Salted Caramel Butter Bars

I cannot tell you enough how good these bars are. They went down an absolute storm with my colleagues. I made them as I was getting a bit naughty with a tub of salted caramel in my fridge, When I started spooning it out the tub into my mouth I decided enough was enough! So I made something I could take to work and it was gone within minutes.

Salted Caramel Butter Bars (from Cookies and Cups)

450g butter

225g caster sugar

188g icing sugar

2 tbsp vanilla 

500g self-raising flour

1 jar salted caramel sauce

 

Preheat the oven to 160°C

 

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and beat until combined. Sift the flour into the butter mixture and fold in with a metal spoon.

 

Spray a 23cm x 33cm baking pan lightly with non-stick cooking spray. Press one-third of the dough evenly into the pan to form a bottom crust. Wrap remaining dough in cling film and chill in the fridge.

 

Bake the crust until firm and the edges are a pale golden brown about 20 mins. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let it cool for about 15 mins.

 

Pour the salted caramel sauce over the crust. 

 

Remove the remaining chilled dough from the refrigerator and crumble it evenly over the caramel.

 

Return the pan to the oven and bake for 25 - 30 mins until the filling is bubbly and the crumbled shortbread topping is firm and lightly golden.

 

Let cool before cutting into squares.

 

 

 

Salted Caramel and Chocolate Fudge Birthday Cake

My sister made me such an awesome birthday cake. It was really yummy. The cake was lovely and soft almost like a brownie texture and the icing was just scrumptious. I really wish I'd taken a picture of the whole cake as she had decorated it with chocolate stars and flakes. If you're looking for birthday cake ideas, this is definitely the one!

Salted Caramel and Chocolate Fudge Birthday Cake

(from Lavender and Lovage)

 

140g crème fraiche
125g unsalted butter
200g soft dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs
170g plain flour
50g cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder

 

For the salted caramel buttercream icing

125g salted butter
2 drops vanilla extract
250g golden icing sugar
1/2 jar (190g) confiture de lait/dulce de leche

 

For the filling

1/2 jar (190g) confiture de lait/dulce de leche

 

Preheat the oven to 180C and grease and line two 20cm sandwich cake tins.

Put all of the chocolate fudge cake ingredients into a large mixing bowl and beat well for 3 to 4 mins with an electric whisk, or for 5 to 6 mins by hand until the batter is smooth and fluffy.

Spoon the mixture into the  cake tins and level the tops with the back of a spoon, leaving a slight dip in the middle of the cakes so they rise evenly. Bake for about 25 to 30 mins, or until the cakes are well risen and are shrinking away from the sides of the cake tins. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tins for about 10 mins, before removing them from the tins and cooling completely on wire racks.

To make the salted caramel buttercream icing, put the icing sugar, butter and vanilla extract into a bowl and whisk until light and fluffy, for about 2 to 3 mins, Then add the confiture de lait (dulce de leche) bit by bit, whisking well after each spoonful, check the flavour and add some extra salt if you want it slightly saltier. Set to one side to firm up.

Once the cakes are cold, cut each cake into half, and then place one of the cake halves onto a serving platter or cake stand. Spread some of the confiture de lait (dulce de leche) over the cake and then add some salted caramel buttercream icing, and repeat for all the layers until the top cake has been added, Using a palette knife, swirl the remaining buttercream all over the cake, tops and sides and then decorate.

Daring Cooks October 2013: French Macarons

In a "celebration" of past Daring Cooks and Daring Bakers challenges, Lisa challenged all of us to search through the Daring Kitchen archives and pick any one we'd like! The REAL challenge was picking which delicious recipe(s) to try!

