Let’s eat like a billionaire!
Combining the best of the best!
For the record, I did not name this bar (I wish I did!!), but I had come across this idea and knew that I had to make it. A lot of the recipes on this had low ratings, since it would just come out waaaaay too sweet.
So this recipe rebalances the ingredients a little bit. When I made this for my guests, I topped half with the chocolate ganache vs. without the ganache . Overall, both versions were a hit, but the one without ganache got more love. Once that ran out, the other version quickly disappeared. Maybe try making it half with ganache and half without and tell me what you think.
Ingredients:
For shortbread:
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup confectioner’s sugar
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon almost extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon heavy cream
For Salted Caramel Sauce:
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter (at room temperature and cut into tablespoon or smaller pieces)
- 1/2 cup heavy cream (at room temperature)
- 1/2 tablespoon of sea salt
For Chocolate Chip Cookie:
- 2 sticks unsalted butter
- 2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup light brown sugar
- 1 cup minus 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
- 1 egg, at room temperature
- 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
- 2 tablespoon heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups Ghirardelli chocolate chips
- 1 teaspoon King Arthur espresso powder
Chocolate Ganache:
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 3/4 cup chopped chocolate chips
- Pinch sea salt
Directions:
For Shortbread:
- Line a 8 inch by 8 inch pan with parchment paper.
- Preheat oven to 300F degrees.
- With paddle attachment to standing mixer, beat together the butter, sugar, vanilla extract and almond extract.
- Once well combined, add in flour.
- After flour is mixed with the butter and sugar mixture, add in the heavy cream and mix together.
- Place dough in pan and spread the dough to cover the entire pan and evenly spread around the pan.
- Bake in oven for about 30 minutes.
- Allow to cool completely.
For Salted Caramel Sauce:
- Evenly spread out the sugar in the heavy saucepan at medium-high heat with candy thermometer measuring the temperature.
- Use a wooden spatula or heat resistant spatula to stir as the sugar begins to melt (you can also use a wooden spoon or whisk, but a spatula allows you to easily scrap the bottom of the saucepan).
- The sugar will begin to form clumps, but it will eventually melt down to a thick liquid and brown in color as the temperature continues to rise.
- The sugar will start to turn into an amber color and once the sugar reaches 300-325 degrees, quickly take it off the stove (caramel can burn easily, so it is important to watch the temperature, it increases exponentially).
- Stir in the butter until completely melted.
- Stir in the heavy cream (if the heavy cream is still too cold, the sugar will start to clump – this will be fine soon).
- Place the saucepan back on the stove at slow heat and stir in salt.
- Continue to stir until the mixture is smooth
- At this point, you have salted caramel sauce!
- Depending on how thick you want the sauce to be, you can continue to cook the sauce down on low heat – the sauce will bubble, but not overflow as long as the heat is on low.
- Continue to stir while the sauce is on low heat.
- Usually I keep the sauce on the stove for another 5-10 minutes for a thicker sauce.
- Let the caramel sauce cool down for about one hour and pour about 1/2 cup of caramel sauce on the middle of shortbread. Spread the caramel evenly on top of the shortbread, but leave a half-inch perimeter along the edge.
- Place any unused amount on airtight container and keep in refrigerator. Use the rest for other treats, such as
For Chocolate Chip Cookie:
- Sift together the flour, salt, espresso powder, baking soda and baking powder and set on side.
- Use a saucepan to brown the butter. Turn the stove heat to medium and allow the butter to crackle and start forming little brown bits. When the butter starts to brown, make sure to remove from heat quickly to avoid burning the butter.
- Pour the melted butter in the bowl to standing mixer with paddle attachment and add the sugars into the bowl.
- On medium speed, cream together the butter and sugars. It may take 2-3 minutes for the mixture to come together.
- Add the egg and egg yolk and mix until well combined.
- Add vanilla extract and then the heavy cream.
- Slowly incorporate the flour mixture into the bowl.
- Note: I sift about half of the flour mixture into the bowl before turning on the mixture again.
- Stir in chocolate chips and mix well.
- Use the dough to first line the perimeter of the pan. This way the cookie dough prevents losing too much salted caramel from leaking down the side of the shortbread.
- Then use the cookie dough to cover the rest of the surface area. I didn’t use about 3/4 to 1 cup of cookie dough, so the top layer doesn’t get thicker than the shortbread. For the rest of the cookie dough, I rolled them up into balls and made about 6 cookies for myself.
- Place pan into freezer for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Bake for 13-15 minutes until golden brown. If the cookie dough in the center still appears raw, keep the pan in the oven for another minute.
- Allow the bar to cool completely.
For Chocolate Ganache:
- Place the chopped chocolate chips in a medium heat proof bowl and set aside.
- In a small saucepan, on medium heat, heat the heavy cream until it is just boiling.
- Remove the heavy cream from heat and pour over the chopped chocolate chips.
- Allow to sit for a few minutes and then use a wooden spoon or heat proof spatula to stir.
- Once thoroughly combined, stir in the sea salt.
- Once the mixture as cooled down, pour on top of the chocolate chip cookie/shortbread bar.
- Allow the ganache to set on top of the bar before cutting into it. To speed it up, place in frig for about 10 minutes.
Enjoy the awesomeness!!!
