Caramel Slice

If Belinda Carlisle sang a song about baked goods this would be the goods. Otherwise known as a Millionaire's Shortbread this is heaven. I'm calling it a caramel slice because this is more about the caramel than the shortbread. It features as prominently as the shortbread does and it's lightly salted flavour makes it a bit different to your usual Millionaire's Shortbread, but different is good. If I want to show someone I like them I will make this for them as it isn't the quickest to make. The components in themselves take little effort to make but having the patience to assemble everything is the real work. I actually found the recipe for the caramel and the shortbread separately in a book called Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, with Recipes by Jennifer McLagan. Published in the US and the UK so I'm not being biased. Each part broken down here:

Shortbread

1 cup/8 ounces/225 g cold unsalted butter, dices, plus extra tsp softened for greasing

1/2 cup / 3 1/2 ounces /100 g caster sugar

2 cups / 8 1/2 ounces / 250 g flour

Pinch of fine sea salt

1/4 tsp fleur de sel (if making a sweetshortbread on its own then you can sprinkle with demerara sugar instead)

Line a 25 cm x 15 cm (ish!) tray with greaseproof paper making sure that it comes all the way to the top of the tin and use the extra teaspoon of butter to lightly butter the tin.

Combine the cold butter and sugar in a bowl and if you have a mixer, using a paddle attachment, mix on low speed for 15 seconds. If all you have is elbow grease (like me) they mix the two together until combined. Add both the flours and a pinch of salt and mic again until the dough comes together (if using the machine this will take about 3 to 5 minutes on low speed).

Form the dough into a ball and, on a floured surface, roll in out about 1 cm thick rectangle. Gently place the dough into the tin and pat it out until lit even fills the tin. Using a fork, prick the dough all over, right through to the tin.

Refrigerate the dough for 1 hour and preheat the oven to 150 C/300 F.

Take the dough from the fridge, and sprinkle with the fleur de sel and place the tin on a baking sheet. Bake until the shortbread is just firm in the center and beginning to colour, about 40 minutes. Take it out of the oven and let it cool in the tin. Please note that the shortbread is wonderful on it's own if that's as far as you care to go this time around.

On to the caramel...

Salted Caramel

1 1/4 cups / 9 ounces / 250 g caster sugar

1/2 cup / 4 ounces / 115 g salted butter, diced

1 cup / 250 ml whipping cream

Pinch of salt

Combine the butter and sugar in a deep, heavy saucepan over medium heat. It is easier if you use a silver based pan as that way you can see the caramel turning colour, this is not so easy with a black non-stick pan. Stir to mix and cook, stirring occasionally, until the butter and sugar caramelize, 10 to 15 minutes. The sugar and butter will go through several stages. First it will look like a flour and butter roux, then it will appear curdled and then the butter will leak out of the sugar mixture. Don't worry: it will all come together in the end!

While the caramel is cooking, pour the cream into a saucepan and bring to the boil over a medium heat. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Keep stirring the butter and sugar mixture, watching carefully as it begins to caramelise and remembering that the heat in the pan will continue to cook the caramel once it is removed from the burner. You want a rich, dark caramel colour, but you don't want to burn the mixture. When the caramel reaches the right colour, remove the pan from the heat and slowly and carefully pour in the cream; the mixture will bubble and spit. When the caramel stops bubbling, return it to low heat and cook for 5 minutes, stirring to dissolve the caramel in the cream. Remove the pan from the heat and let the caramel cool in the pan. It may be wise to leave this overnight, if you have the time. Alternatively, let it cool for about 45 minutes then poor it directly onto the shortbread and leave it to set overnight.

When the caramel is set (be warned, it will always be slightly runny rather then a stiff fudge-like consistency you often get with a millionaire's shortbread) you can finish it off with the chocolate topping:

Melt 200g of the finest milk chocolate you can get your hands on - or if you prefer it slightly richer you can up the cocoa - in a bain marie and smother over the caramel. Leave this to set until the chocolate is hard and then here comes the only hard bit of this:

To cut the chocolate squares take a bowl of boiling water and a sharp knife. Gently cut straight lines in a sawing motion rather than just applying pressure as this will cause the chocolate to crack in uneven shards and wont look as pretty. Continue in the same method - you will need to dip you knife in the boiling water from time to time to help it through the chocolate.

Once they are cut into squares lift them out all together using the greaseproof paper as a handle and share with friends. They will like you for it.