The third challenge I tried was a Daring Bakers challenge again. This one wasn't anywhere near as successful as the previous two and shows that whilst I can cook I am not really a baker! I went home for the weekend at the end of September and with help from my Mum we tried to make French Macarons. They are one of her favourite cakes and she has always wanted to make them. We did use a different recipe to that in the challenge as we couldn't find almond flour anywhere and used ground almonds instead. As we had never made them before and didn't really know what we were doing these didn't turn out quite as intended! Instead of lovely round individual macarons we ended up with a sheet of ground almond meringue. It also helps of you can tell the difference between fahrenheit and centigrade on the thermometer!! They tasted fine but spread out way too much in the baking. We have booked ourselves on a macaron making course in January to see if we can learn how to make them properly!

Salted caramel Macaroons

200g ground almonds
200g icing sugar
80ml water
200g caster sugar
2x80g egg white     
2 drops food yellow food colouring and coffee extract
For the salted caramel
250g icing sugar
80ml water
120g full fat creme fraiche
200g salted butter

The day before prepare the caramel. Over a low heat dissolve the sugar in water. Without mixing them too much, watch the sugar until it turns a light brown colour. Add the creme fraiche little by little mixing with a spatula to stop the caramel cooking. Once the creme  fraiche is well mixed use a thermometer to monitor the temperature. As soon as the caramel  reaches 108 c remove from heat add the butter. Mix or whisk until caramel is smooth. Put in a bowl and leave in fridge.      

Mix then sieve together the ground almonds and icing sugar set aside.    

In a saucepan bring the water and caster sugar to the boil. Without mixing make sure the temperature does not exceed 110C.

  














Whisk half the egg whites to soft peaks increasing the speed of the whisk once the temperature of the syrup passes 100C. Once the syrup reaches 110C take it off the heat and pour in a thin stream on to the whisked egg whites. Beat the meringue mix until it has almost cooled.   

Meanwhile mix the unbeaten egg white with the almond base to get a thick paste. Add coffee extract and food colouring to get a pale caramel colour.   

With a spatula mix around a third of the meringue with the almond paste to loosen it a little then add rest of meringue and fold it carefully.    

Fill a piping bag with the macaroon mix. Stick a sheet of greaseproof paper to a baking tray. Make small evenly shaped and sized balls at regular intervals across the tray. Leave to dry at room temperature for an hour. 

Preheat oven to 145C fan 125C. Cook the macaroons for 13mins. Immediately on taking them out of the oven slide the greaseproof paper and shells on to a moistened work top . This will help the shells detach from the greaseproof paper more easily.       

With a piping bag fill half shells with caramel them sandwich together with the remaining shells.

Millionaire's Shortbread

I've been making lots of ice cream using condensed milk, but only half the tin, which left me with the other half of the tin. The only thing I could think to do with half a tin of condensed milk was caramel and therefore millionaire's shortbread and who doesn't love it?! It was just as good as I remember it being as a child and brought back loads of lovely memories of birthday parties and things growing up.

Millionaire's Shortbread (from BBC Food)
(Makes 20 pieces)

For the shortbread

225g plain flour

175g unsalted butter, cold, cut into cubes

75g caster sugar

 

For the topping

150g butter

1 x 375g can condensed milk

100g golden syrup

350g milk chocolate, chopped into small pieces

Preheat the oven to 150C. Line a 23cm square cake tin with baking parchment.

Combine the flour and butter cubes in a bowl and rub in with your hands until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Add in the caster sugar and stir until combined.

Tip the mixture into the tin and spread it out evenly with the back of a spoon. Then press the shortbread down firmly with your knuckles so that it is tightly packed in the tin.

Bake the shortbread for 30 minutes or until very light golden brown. Set aside to cool.

Meanwhile, for the topping, heat the butter, condensed milk and golden syrup in a saucepan, stirring occasionally until the butter is melted and the mixture is smooth.

Increase the heat and bring the mixture to the boil, stirring frequently. The caramel will thicken and turn golden-brown. Set aside to cool slightly, then pour over the cooled shortbread. Allow to cool completely.

Melt the chocolate in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water, stirring occasionally.