twd: caramel crunch bars

Turn to page 113 of Baking: From My Home to Yours and Dorie's ice cream sandwiches made with caramel crunch bars and wrapped in wax paper look like summer and fun and utter indulgence. The view outside of my window on Sunday when I made these bars was anything but summer and fun and utter indulgence. Nine new inches of snow blanketed everything, and the din of snow blowers and plows was my baking soundtrack.

My caramel crunch bars, sans ice cream, look rather like toffee. They're tasty but almost too buttery--who knew anything could be too buttery? I suspect that pairing them with ice cream would create a lovely complement to tamp down the butteriness and mix up the textures...and so I'm going to tuck these bars safely in the freezer for warmer days when ice cream is a welcome treat and not another way to make me shiver.

These bars are simple to make, use everyday ingredients, and look luscious. I made a half batch and baked them in an 8 inch square pan; I used my Ghiradelli discs once again--they melt like a dream! And I followed HappyTummy's suggestions and used chopped, toasted pecans for the topping (I made the mistake of reading the ingredients list on the bag of toffee bits! eek!).

Thanks, Whitney, of What's Left on the Table, for choosing these bars! Check out the blogroll on the TWD site for other creative approaches to this week's recipe.