The plan from the beginning was to do something nice for my wife and her NHS coworkers, but I achieved only half of that. I decided on Wednesday night, coming off the tail of a stressful workday, to conjure up a palette pleasing dish that she could take to work the next day. This, I hoped, would take my mind away from work and generate some much needed good will in the world. What’s more, I had been playing with the idea of adding a new section to the site called “Henning Bites”, where I shared my experiments with family and friends. So, I thought, why not risk your new diet and find something packed with sugar to tempt you away from whatever two-day progress you may have made? Don’t worry, I had the “I’ve been ill” excuse to fall back on. But knowing my wife and nephew, I knew my only chance was hiding the true purpose from her at every turn. It didn’t work out that way.
Let me take one step back. Over lockdown I decided to venture into the culinary wilds of baking, hoping to return a wizened sage with tasty treats and sagacious one-liners to cure any ailment. But what I didn’t know was nightmarish wheel of trial, error, and “closer attention to detail”" would trap me – something a sufferer of OCD should surely avoid. Getting it finally right and being rewarded for it is worth the strain, sweat, and tears. Note: these aren’t intentional ingredients, but necessary ones. That said, I should probably introduce one of my recent heroes, a man who’s taken the youtube “cook-it-yourself” and “better-from-scratch” channels by storm – Joshua Weissman. He’s no Gordon, but he is on to something and might be worthy of a named utensil in my cutlery drawer. My expensive Japanese chef’s knife is named “Gordon”. We’ll see…
Anyway, that’s the background to the upcoming recipe and the scatter shot, yet vague announcement that I’ve been off the diet for 3 days. But soon to return. I’ve prepared and delivered several of his recipes for the family to great success, but I’ve never really given the dessert angle any attention. When I saw that his new series was recreating beloved candybars, I jumped at the opportunity. At the time I embarked on the journey, he’d posted a few already, like his Butterfingers (But Better), but he hadn’t gotten around to updating his blog with the Twix version. That’s not true now, and you can find it here. And with that reference aside, I’ll give you my twist – I’m going to post the recipe – it’s nearly identical, save for a few British substitutes – but I’ll take this opportunity to instead provide my own color-commentary in place of his method.
Here’s what you’re going to need / Ingredients:
Salted Butter Shortbread Cookie Base:
- 1 cup (225g) SALTED butter, softened
- 3/4 cup (100g) powdered sugar
- 2 cups (300g) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon (10g) vanilla extract
Caramel:
-
1 cup (227g) butter
-
1.25 cups (195g) light brown sugar
-
1.25 cups (370g) light corn syrup I substituted golden syrup instead
-
14 ounces (397g) sweetened condensed milk (homemade version totally viable)
-
1 vanilla bean pod scraped of beans
Chocolate coating:
- 1lb (450g) 60-70% cacao dark chocolate, very finely chopped
Preparation:
First thing’s first, measure out what you’re going to need if the amount you buy differs from what’s required. For instance, this recipe calls for 225g of salted butter. If you bought a 500g portion, don’t eyeball it in. Use digital weighing scales, as pictured, if you can.
We’re going to split this into three phases: shortbread, caramel, and chocolate.
Phase One: Shortbread
For the shortbread, measure out the all purpose flour, powdered sugar, and salted, softened butter.
Add the flour and sugar to a bowl and apply what Joshua Weissman calls “whisky business”.
A good non-stick bowl and mini-whisk will be your best friends, here.
After a thorough whisking, add in the butter, and using a potato masher or pastry cutter mash or cut in the softened butter. You should see little clumps form, like this:
Now add the vanilla extract and fold the mixture together. The mixture should come together so its dense enough to shape into a a nice ball.
Line a 1 or 2 inch, 9 by 11 ceramic oven tray with baking paper or spray generously with nonstick cooking spray (or oil). Take the ball, and press it evenly into the tray (not pictured).
Place the tray into a 325°F pre-heated oven, and let it cook for about 15 - 20 minutes until your non-colorblind wife tells you its dry and light-golden brown in color.
Place in the refrigerator until completely cool.
Phase Two: Caramel
To make the caramel Well, “pseudo-caramel”, as real caramel is a chore. Add the light brown sugar, sweetened condensed milk, and corn syrup, to a saucepan on medium-to- high heat, stirring as it comes to a roaring boil.
Add the softened butter and continue stirring, this time checking the heat doesn’t exceed 245°F.
After the butter has been absorbed, scrape the seeds out of one vanilla pod and combine with the mixture. Keep stirring another 1 to 2 minutes.
While the caramel is still hot, pour over the cooled shortbread still in the tray, wrap in cling film, and return to the refrigerator for an overnight chilling.
The next day, remove the caramel-topped shortbread from the refrigerator and remove from the tray, taking care not to break.
Cut into Twix-sized bars using a clean, very sharp knife to keep the bread from chipping.
Chocolate
Take the bakers chocolate and cut finely with a knife and add to a non-stick microwaveable bowl.
Heat the chocolate in the bowl for 30 seconds, remove and stir. Heat the chocolate again for another 30 seconds, remove and stir again. Heat the chocolate one more time for 10 seconds or until the chocolate reaches 90°F. Don’t worry, if the chocolate is over 90°F, just let it rest, stirring occasionally until it’s 90°F.
Take two wooden skewers or chopsticks and rest them paralell on the edge of a large bowl.
Take each of your bars and coat thoroughly (but gently) in the bowl of chocolate, removing them delicately with a fork and resting on the chopsticks / skewers. Drip chocolate over any bare spots you may have missed.
Remove the freshly-coated bars from the chopsticks / skewers and place on a nearby baking sheet.
Wait until the chocolate cools (which may require refrigeration), and enjoy.
We chose to leave some uncoated for a contrasting, yet elegant beauty shot.
Postlude:
My wife had come home from work before I had the chance to finish them while she was away, so I tried my best to do the chocolate coating during and after dinner.
I think by that time, the jig was up and everyone was ready to try them, so I relented and served them up to her and my in-laws. I was anxious for their review, too, so it wasn’t completely non-mutual. And by that time, I had decided to keep them close to home because, as my mother-in-law puts it “those were a faff Troublesome burden to make.”
Health Update:
As I mentioned in a sidenote above, I fell off the wagon, again. However, this isn’t too unusual for me, as I usually have a few running starts before I take off. I’ll hide behind the crippling cold I’ve had over the past week to cushion my pride, but I intend to give it another go with renewed vigor tomorrow. Just bare with me.
I’ll be sure to update the project page, as well.