TWD #53: Two peanuts walk into a bar. One was a salted.

I laughed. I hope you laughed too.

Wanna see a magic trick?
Alakazam bippity boppity boo
*puff of smoke*
Ta Da!

My Chocolate Armagnac Cake turned into Caramel Crunch Bars!

Apologies to my TWD bakers and our TWD host this week, Lyb of And Then I Do The Dishes, but to be honest I wasn’t inspired by prunes (eeewww!) and I didn’t have any Armagnac (although that wouldn’t have stopped me on its own. You can never had too much [cooking] alcohol in the house right?). You can find the recipe on her blog. Since I missed the caramel crunch bars last week I decided to make those instead.

Lyb Désolé. J’aime votre blog et j’aurais fait n’importe quoi pour vous mais le caramel appelait mon nom. Prunes et je ne suis pas des amis. (I couldn’t remember the french translation for prunes! LOL)

The caramel crunch bars were on my short list of recipes to make when I was hosting back in October but I decided to go with the chocolate cupcakes so I am STOKED that Whitney of What’s Left On The Table chose them!

I decided pretty quickly that I didn’t want to have 56 caramel crunch bars laying around so I knew I’d half the recipe. I was proud of myself for remembering while I was making the bars to 1/2 each ingredient b/c its been known to happen that I’ll half the flour but add the full amount of salt. Ugh! But just as I was patting myself on the back for making sure each ingredient was the right fraction I realized that I didn’t have a smaller than 9×13 cake pan. *smack head* So imagine me; pacing back and forth in the kitchen, trying to find a pan that would work while my KA is begging to be emptied of caramel crunch bar batter. Uh… uh… Springform? 6″ round cake pan? tart pan? cupcake pan?

Then I remembered I didn’t have toffee either…

le sigh.

I need a sous chef.

What I learned this week:
Indulge in life a little more. Make the whole recipe.

Caramel Crunch Bars Cups
Recipe from Baking: From My Home To Yours, Dorie Greenspan

I used Folger’s instant coffee that I ground into a fine powder in T’s coffee bean grinder. (T says its not “mine” b/c I don’t drink coffee.)

I used Ghiradelli milk chocolate chips that I chopped up into smaller pieces.

I put about 1/2 tbsp of dough into each mini cupcake well and baked for about 7-8 minutes. I topped each “cup” with more milk chocolate but they were small enough that they melted quickly so I didn’t have to put them back in the oven. After I spread the chocolate over the “cup” with a small spatula, I topped with homemade toffee bits.

ENJOY!

Husband rating: A
He was a big fan of the hint of coffee and chocolate combination but picked off the toffee.

Wifey rating: A
I absolutely loved the toffee! The cups were yummy too but maybe I’d reduce the coffee a little next time. It was a bit much for me. Then again I am not a huge coffee person. I have to admit that the little cups were so fun to eat. Bite size and a little “too” easy to snack on…

Next week: Lemon Cup Custard page 387

Homemade Toffee recipe after the cut.

Toffee
Recipe from Cupcake Bakeshop

INGREDIENTS

3/4 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon corn syrup
1 cup sugar

INSTRUCTIONS

In a saucepan over medium-high heat, bring everything to a boil. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. When the mixture starts to boil with vigor, do not stir. Decrease to medium-low heat and let the mixture boil until the mixture turns a deep nutty brown, about 20 minutes.

[NOTES: I let mine boil for about 30 minutes but I could have let it go longer. Maybe next time I’ll even go 40 minutes for a deeper caramel taste.]

Slowly pour onto a prepared baking sheet (Silpat or you could use parchment paper sprayed with PAM) and let it to cool. After the toffee has cooled, break it into small chunks.

[NOTES: I let mine set overnight in the frig.]

ENJOY!