous!! It will look very foamy and weird.
I couldn't get a clear picture, but you can see how the baking soda mixture lightened the caramel, it has also doubled in size. You just have to stir it in quickly, briefly, and then pour it over the popcorn. Toss it all up, and lay on the prepped baking sheets.


There are now two options - Some people just let the popcorn dry out at room temperate, and some bake in the oven for a short amount of time. I tried both, and decided it was purely up to preference. Leaving it at room temperate yields a more chewy, softer while not soggy popcorn. If you want a more crunchy popcorn, you could bake it for upto 30 minutes at a low heart.


I personally loved it baked for 15 minutes. Perfect texture, perfect consistency of the corn.




Caramel Popcorn


1 cup [212 g/ 7.5 oz] popcorn kernels
4 tbsp [56 g/ 2 oz] vegetable oil
1 cup [150 g] salted peanuts, optional - I didn't use


3 cups [650 g] sugar
1/2 cup [120 g] water
2 tbsp [1/4 stick, 28 g] butter
2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon, optional


Instructions - 

1. Preheat oven to 140 C[280 F], if you intend on baking it in the end, as mentioned in the note just above the recipe.
2. In a large, dry pan with a lid, pour the oil and let it heat up over high heat. Toss in a few kernels of popcorn, and when they pop, the oil has heated enough, and you can pour in the rest of the kernels.
3. Cover with the lid immediately, and keep over high heat until popping has reduced to a few a minute. Give the entire pan a shake every minute or so, to ensure fewer unpopped kernels. This should take about 5 minutes. Transfer to a greased bowl big enough to toss all the popcorn in. Also grease two spatulas/wooden spoons, and lay out three baking sheets with parchment. If you are adding peanuts, add it to the popcorn now.
4. Now for the caramel. First mix together the salt, baking soda and cinnamon.
5. Combine the butter, sugar and water in a large pan, the mixture should be no more than a 1/4 of the pan's height. Let it boil over high heat until it reaches a deep amber color, between 10-15 minutes. The larger pan will make the caramel cook faster, and so, it will take less time than mentioned above.
6. Take it off the heat, pour in the baking soda mixture, and give it a few stirs. The caramel will lighten in color, and foam up. Immediately pour it over the popcorn, working quickly. Toss the popcorn using the two spoons, until it is evenly coated.
7. Lay it onto the waiting baking sheets, in a more or less single layer. Either let cool at room temperature, or pop into the oven, stirring every 10 minutes. Once cool, store in an airtight container.

The popcorn, though it made me work a lot, was well worth the effort. It's a great idea for treats to be packaged and given. The cinnamon adds a slightly different dimension, one that is very enjoyable. Try it!!

Caramel Pudding

I've got news : I've got braces! For the second time! Can you believe that?? I hated having them, some 7-8 years ago, for almost 1 and a half year! Luckily, this time around, it's only a 6 month thing, which, however, involves one surgery! So I had two of my lovely teeth extracted for them, and it was the MOST painful thing I've ever gone through! I couldn't eat for one entire week. And that's where this pudding comes in.

After the pain receded a bit, I was able to eat semi-solid things, and by that time, I was fiercely craving some rich, luscious dessert. I had this pudding from Smitten Kitchen bookmarked ever since she posted it, and it seemed perfect for me. It so was. I'm a little intimidated of caramel, but this was soo easy. With just 5 ingredients and 15 minutes, you achieve a delicious cupful of dulce-de-leche ish delight! The caramel taste was prominent, even though I wimped out and took it off the gas too soon! And it just deepens with time. It's perfect comfort-food.

The first step is to caramelise sugar, which starts off like this -


You want to keep going until you achieve something of this sort, or you could go even furthur if you're not a wuss like me.


Once you add the milk, the color really lightens, don't worry, we darken it later, for added caramel goodness :)



Caramel pudding
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen,  who adapted from Food & Wine

4 cups milk, whole or 2%
5 tablespoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup [240 g] sugar

Instructions -

1. In a small bowl, whisk together In a small bowl, whisk 1/2 cup of the milk with the cornstarch, vanilla and salt until smooth. Set aside.
2. In a large saucepan, combine the sugar with 6 tablespoons of water and bring to a boil. Cook over moderately high heat, undisturbed, until a deep amber caramel forms, about 8 minutes. Do not leave the stove at any point, there are only ever a few seconds between perfection, and burnt, unusable caramel. Once you are satisfied with the color, remove the pan from the heat.
3.  SLOWLY whisk in the remaining 3 1/2 cups of milk. You don't want to hurry this up, because the caramel will bubble up like an erupting volcano! Don't worry about the color, which will darken, that is what you want to achieve for maximum flavor! The caramel might clump up as well.
4. Once all the milk is added, return the pan to the stove, over medium low heat, to dissolve the clumped up caramel. Keep going until the mixture is slightly thicker, and the color has deepened, about 10 minutes.
5. Now add the milk cornflour mixture to the pan, while constantly stirring. The pudding will thicken up almost immediately, about 1 minute.
6. Pour into small bowls [keep the serving sizes small]. If you feel you couldn't get all the clumps out, or if you want perfection, you could strain the mixture. I didn't, and you couldn't tell. Also, if you want to avoid the pudding skin, you can lay plastic wrap directly over the bowl, touching the pudding to avoid its formation.

I just happen to really love pudding skin. When I was younger, I remember watching a Seinfeld episode  where Kramer had a genius idea to isolate and sell only pudding skins. And at the time, I fell in LOVE with the idea, and also tried persuading Mom to start such a business!!

Anyway, no matter which way you roll, this pudding is delicious, creamy, and just fills your mouth with the caramel-y goodness that you can see below. The gelatin-y looking bite is just off the edge of the bowl, you can see the creaminess of the pudding below it!