This evening we made Milk Chocolate Salted Caramel-Topped Shortbread.  And it is yummy.

Look:

Our recipe came from She’s Becoming DoughMesstic, but we decided to do milk chocolate instead of dark chocolate for the sole reason that I don’t like dark chocolate.  :)

Step One: Make the Shortbread

You will need:

10 Tbsp. salted butter, melted

1/2 c. sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

zest of half an orange

1 egg yolk, whisked

1 2/3 c. all-purpose flour (remember, unbleached is better for you)

Line an 8 x 8 pan (or something similar, but smaller than 10 x 13…we didn’t have an 8 x 8, and we did okay) with parchment paper.  Combine the melted butter, sugar, salt and zest.

Add yolk and mix.  Add flour and stir with heavy spoon or hands.  Try not to use a mixer unless you really have to because it isn’t best with shortbread, but make sure the dough is mixed well.  Place it in the pan and press down with hands to ensure the pan is covered evenly.  Chill for 30-60 min.  Then, bake at 350 for 25-28 min or until golden brown.

Set on the counter to cool (in our hottie pan that I’m pretty sure we got for free…) while preparing Step Two: Caramel.

Step Two: Caramel

This one’s a little tricky if you don’t have a candy thermometer.  I’ve made my share of candy, so I’m pretty good at eye-balling the stages, but I would suggest using the thermometer for best results.  I didn’t have that option because my candy thermometer (all together now!) IS IN STORAGE!!

Anyway, for the caramel, you will need:

14 Tbsp. butter

3/4 c. light brown sugar

1/2 c. sugar

3/4 c. light corn syrup

2 tsp. sea salt

1/4 c. heavy cream

1 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1/4 tsp. vanilla bean paste

Use a pot with a heavy-bottom.  Doughmesstic suggests an enameled cast iron, and I have to say that’d be a good choice.  I didn’t have that option because…well, because.  You know why.  But we did okay with what we managed to get…

Combine all ingredients except the extract and bean paste in the pot.

Bring the candy to a boil and stir.  Sugars must be completely dissolved!  (Photography courtesy of Ysabel!)

Allow candy to boil at 230.  STIR CONTINUOUSLY!!  Once it reaches 235, remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract and vanilla bean paste.

Cool for a few minutes and pour over the shortbread.  Chill.  While chilling, prepare Step Three: Chocolate

Step Three: Chocolate

This is where we varied our recipe because I do not like dark chocolate.  However, we found that just subbing in milk chocolate didn’t work in the recipe.  It didn’t melt well.  So, our topping recipe is just a tad different.

You will need:

2 c. milk chocolate chips

4 tbsp. butter

Sea salt for sprinkling

Melt chocolate chips and butter together.  You can heat in the microwave, stirring at 30 second intervals, but we don’t have a microwave (and are surviving just fine without one!), so we use the stove.  Turns out that works just as well today as it did about thirty years ago!  :)  If you use the stove, don’t forget to stir while melting.

When completely melted, spread over the top of your chilled caramel layer.   Then, sprinkle with the sea salt.

TADA!

And yes, they are yum.

While I am quite proud of how they turned out (someone fell asleep, so I made these all by myself!), I want to once more state that the recipe is from She’s Becoming DoughMesstic.  This is simply my take on it.  (My very, very yum take.  Just sayin’.)

Today we made Mozzarella Balls.

Our inspiration came from Never Trust a Skinny Cook, but we had to change it up a little bit because it didn’t work out so well for us…

First, we took string cheese and cut it into bite-size pieces.

That part was easy.  Then, things got interesting.  The recipe said to dip them in milk and then in bread crumbs.  Like it was just some simple task.  Probably for some most everyone but us.  So we did things a little differently.

For one, we dipped our mozzarella in egg instead of milk.  The milk just wasn’t enough to make the crumbs stick, and when we tried to double-coat to cover the cheese better, the milk washed off our first coat.  Egg worked better for us.

You might want to toss some seasonings in your bread crumbs.  We used some Italian seasoning and a little bit of salt.  We briefly tried using a little bit of flour in hopes to improve coating, but no.  So, even though you will see it in our pictures below, do not use the flour.

The whole dipping and coating thing quickly got monotonous for, uh, some people, but fortunately, Jose was willing to fill in for that unnamed saint.

I can’t believe some very ornery person wiped gooey egg/flour/bread crumbs mixture all over Jose’s arm and then ran off.  That person may or may not be approximately 5 foot tall with blonde hair and blue eyes.  Actually, she is not.  She’s about 5’6″ with different colors of hair every time we see her and answers to the name of Jessica, Cuh-Cuh, or Serv.  Just FYI.  So totally not me.

After all this mess, we froze the cheese balls because we had been warned that if we didn’t, they may promptly melt all over the pan.  We froze them for about 30-45 minutes, but if packaged properly, these would make good freezer food.  Perfect for quick appetizers or snacks.  Something to keep in mind when string cheese goes on sale!

Then, we baked them at 425 for 8-10 minutes.  You are supposed to serve them with marinara, but our ghetto selves served them with spaghetti sauce.  Even then, they were fairly good.  3.5 stars or so.  The seasonings in the bread crumbs made them pretty yummy, but unfortunately, I am partial to fried mozzarella sticks (yes, I know they are very unhealthy) and these just don’t have the same crispness.  However, they are worth making (and healthier than fried ones), especially if you do the freezer thing.

And there you go.  Let me know how you like them.