You see them all over Pinterest: soft-looking cookie bars with three tantalizing layers of some of your very favorite things: soft shortbread, soft caramel, and milk chocolate.
Problem is, many of these recipes don’t come out very soft at all… the shortbread is too dry and the caramel is brittle. Not cool. Our first go at a homemade Twix bar was with a Six Sister’s recipe. No offense, Six Sisters, but your recipe wasn’t very helpful. Caramel can be temperamental – it can potentially come out with a texture more like toffee or a sloppy mess. Those of us who haven’t made caramel before need a little more guidance. We followed the recipe to the “T” and found ourselves chipping away at rock-hard caramel with a knife whilst wallowing in our self-loathing for not being able to achieve the desired result (it is a possibility that we are the only ones). The next recipe we tried was from Lauren over at Tastes Better From Scratch. It was a complete success, thanks to her more detailed explanation of the caramel-making process. And, to further dispel any mystery surrounding the issue, we felt like you deserved a video to help you see what the caramel should look like when it’s ready. We know you’ll enjoy this super-soft version of one of America’s favorite candy bars.
Be sure not to over-cook your shortbread layer. We actually baked ours for 25 minutes (5 minutes less than the recipe instructs). It should be barely golden around the edges, like this:
We think this beautiful boy of ours enjoyed them…
Have your kids help you dump ingredients. If they’re little, have them count chocolate chips while they’re at it.
P.S. We ended up drizzling some natural peanut butter over a couple of these. They were AWESOME because the saltiness tamed the sweetness just a bit. Just a thought 😉
We’re going to refer you to TBFSÂ for this recipe. Just be sure that you don’t start your timer on the caramel until it begins a real, ROLLING boil (none if this fake, almost-rolling-boil nonsense). Once it looks furious, start your timer for 6 minutes (5 1/2 if you’re worried about it) and then check a glob of it with the softball method shown in the video. Thanks for the great recipe, Lauren!
