a slab of snickery square

Ever since buying the book Baking: from my home to yours, by Dorie Greenspan I have wanted to try this recipe. It promises to be, as the name suggests, a glorified snickers bar. Or the ultimate caramel slice; shortbread base, a layer of extra thick, gooey, 'proper' caramel embellished with caramelised salted peanuts, and a thick layer of dark chocolate to finish. My sister's upcoming 21st birthday provided the necessary excuse to embark on such wickedness...

The recipe specifies using dulce de leche (spanish for caramelised/sweet milk) for the caramel layer, however this is not available in NZ. Highlander sell a condensed milk product that is caramelised, but I don't think this compares to the DIY version where you boil the can of sweetened condensed milk in a saucepan of water or 3-4 hours. This is how is looks after being 'cooked' - a lovely thick toffee coloured goo. Maybe dulce de leche is thicker, as my slice didn't look quite like Dorie's when I cut it...the caramel oozed out the sides quite determinedly. Not to say this detracts from the eating experience at all, it just makes it rather messier.

This is wickedly good. The texture of the candied peanuts is what makes it I think - salted, roasted peanuts (I dusted them with a little flaky pacific seasalt) with a thin crisp caramel shell. That, and the thick dark chocolate slab like topping and the crumbly, biscuity base, all work beautifully to contrast with the creamy caramel. The messy side trimmings I combined with some leftover whipped cream and sliced banana - like a banoffee pie version of eton mess. So good albeit slightly shameful...

Here is a close up that shows the true 'gooeyness' of the filling, it wants to gush out in much the same manner as a perfectly ripe cheese...Due to this fact it probably wasn't the best choice of baked good to attempt to send to the other end/side of the South Island. So instead of cutting this up I left it as a whole slab, hoping this would enhance the chances of it remaining intact for the next 24 hours.

And here is the slab of snickery square snugly packed in its little box, ready to make the journey south. Fingers crossed it made it safely!

Snickery Squares

Do not be put off by the longwinded directions - this is really quite easy!

For the Crust:

1 cup all-purpose flour

¼ cup sugar

2 Tbsp powdered sugar

¼ tsp salt

100g unsalted butter, cut into small pieces and chilled

1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten

For the Filling:

½ cup sugar

3 tbsp water

1 ½ cups salted peanuts

About 1 ½ cups store-bought dulce de leche (I used 2 x tins condensed milk, cooked for 3 hours in boiling water)

For the Topping:
200g bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used Cadbury Old Gold)
50g unsalted butter

Getting Ready:

Preheat oven to 350F. Butter a 8 inch square pan and put it on a baking sheet.

To Make the Crust:

Toss the flour, sugar, powdered 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.Turn the dough into the buttered pan and gently press it evenly across the bottom of the pan. Prick the dough with a fork and slide the sheet into the oven.Bake the crust for 15-20 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.

To Make the Filling:

Have a parchment or silicone mat-lined baking sheet at the ready, as well as a long-handled wooden spoon 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. Toss the peanuts and immediately start stirring. Keep stirring, to coat the peanuts with 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.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 biggish pieces 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.

To Make the Topping:

Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water. Remove chocolate from the heat and gently stir in the butter, stirring until it 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 rest of the peanuts. Slide the pan into the fridge 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.