Caramel Chocolate Shortbread Cookies

As much as I would love to say all my recipes come out fabulously, that is not the case. They still taste good, but as far as visual standards... Not so much. The case in point, my caramel chocolate shortbread cookies. Remember how I said I have a bad habit of making things for the first time and they're for other people. Yeah. This was somewhat of a disaster.

For the record, I pretty much hate making shortbread [even though everyone loves it when I do]. It's a pain in the butt. And this was the first time I was making it. I overtaxed myself, wanting to my ex's parents to like me even more than they already did. I decided I was going to make them several types of cookies for Christmas. These were one of the types and visually, they did not look pretty. The shortbread crumbled and despite being in the fridge overnight, my homemade caramel did not set properly. Cutting these cookies was a bitch. And that was before I took pictures of my baking. So the picture posed is how they're supposed to look. Not my awful looking ones.

 

Caramel Chocolate Shortbread

Ingredients:

[Shortbread]

4 oz of unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing [you can use salted too.]

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup golden superfine sugar [this is hard to fine, just use regular sugar]

[Caramel and Chocolate Topping]

7 oz of butter

1/2 cup golden superfine sugar [again regular sugar is fine]

3 tablespoons of corn syrup

14 fluid oz canned condensed milk

7 oz bittersweet chocolate, broken into pieces

 

Instructions:

Place the butter, flour and sugar in a food processor and process until they begin to bind together. Press the mixture into a greased 9 inch shallow square cake pan lined with parchment paper and smooth the top. [I like to coat the top of the shortbread with melted butter. It seems to hold together better if you do that.] Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees F for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden.

 

While the shortbread is baking, make the caramel filling. Place the butter, sugar, corn syrup, and condensed milk in a pan and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved. bring to a boil and simmer for six to eight minutes, stirring constantly, until the mixture becomes very thick. Removed the shortbread from the oven, then pour the filing and chill in the refrigerator until firm. [To this day, I'm still unsure where I went wrong with the caramel...]

 

To make the topping, melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water. Remove from the heat and let cool slightly, then spread over the caramel. Chill in the refrigerator until set. Cut into 12 pieces with a sharp knife and serve.

This is what it is supposed to look like.

This is closer to what it looked like. Diagram drawn by me.

 

I haven't made these again yet, but I will. One day.