salted caramel shortbread

Ingredients:

Shortbread:
55g Caster Sugar
110g Salted Butter
180g Plain Flour

Caramel:
Large Pinch of Salt
120g Caster Sugar
2 tbsp cold water

Method:

1 - Make the Caramel:
Place caster sugar and water in a small pan and heat. The sugar will melt and the syrup will begin to boil - do not stir this - allow to boil until a pale golden colour and add in the salt*. Pour into a tin lined with baking paper and leave to cool. Once cool, break with a rolling pin to small shards, no bigger than 3mm or 4mm.

2 - Make the shortbread:
Cream the butter and sugar together. It should be very pale.
[Not sure if it’s creamed enough…? It’s not. Keep going!].

3 - Gently stir in the flour - until just incorporated, and then stir in the shards of caramel.

4 - Place a large piece of clingfilm on your work surface, and put the dough onto this. Roll the clingfilm up tightly to form a shortbread sausage about 5cm in diameter. Put in the fridge for at least an hour.

5 - Heat the oven to 190 C degrees [170 C degrees fan]

6 - Slice the shortbread with a sharp knife into 5mm rounds and place onto a lined sheet. Bake for around 18 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool before removing from the sheet.

*A note on the Caramel. Boiling sugar is seriously hot - around 170 C+ - so please be very careful when making the caramel. It can cause serious burns.