Tuesday, February 24, 2009

TWD: Caramel Crunch Bars


This Tuesday with Dorie we made the Caramel Crunch Bars; sooooo-weee, these are good! Crunchy and sweet and buttery = YUM.
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This fairly simple recipe came together pretty quickly (I am slow as molasses in the kitchen, so "quickly" is a relative term), sat in my oven for about 18 minutes and then got some chocolate chips poured on top to be melted for the top layer. Ah, how to say this, THEY NEVER MELTED...those bars probably spent a total of another 30 minutes in the oven as I put them in, took them out, tried unsuccessfully to swirl the luscious should-have-been-but-wasn't melted chocolate into one luscious layer...instead the spoon sort of skipped around digging the non melted chips into the shortbread base...this process was repeated at least 3 times before I decided that now that they were sufficiently ugly I would quit, knowing at least they would taste good. Ooo, I was frustrated. I have heard that chocolate chips are engineered to hold their shape when warm, but I didn't realize they just will never melt...Annoying things. Should have just chopped up bar chocolate like Dorie said...you haven't always followed Dorie's instructions to the letter; don't judge me!! >:[

In any case these were delicious. I took the majority to work and people were so gracious and just cleaned them right up. One taster declared they were 4-star worthy...then later decided they were just "ok" and I needed to practice my technique 2 or 3 more times and let her evaluate the results :)

I'm glad these were yummy, especially since this is my first TWD assignment completed in a long time...my kitchen has turned into a mad science lab with parts and pieces of previous Dorie recipes laying around...the cake layers from the last assigment are done, just not iced...the dry ingredients for the ginger chocolate cake were mixed...and not another thing was done for that recipe. It feels good to actually finish something. Ahh, commitment.

Whitney of What's Left on the Table picked these yummy bars and has posted the recipe. You should make these!

9 comments:

ittybittyandpretty said...

they looks so good i am off for the recipe!
%^_^%

Nana Time said...

If these bars are half as great as they look....yummo!
I am going to the website to get the recipe for my hub; I will not tell him about the possible chocolate chip problemo.

Anonymous said...

Well, they look very delicious and that's the part that really counts! Sounds like you had no end of takers...always a good sign of success. Thanks for stopping by my blog...I hadn't come across yours yet, so that was fun. And, justsoyouknow, I am MARRIED to the most perfect husband...LOL. Seriously, I am...and this is almost 31 years talking, so I think I would know! Yours looks pretty perfect also...best wishes.

Cathy said...

You are not the first person I have seen who had melting issues. I used chocolate chips as well, but they did melt. But my microwave would not melt the cheese on my kids' cheese toast the other day. Fickle thing, that melting. Anyway, your bars look totally delicious anyway!

Unknown said...

I had the chocolate chip non-melting issue too...nevertheless, your bars look great!

margot said...

They look fantastic with the big chunks of chips! Thanks for stopping by my blog; I'm glad to hear I'm not the only TWD baker who has to guard her kitchen carefully from naughty dogs.

Carol Peterman/TableFare said...

Congratulations on a successfully completed recipe with a successful result! It is nice to have a nice quick recipe now and then. I think the toffee bits covered up your melting issues just fine. They look tasty.

Ashli said...

Oh my, so good looking. How do you get time to do all this cool stuff? I am jealous. Have you worked it out with God to get extra hours of daylight?
And if you need my address to send any of your experiments, let me know...

Anonymous said...

yum, they look great! i'm sure your coworkers appreciated the yummy snacks. :)