Grey Salt Millionaire's Shortbread

Buttery shortbread base, slightly salty gooey caramel center and a snappy chocolate topping with a bit of extra grey salt thrown on for good measure.  This recipe takes the delightfulness that is salt caramels and  the utterly enchanting British treat known as Millionaire's Shortbread and combines them.  As Ina Garten would say...how bad can that be?

Speaking of the divine Ms. Garten, I used a variation of her basic shortbread recipe for the crust.  The recipe makes more than is needed for the Millionaire's Shortbread, but this allows you to make the shortbread exactly the thickness you desire and still have dough left over to make "regular 'ole" shortbread later on.  One must always keep shortbread on hand  for teatime and unexpected guests like the Queen.

What can I say about caramel except that it has bested me for years.  Actually it's candy making in general...remember the marshmallow fiasco?  It's okay to shudder, I did.  I like to blame the altitude for all kitchen fiascos--people rarely question that. 

So here it is again, that flippin altitude at work, destroying all candy efforts.  In case the picture doesn't convey the entirety of the debacle--rock solid mass here people.  In the middle of it cooking away on the stove.

So I finally figured I should pay attention to some of the science behind candy making.  There was a time when tempering chocolate had me completely confounded, but a bit of internet research and all has been well since then.  I was sure a bit of time investment researching why my sugar always seized up would pay out in the end....and it did.

Apparently, when they say "do not stir" in recipes, they mean it. I always looked at those lines an recipes and thought "Surely they don't mean it.  If they actually mean it, they would explain in full detail why I'm not allowed to stir." I tend to not do things I'm told unless you can explain to me why I shouldn't.  My parents loved that particular trait. 

As it turns out, reintroducing crystallized sugar into the cooking syrup allows a structural "seed" for the rest of that sugar to cling to and do their scientific crystallization nonsense.  Blah, blah.  Just don't stir.  You will be rewarded with caramel that looks like caramel.  Woohooo.

There are only a handful of cookies that I could endlessly sing the praises of and this is one of them deserving of it's own food group really. There was a trip where we subsisted almost soley on these which only strengthens my food group arguement.  The British have endless variations of this treat, but in the end can you really beat the classic salt  caramel and dark chocolate combination?

Grey Salt Millionaire's Shortbread

Shortbread Ingredients

• 3/4 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cornstarch
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Salt Caramel Ingredients 

• 5 tbsp butter
• 1 cup heavy cream 
• 1/2  tsp salt
• 1/4 c corn syrup
• 1/4 c water
• 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 8 ounces premium chocolate for top

Directions

For the shortbread:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees  and line 8x8 pan with parchment.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix together the butter and 1 cup of sugar until they are just combined. Add the vanilla.
In a medium bowl, sift together the flour and salt, then add them to the butter-and-sugar mixture. Mix on low speed until the dough starts to come together.
Press about 1/2 to 2/3 of dough into prepared pan (depending upon your prefernce for shortbread thickness) and refrigerate remainder of the dough for another recipe or baking regular shortbread). Prick with fork.
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden on edges. 
Remove from oven and set aside.

For the salt caramel:

In small saucepan combine cream, butter and salt.  Bring to boil stirring occasionaly.  Remove from heat.

In large saucepan, bring sugar, syrup and water to boil over medium low hear.  Cook to 240 degrees.  Swirl but do not stir.

Add cream mixture and cook for 15-25 additional minutes to 220 degrees without stirring. Alternately, drop small amounts of caramel into ice water to cool.  Remove gauge consistency.  This caramel should still be soft and malleable.

Pour caramel over shortbread.  Let cool.

Melt chocolate in double boiler or bowl over boiling water.  Spread over caramel while caramel is still slightly warm.  Sprinkle sea salt over partially hardened chocolate.