Chocolate Rosemary-Caramel Nut Bars
I am so excited! Today I discovered the delicious pairing of caramel and rosemary. Did you know about this?! Oh my gosh, you guys, it is a match made in heaven. I found the recipe for chocolate rosemary-caramel nut bars in an old, 2005 copy of Food & Wine magazine. It is a scrumptious bar cookie with a cornmeal butter crust that is topped with a rosemary caramel cream, roasted nuts, and chocolate. It might just be placed in my all time favorites list. This cookie got me thinking… what other fabulous flavor pairings are out there that I don’t know about? What are your favorite pairings? Let me know. I want to broaden my horizons.
So, this recipe, like all bar cookies, fall under the sheet cookie method- a dough, often a short dough, is pressed into a shallow pan, and then a topping is layered on the cookie before or after baking. In this particular dough, cornmeal, flour, sugar, and salt are whisked together. Then cold butter pieces are cut into the dry ingredients until it resembles bread crumbs (just like pie pastry). Finally, egg yolks and cream or gently blended in until the dough starts to come together.
This dough is a crumbly piece of work, but don’t worry about that. It is going to taste great.
Knead into a ball.
Roll out into a rough 10″ by 15″ rectangle.
Place and press the rolled out dough into your baking sheet. If it breaks then just press it together.
Chill the dough in the freezer for 30 minutes, then bake for 12 minutes.
While the pastry cools get on with the topping. When making caramel always have a bowl of water and a pastry brush at the ready. While the sugar/water mixture boils away you’re going to want to brush the inside of the pot with water to keep the caramel from crystallizing. Do not stir! Let it do its thing. If you’ve a candy thermometer, let it reach about 338 degrees F. That is when it turns a deep, amber color.
Boil sugar and water together until it turns an amber color.
Bring cream, chopped rosemary and salt to a boil.
Add the boiled rosemary cream to the caramel and stir. Careful! It bubbles up fast.
Mix the nuts into the caramel sauce then pour over the pastry. Bake for 25 minutes, or until bubbling.
Once bars have completely cooled then spread or pipe on melted chocolate.
Allow the melted chocolate to set before cutting, about an hour.
- 2 cups (250 g) All-Purpose Flour
- 1/2 cup (86 g) Fine Yellow Cornmeal
- 1/2 cup (105 g) Sugar
- 1/2 tsp. Salt
- 2 sticks (8 oz. or 226 g) Unsalted Butter
- 2 Large Egg Yolks
- 3 TBS Heavy Cream
- 1 cup (113 g) Walnuts, roasted and roughly chopped
- 3/4 cup (99 g) unsalted, shelled Pistachios, roasted and roughly chopped
- 2 cups (411 g) Sugar
- 1/2 cup (175 ml) Water
- 1 cup (250 ml) Heavy Cream
- 1 tsp. fresh Rosemary, finely chopped
- 1/4 tsp. Salt
- 1 cup (113) Hazelnuts, roasted and skinned
- 8 oz. (227 g) Semi-Sweet Chocolate, coarsely chopped
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a large bowl, whisk the flour, cornmeal, sugar and salt. With a pastry blender, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. In a small bowl, beat the egg yolks and cream; drizzle over the cornmeal mixture. With 2 forks, blend dough lightly until combined. Using your hands, knead lightly.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to a 15" by 10" rectangle. Roll the dough onto the rolling pin then transfer it to an ungreased 15" by 10" jelly roll pan. Press the dough evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Freeze the crust until firm, about 30 minutes. Bake the crust for 12 minutes, or until pale and dry.
- In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar and water and cook over moderately high heat, swirling the pan once or twice, until the sugar is dissolved. Simmer over moderate heat, brushing down the side of the pan with a wet pastry brush from time to time, until a deep golden brown caramel forms, about 18 minutes.
- Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, bring the cream to a boil with the rosemary and salt. Remove from the heat. Carefully and slowly add the hot cream to the caramel, stirring constantly until smooth. Remove from the heat and stir in the hazelnuts, walnuts, and pistachios.
- Scrape the nut caramel over the crust and spread evenly with a spatula. Bake in the center of the oven for 25 minutes, or until the topping is golden and bubbling. Let cool.
- In a glass bowl, melt the chocolate in a microwave oven at high power, stirring a few times. Let the melted chocolate cool until barely warm, about 15 minutes. Brush or pipe the chocolate over the caramel-nut topping. Let the chocolate cool until set, about 1 hour.
- The uncut bars can be covered with foil and stored at room temperature on the baking sheet for up to 1 week.
- 10" by 15" Jelly Roll Pan
- Candy Thermometer
- Pastry Brush
- Spread nuts on a baking sheet and bake for about 7 minutes in a 350 degree F. oven.
