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Saturday, February 26, 2011

Sweet Treats Saturday: Snicker Squares


It all started when fellow crafter, Jess of Just My Type, posted on her Twitter that she was making homemade Twix.  This sent me on a frenzy searching the internet for more incredible desserts.  That is when I stumbled upon Snickery Squares by Brown Eyed Baker.  The photo alone lured me in and the hubby, who loves Snickers, said 'ooooohhhh!'  That's all I needed.

I gathered together the ingredients and set out to make this sweet treat.  If you haven't worked with candy making before, this is a nice intro.  Caramelizing the nuts was very simple and just took minutes.  Just make sure to keep stirring once the peanuts are added and keep your eye on the sugar to make sure you don't burn it.

Back to the recipe.  First, I assembled the shortbread.  I used my food processor and combined this in minutes.  I was concerned that the egg yolk wasn't going to be enough to bring all of the dry ingredients together, but after pulsing it a bit, I started to notice the texture come together.  I pressed the shortbread mix into my baking pan and set it into the oven.



Once the shortbread was in the oven, I put the sugar and water on the stove.  It took me the length of time to measure out my one and a half cups of peanuts and the sugar water had started to gain color.  I poured in the peanuts and started stirring.  As the recipe mentions, the peanuts while get a white sugar coating before they turn golden, but in about a minute they had the caramelized color requested.  I poured them onto my non-stick sheet to cool.



After the shortbread had developed some color on the edges, I took it out of the oven to cool.  This was the only part where I needed to step away for about 20 minutes while everything set.  Once the shortbread was at room temperature, I poured the Dulce de Leche over the shortbread and spread half of the peanuts on top.



I then put a heat proof bowl over a small pot of water and melted the chocolate and butter until combined and smooth.  I poured this over the rest of the ingredients in the baking pan, and smoothed it out as much as possible.  I used a little over the requested 4 ounces of chocolate which made this a little easier (I figure, you really can't have too much chocolate).  Then, I sprinkled the remaining chopped peanut mixture over the chocolate and put the whole thing in the fridge for about 20 minutes.


The recipe is below.  If you haven't checked out Brown Eyed Baker's blog, do it. If you're on a diet, it's torture, but it's worth it.  Everything looks and sounds amazing!


Snickery Squares
From: Brown Eyed Baker

Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces and chilled
1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten

For the Filling
1/3 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons water
1½ cups salted peanuts
1½ cups dulce de leche

For the Topping
7 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
½ stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces, at room temperature

1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter an 8-inch square pan and put it on a baking sheet.
2. To make the crust, toss the flour, granulated 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 in a ball.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. To make the filling, have a parchment or silicone mat-lined baking sheet ready, as well as a long-handled wooden spoon. Put the granulated sugar and water in a 2-quart 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. 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 caramel. When the peanuts are coated with a nice deep amber caramel, remove the pan from the heat and turn the nuts out onto the baking sheet, using the wooden spoon to spread them out as best you can. Cool the nuts to room temperature.
6. When they are cool enough to handle, separate the nuts or break them into small pieces. Divide the nuts in half. Keep half of the nuts whole or in large pieces for the filling, and finely chop the other half for the topping.
7. Spread the dulce de leche over the shortbread base, leaving a ½-inch border around the edges. Sprinkle the whole candied peanuts over the dulce de leche.
8. To make the topping, melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water or in a microwave, using a low power setting. Remove the chocolate from the heat and gently stir in the butter, stirring until it is fully blended into the chocolate.
9. Pour the chocolate over the dulce de leche, smoothing it with a long metal icing spatula, then sprinkle the finely chopped candied peanuts on top. Place the pan in the refrigerator to set the topping, about 20 minutes; if you’d like to serve the squares cold, keep them refrigerated for at least 3 hours before cutting.
10. Cut into 16 bars. Store covered for 2 days at room temperature, or refrigerate for 5 days.

2 comments:

  1. Wow these look so yummy!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I couldn't make these becuase then I would eat them ALL and gain 5 lbs. :o) They look incredible!

    ReplyDelete

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