about bliss

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

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.

12 comments:

  1. Too buttery?

    Naaahhhhh


    They were so good.


    Sorry about the snow. I am so ready for spring already!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Beautiful bars - I love the idea of the pecans - next time.....

    ReplyDelete
  3. These were so good!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Too buttery!!! That's like saying too Chocolately. Not gonna happen. They look great. And good idea to save them for warmer days.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous11:27 AM

    Yes, they were amazing and even more amazing with ice cream. I love the pecans.

    ReplyDelete
  6. These are lovely. Too buttery? Really?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hmmmm...I guess I won't be reading the ingredient list on the toffee bag anytime soon, if it scared you that much. Nice job!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous4:51 PM

    I love the idea of toasted pecans on top. That plus milk chocolate would have made these too dreamy for words!

    ReplyDelete
  9. They were VERY buttery. But they freeze well. And la la la, I'm not listening about those toffee ingredients!
    Nancy

    ReplyDelete
  10. They are indeed buttery! I have stopped reading the ingredients on bags of things I buy for baking. I will be fat and ignorant. I mean, heath? It seems so innocent! Your bars really look divine!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Lovely! I like the use of pecans on top of these.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous6:10 AM

    i'm so glad you tried it with the pecans! in some ways i'm bummed i didn't try it with the toffee, just because it looked so indulgent, but in other ways, i'm glad i went the less fatty route :) love the picture. your bars look great--nice and thick. and is that plate pink glass? love it!

    ReplyDelete