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I am working my way through Dorie Greenspan’s Baking cookbook. I have to say I love this cookbook! I think this is a masterpiece! Really, the recipes are fun and interesting. I love working with them. This recipe is no exception. I loved making these. They are tons of fun and delicious! I have never made caramel covered nuts before, I really enjoyed it. A few words on caramel though, be extremely careful when you use it. The sugar will burn you very easily once it gets hot and it’s not easy to get off of your skin, if you do get some of it on you. This is definitely a recipe that I would not make with children, caramel is pretty serious business. Well, enough lecturing, here’s the fabulous recipe. I hope you get a chance to try it. It doesn’t take all that long, enough though there are a few steps.
Snickery Squares
For the crust
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 Tbs. confectioners’ sugar
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1 stick (8 Tbs.) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces and chilled
- 1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten
For the filling
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 3 Tbs. water
- 1 1/2 cups salted peanuts
- About 1 1/2 cups store bought dulce de leche
For the topping
- 7 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
- 1/2 stick (4 Tbs.) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces, at room temperature
Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 350° F. Butter an 8 inch square pan and put it on a baking sheet.
Make the Crust - Toss the flour, sugar, confectioners sugar and salt into a food processor and pulse a few times to combine. Toss in the pieces of cold butter and pulse about 12 times, until the mixture looks like coarse meal. Pour the yolk over the ingredients and pulse until the dough forms clumps and curds - stop before the dough comes together into a ball.
Turn the dough into the buttered pan and gently press it evenly across the bottom of the pan. Prick the dough all over with a fork and slide the sheet into the oven.
Bake the crust for 15 to 20 minutes, or until it takes on just a little color around the edges. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool to room temperature before filling.
Make the Filling - Have a parchment lined, better yet, silicone mat lined baking sheet at the ready, as well as a long handled wooden spoon (you’ll be cooking sugar that will climb to over 300° F, so you’ll want to keep as far away from it as possible) and a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan.
Put the sugar and water in the saucepan and cook over medium-high heat, stirring, until the sugar dissolves. Keeping the heat fairly high, continue to cook the sugar, without stirring, until it just starts to color. (If sugar splatters onto the sides of the saucepan, wash down the splatters with a pastry brush dipped in cold water.) Toss in the peanuts and immediately start stirring. Keep stirring, to coat the peanuts with the sugar. Within a few minutes, they will be covered with sugar and turn white - keep stirring until the sugar turns back into a caramel. When the peanuts are coated in a deep amber caramel, remove the pan from the heat and turn the nuts onto the baking sheet, using the wooden spoon to spread them out as best you can. Cool the nuts to room temperature.
When they are cool enough to handle, separate the nuts or break them into small pieces. Divide the nuts in half. Keep half the nuts whole or biggish for the filling and finely chop the other half for the topping.
Spread the dulce de leche over the shortbread base and sprinkle over the whole candied nuts or the big pieces.
Make the Topping - Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water. Remove the chocolate from the heat and gently stir in the butter, stirring until the butter is fully blended into the chocolate.
Pour the chocolate over the dulce de leche, smoothing it with a long metal icing spatula, then sprinkle over the finely chopped candied peanuts. Slide the pan into the refrigerator to set the topping, about 20 minutes; if you’d like to serve the square cold, keep them refrigerated for at least 3 hours before cutting.
Cut into 16 bars.