Chocolate Ganache and Caramel topped Scottish Shortbread - A Guest Blog

Before heading off on all our separate adventures, the assistants of Limoges had a Holiday party and all of us brought a little something to share. Callum (our Scottish assistant) made some amazing shortbread (that I am eager to bake myself) and he kindly agreed to do a guestblog for me. Read and drool.



Whatup yo'? Keen to share a bit of my Scottish culture, I made my version of caramel shortcake for our Christmas party. Caramel shortcake is a very very rich dessert, popular in Scotland. It's a layered cake, made of shortbread biscuit on the bottom, a thick layer of gooey caramel in the middle and then a layer of melted chocolate. It's incredibly rich - so much so it's also known as "millionaires shortcake". Seeing as it's Christmas, I made it even more rich, by substituting the chocolate for a chocolate ganache, made of dark chocolate, butter and cream. Cut up into little squares as in the picture makes an excellent party canapé.

For the base:

4oz Butter, 2oz Castor Sugar and 6oz Self Raising Flour

For the Caramel:

One tin of Condensed Milk (normally by Nestlé), 4oz Butter, 4oz Castor Sugar and 2 tablespoons of Golden Syrup (this isn't vital, but makes the caramel even sweeter)

For the Ganache Topping

6oz Dark Chocolate, 3oz Butter and about 200ml of double cream.

---

All these measures can be doubled or halved or whatever. None of them have to be exact either...

1. Heat your oven to 180˙C/350˙F. Grease your baking tin, I made mine in a large tart pan and it worked just fine.

2. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy and sieve in flour. Fold this into the mixture.

3. Press this shortcake mixture into the bottom of the tin as evenly as possible and bake it for about 15/20 mins until golden brown.

4. For the caramel, add all the ingredients to a pan. Heat gently until the sugar dissolves and then boil for about 5-10 mins. You MUST stir it constantly or it WILL burn, and the caramel will be full of bitter black bits.

5. Once the caramel is golden, spread it across the base evenly and chill in the fridge to set.

6. For the ganache, the easiest thing yo do is to place it all in a bowl, and blast in the microwave for a bit until melted. Stir it and perhaps heat again until its a smooth, thick, dark and glossy consistency.

7. As soon as the caramel is cooled and set, spread the ganache over the top - it should be thick enough for you to make a kind of rippled effect on the top with a palette knife. While it's still wet you can score the chocolate into portions - a small square is plenty for a portion because its so bloody rich.

8. Place it back in the fridge until set, probably about an hour... To serve, dust with a little icing sugar (I believe you Yankee doodles call that powdered sugar)

Thumbprint Cookies

I make the messiest cookies. For real...they are always misshapen and any goo is always running off the sides, but hot damn, these unz are good :)



Thumbprint Cookies (makes 24-36 depending on how big you make them, mine made 24)

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp grated lemon peel
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt (omg..i just realized I forgot to put this in...guess its not too important)
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
6 tbsp fruit preserves or marmalade (I use Mediterranean Organic, veggie friendly)

1. Preheat oven to 350. Beat together butter and sugar until fluffy. Then add in the egg, lemon peel, lemon juice, and salt (or skip that lol).
2. Stir in 2 cups of flour. Use additional flour if needed to firm up the dough so it holds together well.
3. Form 36 1 inch balls, place on a lined or greased cookie sheet about 1 inch apart. Using your thumb or a deep measuring spoon, make a deep dent in each cookie. Fill each with 1 tsp of preserve.
4. Bake until firm and lightly brown (20 min)




Enjoy!