Monday, March 03, 2008

Tuesdays with Dorie, Snickery Squares


This week for Tuesdays with Dorie the recipe was Snickery Squares. This recipe just did not work for me. Part of the problem was most likely the fact that I did not do the part with the nuts, I can not eat them. I just did not care for the dulce de leche it did not seem to be as dark as in the picture. I wonder if I got the wrong kind.

I did like the crust. I think that I will use it for my Pie day pie. I am taking the squares to work, I am sure that they will all be gone by the end of the day.

Snickery Squares

For the Crust:

1 cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup sugar
2 TBSP powdered sugar
¼ tsp salt
1 stick unsalted butter, cut into small pieces and chilled
1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten

For the Filling:

½ cup sugar
3 TBSP water
1 ½ cups salted peanuts
About 1 ½ cups store-bought dulce de leche

For the Topping:

7 ounces bittersweet, coarsely chopped
½ stick unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces, at room temperature

Getting Ready:

Preheat oven to 350F. Butter a 8 inch square pan and put it on a baking sheet.

To Make the Crust:

Toss the flour, sugar, powdered sugar and salt into a food processor and pulse a few times to combine. Toss in the pieces of cold butter and pulse about 12 times, until the mixture looks like coarse meal. Pour the yolk over the ingredients and pulse until the dough forms clumps and curds-stop before the dough comes together in a ball.
Turn the dough into the buttered pan and gently press it evenly across the bottom of the pan. Prick the dough with a fork and slide the sheet into the oven.
Bake the crust for 15-20 minutes, or until it takes on just a little color around the edges. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool to room temperature before filling.

To Make the Filling:

Have a parchment or silicone mat-lined baking sheet at the ready, as well as a long-handled wooden spoon and a medium heavy bottomed saucepan.
Put the sugar and water in the saucepan and cook over medium-high heat, stirring, until the sugar dissolves. Keeping the heat fairly high, continue to cook the sugar, without stirring, until it just starts to color. Toss the peanuts and immediately start stirring. Keep stirring, to coat the peanuts with sugar. Within a few minutes, they will be covered with sugar and turn white—keep stirring until the sugar turns back into caramel. When the peanuts are coated with a nice deep amber caramel, remove the pan from the heat and turn the nuts out onto the baking sheet., using the wooden spoon to spread them out as best you can. Cool the nuts to room temperature.
When they are cool enough to handle, separate the nuts or break them into small pieces. Divide the nuts in half. Keep half of the nuts whole or in biggish pieces for the filling, and finely chop the other half for the topping.
Spread the dulce de leche over the shortbread base and sprinkle over the whole candied nuts.

To Make the Topping:

Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water. Remove chocolate from the heat and gently stir in the butter, stirring until it is fully blended into the chocolate.
Pour the chocolate over the dulce de leche, smoothing it with a long metal icing spatula, then sprinkle over the rest of the peanuts. Slide the pan into the fridge to set the topping, about 20 minutes; if you’d like to serve the squares cold, keep them refrigerated for at least 3 hours before cutting.

Cut into 16 bars.


11 comments:

noskos said...

Too bad they didn't work out for you!
I made my own dulce de leche and it looks like the picture, I have no idea if there are different ones that you can buy in the stores since we don't have it here.

Mary said...

wish you would have like them better, but you did a great job!

April said...

Part of the fun in this is to find our which ones you like and which ones you don't. Good job on completing them and they look great!

Marie Rayner said...

Your bars look great. Sorry that you didn't like them though. I fell in love with mine, totally.

CB said...

Agree with April. I am sure there will be recipes that I don't like as much as others but you don't know til you try! Your squares look awesome. Great job!
-Clara
http://iheartfood4thought.wordpress.com

Di said...

I'm with you on the dulce de leche--I didn't really like the one I bought. I may have to try making my own some time to see if I like it better. It looks like your bars turned out great; I'm sorry you didn't like them better.

Gretchen Noelle said...

Sorry you did not enjoy the bars this time. I bet your co-workers enjoyed them all!

M said...

Your squares look awesome! :o)

Erin said...

Sorry you didn't like them that much, but they still look great!

Engineer Baker said...

I wish you had liked them more! And yes, grocery store dulce seems really hit-or-miss.

Jaime said...

sorry you didn't like these...you definitely need a dulce that is thicker