The very first time I flipped through Dorie's Cookies by Dorie Greenspan, I spotted a recipe I wanted to make right away. The photo of the "Salted Chocolate-Caramel Bars" was enough to draw me in, but the recipe headnote helped as well. It begins: "This is the kind of cookie that makes you think you should stop everything, throw over your regular life and open a fancy pastry shop just so you can have a legit excuse to bake -- and eat -- these every day." I happened to be out of pecans or I would have started making the recipe at that very moment. I ended up trying a few other recipes from the cookbook before I replenished my supply of pecans and finally had a chance to make these bars.
The bars have a chocolate shortbread base covered in salted chocolate caramel and topped with pecans. To make the shortbread, you mix together room temperature butter, sugar, and salt until smooth; and add in flour and cocoa powder. My dough had an ideal texture -- soft enough to press easily into a parchment-lined pan, but not sticky at all. I doubled the recipe and baked it in a 9-inch 13-inch pan. The recipe says to bake the crust for 21-23 minutes, or until it is darker around the edges. Because the dough was chocolate, I couldn't see any color difference between the edges and the center at 21 minutes, so I let the crust bake for the full 23 minutes.
To make the caramel layer, you heat sugar with water and corn syrup until the mixture turns amber, and finish off the caramel with heavy cream, butter, and salt. After you take the caramel off the heat, you stir in some bittersweet chocolate. You pour the warm caramel over the shortbread crust, sprinkle on chopped pecans, and let the bars cool.
After a few hours at room temperature my bars were completely cool but when I started to cut them I thought that the caramel was still a little too soft. I chilled them for about an hour, which helped a lot. The chilled caramel -- which looked like a layer of Tootsie Roll to me -- was still pliable but held its shape well enough that the slices looked neat. The crust was a touch crumbly and in the future I would bake it only for the minimum suggested time. I cut the bars into relatively small pieces (although larger than what Dorie recommends), dividing my large pan into 32 servings.
These bars were the best-tasting thing I've baked in recent memory. They are super chocolatey and almost veer into candy territory, simultaneously offering every texture you could want: creaminess, chewiness, crunchiness. I see them more at home at a bake sale than a fancy pastry shop. But Dorie is right -- I would love an excuse to make and eat these bars every day. They are pure joy.
Recipe: "Salted Chocolate-Caramel Bars" from Dorie's Cookies by Dorie Greenspan, recipe available here from the Sur La Table blog.
The bars have a chocolate shortbread base covered in salted chocolate caramel and topped with pecans. To make the shortbread, you mix together room temperature butter, sugar, and salt until smooth; and add in flour and cocoa powder. My dough had an ideal texture -- soft enough to press easily into a parchment-lined pan, but not sticky at all. I doubled the recipe and baked it in a 9-inch 13-inch pan. The recipe says to bake the crust for 21-23 minutes, or until it is darker around the edges. Because the dough was chocolate, I couldn't see any color difference between the edges and the center at 21 minutes, so I let the crust bake for the full 23 minutes.
To make the caramel layer, you heat sugar with water and corn syrup until the mixture turns amber, and finish off the caramel with heavy cream, butter, and salt. After you take the caramel off the heat, you stir in some bittersweet chocolate. You pour the warm caramel over the shortbread crust, sprinkle on chopped pecans, and let the bars cool.
These bars were the best-tasting thing I've baked in recent memory. They are super chocolatey and almost veer into candy territory, simultaneously offering every texture you could want: creaminess, chewiness, crunchiness. I see them more at home at a bake sale than a fancy pastry shop. But Dorie is right -- I would love an excuse to make and eat these bars every day. They are pure joy.
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