Salted Caramel Shortbread Squares with Chocolate Drizzle
For me, shortbread is one of the ultimate comfort biscuits and if I can find any way of adding something a little different, then I’m on it.
Adding a layer of slightly salted caramel in the centre of the shortbread is a real treat to eat and incredibly easy to make.
For the salted caramel, I just add a good pinch of sea salt flakes to the caramel while it’s still very hot and runny, but as always in my recipes, how much of a salt kick is up to you.
Don’t be tempted to substitute sea salt flakes with table salt. Table salt has a completely different flavour profile and is much too astringent and hard to use in this recipe.
If sea salt is new in your kitchen, you’ll love it.
Treat it more like a spice to use at the end of cooking to add flavour not just the traditional salt flavour.
Making this shortbread is so easy, and the only issue that may occur is when removing it from the tin.
If the caramel melts onto the tin while cooking, it may stick to it making it a little difficult to get out of the tin.
My solution to this is to use a large spatula and push it under the shortbread so that it loosens.
Go on, give it a go and enjoy your sweet life!
Squares of delicious indulgence
What You Need
Shortbread
450g Plain Flour
300g Butter – Room temperature
150g Castor Sugar
150g Dark Chocolate – to drizzle - Optional
Bring together until its a crumbly dough
Salted Caramel
100g Castor Sugar
Pinch of Sea Salt Flakes
Move the pan around so the caramel doesn’t burn
How It’s Done
Make the Caramel
Prepare a baking tray by laying a silicone mat over it or spraying the tray lightly with vegetable oil – set aside until needed
Pour the castor sugar into a shallow dry frying and cover the bottom of the pan with it
Slowly heat the frying pan up, over a medium heat
As the pan heats up the sugar will start to melt and become a deep caramel colour – Shake and move the pan around as it heats up so that the caramel doesn’t burn.
Once the sugar has turned a deep, liquid caramel colour, quickly pour it out onto the prepared baking tray.
Move the caramel around to stretch the caramel on an even layer
Move the tray around so that the caramel runs and into a thin layer
Set it aside to go cold and hard
Once hard, break it up into small pieces and set it aside until needed – See Tip Box
Make the shortbread
Heat the oven to 170c
Prepare a square baking tin or glass baking container by very lightly rubbing the inside with butter.
Cut out a sheet of non-stick parchment paper to fit the bottom of the baking container and lay it on the buttered bottom
Set it aside until needed
Place the butter and sugar into a food processor and let the processor run for 2 minutes, scraping down the sides occasionally
Add the flour and let the processor run until what’s left are soft breadcrumbs
Bring together until its a crumbly dough
Tip the mixture out onto a clean worksurface and bring it together into a ball– Don’t over handle it and don’t knead it like a dough – See Tip Box
The dough should still be crumbly and a bit loose
There are two ways to add the salted caramel - either in a layer (as described below) or mixing in to the dough itself - See Tip Box
Once it comes together divide into two pieces
Press one piece of the dough into the bottom of the prepared tin, using fingers to level it out as much as possible
Add the broken pieces of caramel on top of the dough
Up to you what size of caramel you’d like in the shortbread
Put the second piece of dough on top of the broken caramel and using fingers to press down firmly, cover the caramel completely with the dough so that the caramel shards are sandwiched in between the shortbread
Press firmly into the oven proof tin or dish
Place the tin into the hot oven and bake for 20-30 minutes until the top is a pale golden colour
Remove it from the oven and let it sit for 5 minutes to cool a little
Use a sharp knife to score and mark the shortbread into squares of equal size and then leave in the tin to cool completely
Once out of the oven cool for 5 minutes before scoring with a sharp knife,
Once cold, use a sharp knife to cut the shortbread, all the way through, along the scored markings
Break the chocolate into very small pieces and place them into a bowl.
Heat in 30 second bursts in a microwave, stirring well in between each burst, until the chocolate has melted
Use a fork or small spoon to drizzle the chocolate over the top of the cooled shortbread.
Let the chocolate get cold and set completely (about 30 minutes) before removing the shortbread from the tin.
Eat immediately or store in an airtight container.
Drizzle the melted chocolate on top and let cool complete before removing from the tin or dish.
Tip Box
Small Pieces of caramel – How big the caramel pieces are after breaking, is up to you. I like mine broken up into pieces on the bigger side, but if you want smaller, that’s up to your personal taste
Don’t over handle or knead the dough –1) When bringing the shortbread dough together, it’s important that it doesn’t get over handled. Handling the dough too much will make the finished shortbread tough to eat.
2) Kneading the dough as you would a bread dough, will again, make the dough very tough to eat.
Mix in the caramel - The second way to add the caramel is to just mix it in with the dough. I like to make mine this way, but it does stand more chance of sticking to the tin once cooled.
