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Chewy Gooey Nutty Caramel Bars
- Makes
10
- Difficulty
Easy
By Fiona Cairns
Published 2011
I love these delicious bars and because they contain nuts, seeds and berries I can tell myself that they are relatively healthy! You can vary the nuts and berries; try any combination of hazelnuts, almonds, pecan nuts and dried cranberries or blueberries.
Ingredients
135 g 45 g 90
Method
Spread the pine nuts and pistachios out on a baking tray and lightly
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Lack structural integrity, that's to say they just fall apart, the middle is too moist (edges slightly burnt). Followed the recipe to the letter (15 mins in the oven).
Next time I'd modify: cut coconut to 60gm (100gm overpowers other ingredients) omit pine nuts (not cheap and I didn't detect any benefit), increase other dry ingredients to compensate. Boil sugar (etc) longer, 3 mins is not enough, go to at least "soft ball" stage (115C), probably more.
Rob, I made these to see if I could figure out the cause of your problem and I think I may have the answer. Mine came out very tasty (especially the browned bits at the edges), but they were also rather lacking in 'integrity' even after an hour to chill in the fridge.
But looking at the recipe again, the title seems key - these are intended to be 'caramel' bars. I think when the recipe says: "bring the butter, sugar and honey up to a boil and bubble away for two or three minutes", it's important not to just to melt and blend the honey/sugar/butter (as you would for a flapjack), but actually I think you need to keep cooking it until the water in the butter and honey is driven of, the sugar melts, and caramelisation begins. That makes sense of the cream addition, too - it's quite a common thing to add cream to caramel like this (recipes often say 'stand back' at that point).
My guess is that with a bit more caramelisation, the texture would be dramatically different.
I also think depending on the size and shape of your tin, it might need a tad longer than 15 mins - mine did.
Tasty, but be sure to cook the sugar/honey/butter mixture long enough that it starts to caramelize - if not the bars may be a crumbly rather than chewy, gooey and caramell-y. I made it with fresh cobnuts (yum!) instead of pistachios, and dried sour cherries instead of goji berries. Definitely seems a very adaptable recipe.
PS The best bits are the edges and corners!