It’s all about salted caramel at the moment, you can get it as a coffee flavour, cupcakes, ice-cream, roasted nuts, pop-corn, cheesecakes, but I am not complaining, because I love the sweet and salty combination! If you like it as much as I do, here is another variation for you – shortbread!
SALTED CARAMEL SHORTBREAD
(originally adapted from the OLIVE magazine)
Ingredients:
250 g butter
150 g golden caster sugar
200g wholemeal flour
100 g plain flour
zest od 1 orange
150 g dark chocolate (optional)
salt flakes for decoration
Caramel:
100 g golden caster sugar
salt flakes
Method:
1. To make the caramel, heat the sugar in a frying pan until melts and then starts to bubble to a golden brown. Swirl the pan if you need to keep the melting and browning even. Add a good pinch of salt flakes and tip the caramel onto an oiled baking sheet set on a wooden board. Cool and then break into chips with a rolling pin.
2. Beat the butter, sugar and orange zest until you have a smooth paste. Add the flours, pinch of salt and combine until it forms a dough. Tip onto a lightly floured surface, roll out gently and sprinkle with the crushed caramel. Fold in half and then transfer to a 20×30 or similar size tin and push into an even layer. Cover and chill for at least 30 minutes.
3. Heat the oven to 160C. Bake the shortbread for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through. Cool in the tin for 5 minutes, mark into fingers with a knife and then cool completely. Cut along the marked lines into pieces.
You can stop here or to make it more luxurious, you can cover the shortbread with the chocolate. If you decide to go for it, please read further.
4. Heat the chocolate in a bowl set over a pan of water (or microwave it for 30seconds) until it starts to melt, stir until smooth and take it off the heat. Lay the shortbread next to each other on a cooling rack and spoon over the chocolate in strips – it doesn’t need to be perfect. While the chocolate is still wet, sprinkle with some salt flakes and then leave it to set.
the usual ingredients 