Tuesdays with Dorie—Caramel Crunch Bars

The base of this bar is a shortbread cookie with a hint of coffee and cinnamon followed by a layer of melted chocolate and a sprinkle of caramels on top. Instead of buying Heath bars (which aren't typically available in Canada although The Candy Store in Ottawa imports them) or Skor bars, I made my own caramels and pulverized them in my food processor.

One of the best take aways from this recipe was lining the pan with aluminum foil. The liner makes it easy to remove the cookie base from the pan and put it on a cutting board saving your nice pan from the sharp edges of your knife.

The most efficient way to line the pan is to tear off a large piece of aluminum foil, turn the pan over, mold the foil against the pan, and square the corners (think hospital corners on a bed), then lift the foil against the pan, and carefully slip it into the pan. It won't fit perfectly — it never does — but you can quickly press it into shape. Once it's coaxed into place, butter the foil, a job best done with a pastry brush slathered with softened butter. from Link

I also learned a bit more about Heath bars vs Skor bars. Check out my poll on my right sidebar and let me know your favorite treat.

Recipe

Makes 1 9x13 pan

For the Base:
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder or finely ground instant coffee
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup (packed) light brown sugar
¼ cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 ounces bittersweet or premium-quality milk chocolate, finely chopped

For the Topping:
6 ounces bittersweet or premium-quality milk chocolate, finely chopped
¼ cup Heath Toffee bits (I made my own caramels)
You can find the recipe for Caramel Crunch Bars in the book Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or here. To see how the rest of the TWD group fared with this week's recipe, click here and then click on each blogger!

Click here for the recipe for Golden Vanilla Bean Caramels.

Tasting Notes
How can you go wrong with shortbread, chocolate and caramel chunks. It would be fun to play with the shortbread base, but why mess with perfection?

Recipe for Next Week (March 3)
Chocolate Armagnac Cake — The Cake That Got Me Fired on pages 279-281 chosen by Lyb of And then I do the dishes.