As soon as I mentioned to my husband that this month's Sugar High Friday was all about Baking With Candy, he immediately wanted to combine Werther's Originals with shortbread. I was definitely skeptical at first -- I thought the candy would be too hard in the middle of soft shortbread. But in the end, I was completely wrong and he was completely right. The little hard candies (which we crushed up) melted into the shortbread and had a chewy, easily crunched texture after baking.
About 1/2 one small bag of Werther's Originals
2 sticks softened unsalted butter (1 cup)
3/4 cup sifted confectioners sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups sifted flour
1/2 tsp salt
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Combine butter, vanilla, sugar, flour, and salt in a mixing bowl with a wooden spoon. Stir until combined but not too creamy. Put all the Werther's in a plastic bag and crush with something heavy (we used a meat tenderizer).
Divide dough into two equal parts. Press one of the two halves into an eight-inch square baking pan. Sprinkle about half the crushed candies over the dough, making an even layer. Press the other half of the dough on top of the candy. (We did this slowly so as not to disturb the candy layer -- basically, we just took small pieces of the dough and pressed them down on the candy layer little by little. Then we smoothed them together.) Sprinkle the other half of the crushed candies over the top, again making an even layer.
Bake until firm and golden, about 30 minutes. After baking, let the shortbread cool for about 20 minutes. Then run a knife around the edge of the pan and remove the cookies from the pan. Cut into little squares once the block is completely cool.
Adding Ganache
Although the cookies are good by themselves, they're super good coated with chocolate ganache.
4 oz semi-sweet chocolate
2/3 cup heavy cream
Coarsely chop chocolate. Heat cream in a small saucepan until simmering. Pour over chocolate in a bowl. Let stand for 5 minutes. Stir for a few minutes until smooth. Let the ganache cool until it's slightly thick. (We let ours sit for about 20 minutes, stirring it a couple of times while we waited.)
Once you've got your ganache you can do lots of things with it. We tried three things: 1) we dipped the cookies, so that one end was covered; 2) we drizzled the cookies with thin diagonal lines; and 3) we poured ganache over the top so that the cookie was mostly covered.
2 sticks softened unsalted butter (1 cup)
3/4 cup sifted confectioners sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups sifted flour
1/2 tsp salt
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Combine butter, vanilla, sugar, flour, and salt in a mixing bowl with a wooden spoon. Stir until combined but not too creamy. Put all the Werther's in a plastic bag and crush with something heavy (we used a meat tenderizer).
Divide dough into two equal parts. Press one of the two halves into an eight-inch square baking pan. Sprinkle about half the crushed candies over the dough, making an even layer. Press the other half of the dough on top of the candy. (We did this slowly so as not to disturb the candy layer -- basically, we just took small pieces of the dough and pressed them down on the candy layer little by little. Then we smoothed them together.) Sprinkle the other half of the crushed candies over the top, again making an even layer.
Bake until firm and golden, about 30 minutes. After baking, let the shortbread cool for about 20 minutes. Then run a knife around the edge of the pan and remove the cookies from the pan. Cut into little squares once the block is completely cool.
Adding Ganache
Although the cookies are good by themselves, they're super good coated with chocolate ganache.
4 oz semi-sweet chocolate
2/3 cup heavy cream
Coarsely chop chocolate. Heat cream in a small saucepan until simmering. Pour over chocolate in a bowl. Let stand for 5 minutes. Stir for a few minutes until smooth. Let the ganache cool until it's slightly thick. (We let ours sit for about 20 minutes, stirring it a couple of times while we waited.)
Once you've got your ganache you can do lots of things with it. We tried three things: 1) we dipped the cookies, so that one end was covered; 2) we drizzled the cookies with thin diagonal lines; and 3) we poured ganache over the top so that the cookie was mostly covered.
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2 comments:
These look amazing -- I would have never thought to use Werther's for baking, but now I'll have to. The ganache put this recipe over the top - good job!
Fantastic idea! I love the way the shortbread looks, too.
Ann at Redacted Recipes
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