These are those incredible nutty, chewy, sweet and crunchy bars. Be warned once these are made you will want to way to get them eaten as quickly as possible to avoid completely destroying your diet. I used organic walnuts in these, but you could use peanuts, hazlenuts or even almonds. The recipe is really simple its just that there are 3 stages which can be quite time consuming, but the outcome is really well worth the effort.
Rich Chocolate Walnut Butterscotch Bars
Makes 12 -24 (Depending on the size you cut)
Ingredients
Biscuit Crust
– 225gms cake flour
– 1/2 tsp baking powder
– 150gms plain milk chocolate
– 115gms unsalted butter
– 50gms muscovado/demerrera sugar
– 30ml finely ground almonds (or finely ground oats)
Butterscotch Filling
– 175gms unsalted butter, cut into chunks
– 115gms raw castor sugar (or regular will do)
– 30ml golden syrup
– 175mls condensed milk
– 150gms whole roasted nuts, walnut/hazelnut/almonds/peanuts
Chocolate Topping
– 250gms chocolate
– 25gms butter
Start by preheating the oven to 160°C. Grease a 20cm x 20cm baking tray. Now in a bowl sift together the flour and baking powder. Now rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs. Melt the chocolate over a pot of barely simmering water. Rub in the brown sugar and almonds before adding the molten chocolate. Work it in briefly till it forms a loose dough.
Press the dough into the base of your baking dish, you will not be able to roll it out like a normal dough so just press it in until it is flat and even, prick all over with a fork. Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes until firm. Set aside to cool in the tin.
Now prepare the butterscotch mixture. Add all the ingredients, excluding the roasted nuts, to a small heavy based saucepan. Stir until the butter and sugar have melted. Now allow to simmer over a low heat until it is a golden colour, be careful to not allow it to cook on too high a heat or you might burn the sugars. Once it is golden stir in the roasted nuts. Now spread the mixture evenly over the biscuit base. Leave to set and cool.
Once the butterscotch mixture has cooled, set a bowl over a pot of barely simmering water, add the chocolate and the butter. Melt until smooth and silky. Now spread over the butterscotch mixture and shake the pan to allow the mixture to go smooth. Depending on the type of nuts you have used you may or may not have a smooth top layer, this is not important.
Allow to cool and then cut into pieces. I originally cut about 16 large pieces from the tray, however, these are very rich so you might want to cut them into smaller size chunks.
