Snickery Squares

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So this is my first post with Tuesdays with Dorie. They are a group cooking their way through Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Kitchen to Yours cookbook. I had only recently heard about Dorie and was intrigued so I picked up the book and gave it a try.

These are like homemade Snickers bars. I wished you could see the cute picture in the cookbook because mine were not that thick or pretty. But they tasted great. If you are considering trying this recipe I would add a layer of dulce de leche over the peanuts. That would also make it easier to have that nice smooth chocolate layer. I would also double the chocolate to make a thick layer. But that is just me…

The best part - I made the dulce de leche, which is amazing if you have never tried it. I used David Lebovitz’s recipe and it turned out great. A few years ago I made it in the can over the stove, but I’ve grown more cautious and didn’t feel like having the can explode on me! So here is the recipe. Snickery Squares

For the Crust:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoon powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, cut into small pieces and chilled
1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten

For the Filling:

1/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoon water
1 1/2 cups salted peanuts
About 1 1/2 cups store-bought dulce de leche

For the Topping:

7 ounces bittersweet, coarsely chopped
1/2 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.