“Children ask better questions than adults. “May I have a cookie?” “Why is the sky blue?” and “What does a cow say?” are far more likely to elicit a cheerful response than “Where’s your manuscript?” Why haven’t you called?” and “Who’s your lawyer?“”
Fran Lebowitz
“Can I have another squaaaaaaare pleeeeeeease?” You know the cookies are good if that’s what you hear literally reverberating through the house; even better if it’s the call from the dieting diva square after square! These were indeed GOOD … Dark Chocolate Caramel Oat & Almond Shortbread cookies!
There’s something about December, and something about cookies that make me want to bake; bake all the time actually even though power cuts continue to play spoilsport. Baking around silly powerless situations means more cookies since there are fewer chances of them ‘deflating‘ {unlike cakes} when the lights go off!
The wookies were fabulous for fast track ‘faux baking‘. This shortbread is too, non traditional as it may be. You can’t go wrong with shortbread, caramel and dark chocolate, can you? A combination inspired from many shortbread posts, especially this Chocolate Caramel Slice from Nash @ Plateful, and a ‘Month of shortbread baking‘ from Julia @ ‘Mélanger :: to mix’.
This is the season of holiday baking, and only good could come out of such delicious inspiration. GOOD DELICIOUS COOKIES! Winter is the only indulgent time of the year here when shortbread feels ‘guilt-less; you need the butter to keep you warm after all. Warm weather the rest of the year makes the crumb not keep together nice and crisp! For the record, this isn’t true shortbread; the traditional version doesn’t venture away from a 8:4:2 classic combination of flour, butter and sugar… and a dash of salt perhaps.
I had on hand hungry kids, butter and a ‘want to bake’ feeling; also a loose bottomed square tin that I had recently bought and was impatient to use. That resulted in … Oats + Almonds + Flour + Butter + Brown Sugar = Crisp shortbread base.
… to which was added some salted butter caramel {adapted from Jamies sweet blog}, the top smothered in deep, luscious, dark melted chocolate; then briefly left to set! Simple as can be. Next with my Ergo chef knife, the slab was cut into squares {you can do bars/rectangles…whatever grabs your fancy}. YUM! ENJOY!
Dark Chocolate Caramel Oat & Almond Shortbread …
Ingredients
- 110gm all purpose flour
- 35gm rolled oats
- 65gm whole almonds
- 60gm brown sugar
- 100gm unsalted butter, chilled, cut into cubes
- 1/2 cup salted caramel butter sauce {recipe follows}
- 150gm dark chocolate, melted
Salted Butter Caramel Sauce
- 3/4 cup granulated white sugar
- 4 tbs salted butter
- 200ml low fat cream
Instructions
Dark Chocolate Caramel Oat & Almond Shortbread
- Preheat oven to 160C.
- Place flour, oats, brown sugar and almonds in processor and process until ground {Thermomix: Speed10, 30 seconds}
- Add chilled butter and process briefly until breadcrumb like mix. {Thermomix: Speed 6, 5-7 seconds}
- Turn into lined 8X 8" square tray, pat into place and bake for about 45 minutes until light golden brown and firm.
- Cool completely.
- Run the salted butter caramel sauce in microwave until warm and melted. {Will still be thick batter like}
- Pour it over the cooled shortcrust, and spread evenly with an offset spatula. Leave in fridge for about an hour to cool completely.
- Melt the dark chocolate in the microwave or double boiler, and pour evenly over the caramel. Handle the melted chocolate as little as you can to keep it shiny. Spread with an offset spatula to the edges. Leave to set in the fridge for about an hour. Cut into squares.
Salted Butter Caramel Sauce
- Melt the sugar in a medium-sized saucepan over medium-low heat and cook until completely melted and caramel in color. Lower the heat to low and whisk in the butter in about 3 or 4 additions.
- Continuing to whisk, add the cream in a slow stream; the caramel may foam up, but keep whisking, as it will calm down once all the cream is added and will turn to… a smooth caramel. Once it is smooth and creamy, remove from the heat and allow to cool at least to tepid before serving.
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