Chocolate Caramel Shortbread... (think Twix!)

UPDATE: I got the good recipe from my cousin! It's actually from a book I gave her for her birthday this year! Thanks to Fran for typing the recipe up for me!

Chocolate Caramel Shortbread
Makes 12

1/2 cup butter, plus extra for greasing
Generous 1 cup all purpose flour
Generous 1/4 cup superfine sugar

Filling and topping
3/4 cup butter
Generous 1/2 cup superfine sugar
3 tbsp dark corn syrup
14 oz/400 g canned sweetened condensed milk
7 oz/200 g semisweet chocolate, broken into pieces

Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C. Grease a 9-inch/23-cm square, shallow cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.

Place the butter, flour, and sugar in a food processor and process until it starts to bind together. Press into the prepared pan and level the top. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until golden.

Meanwhile, make the filling. Place the butter, sugar, corn syrup, and condensed milk in a heavy-bottom saucepan. Heat gently until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and let simmer for 6-8 minutes, stirring until very thick. Pour over the shortbread and let chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours, or until firm.

Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Set over a saucepan of gently simmering water and stir until melted. Let cool slightly, then spread over the caramel. Let chill In the refrigerator for 2 hours, or until set. Cut the shortbreat into 12 pieces and serve.

When I got home from work yesterday I was so excited to start baking for "wing night." I wanted to make one of my Grandma's recipes, and I chose her Jelly Roll recipe. I was planning on tweaking it a bit by flavoring the cake with coconut and making a pineapple cream filling instead of using jelly. I attempted to translate my Grandma's handwriting and finally came up with what looked like a perfectly delicious cake batter. I poured it into the pan, watched it bake slowly at a temperature that I had to assume because it wasn't specified in the recipe, then I removed it from the oven to cool. On my way from the oven to my cooling rack..... SPLAT!!?!!? There it went... straight onto the floor... face down, of course!Thankfully, my brain is pretty good at knowing what is and isn't worth getting upset over, and this was definitely not worth it. I picked up the pieces, tossed them into the trash, thought briefly about a few negative words, then headed straight for one of my new cookbooks to choose a new recipe! I used the last of my white sugar in the jelly roll cake, so my options were narrowed down to brown sugar recipes. I chose a recipe for "Toffee Squares" in Better Homes and Gardens^® The Ultimate Cookie Book, but between you and me, I don't recognize any toffee in this recipe. I changed the name to Chocolate Caramel Shortbread! I hoped it would be similar to something my cousin made a few months ago. She let me have some of the leftovers, and it truly tasted like a homemade Twix candy bar! Crunchy shortbread on the bottom, chewy gooey caramel in the center, and chocolate on top. Mine, however, were not like a Twix at all. Well, maybe a factory reject Twix. The recipe called for baking the cookie layer WAY too long before the caramel went on. And it called for too much vanilla in the caramel, which created a very distracting flavor. If I made these again (I won't! I'll be getting my cousins recipe) I'd reduce the first baking time to 15 minutes. I'd also reduce the vanilla to only 1 teaspoon.

I'll try to get the recipe my cousin used and post it here for anyone who wants to try it! Until then, here's the sorry version I made...

Toffee Squares (from Better Homes and Gardens^® The Ultimate Cookie Book)
Prep: 25 min. Bake: 33 min. Chill: 30 min. Oven: 350° F
Makes: about 36 squares

3/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk (1 1/4 cups)
2 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 12-ounce package semi-sweet chocolate chips or pieces (2 cups)

Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease a 13x9x2-inch baking pan; set aside.
For crust, in a large mixing bowl beat the 3/4 cup butter and the brown sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed until combined. Beat in the egg yolk. Stir in the flour and salt until well mixed. Using flour hands, press the dough into the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake about 20 minutes or until light brown (I'd probably only bake for 15 mins next time). Cool in pan on a wire rack while preparing the filling.
For filling, in a medium saucepan heat and stir the sweetened condensed milk and the 2 tablespoons butter over medium heat until bubbly. Cook and stir for 5 minutes more. (Mixture will thicken and become smooth.) Stir in the vanilla. Spread over the crust. Bake 12 to 15 minutes more or until top is golden brown.
Sprinkle evenly with chocolate pieces. Bake for 1 to 2 minutes more or until chocolate pieces are shiny and melted. Remove from oven; set on a wire rack. Using a flexible spatula, immediately spread the chocolate evenly over baked layers. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack. Cover and chill 30 minutes or until chocolate is set. Cut into squares. Refrigerate up to 3 days.

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