I spent a recent weekend in DC for the cherry blossom festival, and was fortunate to have absolutely splendid weather and even lovelier company. Although it wasn’t necessarily a food-centric trip, I did get to visit the Dupont Circle farmer’s market (next time I’m bringing a cooler!), and an adorable bistro called Montmartre that had excellent moules with chorizo. One of the friends that I stayed with also gave me some containers of duck fat that she’d brought back from her home in Bordeaux. Let me say that it is wonderful to meet someone new who within four hours knows me well enough to understand why I would get excited about a jar of fat. Duck confit, anyone?

Before my little retreat, though, I made a big batch of caramel bars to liven up some stressed-out, anxious-for-spring moods. These are probably rich enough to be called candies, but who says you can’t celebrate spring with rich caramel and dark chocolate? The recipe was particularly interesting in that that it uses some ingredients that are a little atypical for me — the base is made with saltine crackers (!) and the caramel layer uses condensed milk — not from my normal camp of obsessively-made-from-scratch endeavors. But I was sweetly rewarded for not turning my nose up at these little gems. They are hardly less elegant looking (or tasting) than the usual make-your-own caramel bars, and so bloody easy it’s practically a crime not to have them in your repertoire, especially for holidays or times when you need to feed a lot of people on short notice. Perhaps if forced to choose, I’d admit a slight preference toward the make-you-own version, but that’s not to say I wouldn’t make these again in a heartbeat. I squirreled a container away in the freezer to nibble on, cold, when my caramel jones strikes at odd hours.

The bars are very rich, so I recommend cutting them into quarters. The recipe makes quite a bit — around 40 bite-size bars — so they really are perfect for a crowd.

Almond Caramel Cracker Bars
Adapted from Holiday Baking by Sara Perry

1 1/4 cups unsalted butter, melted, divided
35 saltine crackers
1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
One 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
One 12-ounce package semisweet chocolate chips (or 12 ounces of chopped semisweet chocolate)
1 cup toasted sliced almonds (or coarsely chopped cashews, hazelnuts, or walnuts)

Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C). To make the cookies easy to remove, line a 10-by-15-inch jelly roll pan with a sheet of foil, shiny side up, leaving a few inches hanging over the longer edges. Drizzle 1/4 cup melted butter onto the foil-lined pan, and brush to cover the bottom of the pan. Line the pan with the saltine crackers (don’t worry if there are small gaps).

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the remaining 1 cup butter and the brown sugar and bring to a boil. Boil for 2 minutes, until the mixture forms a thick syrup (248°F/120°C) on a candy thermometer. Remove from the heat and slowly whisk in the condensed milk until incorporated. Pour the mixture over the crackers, making sure all the crackers are covered.

Bake the caramel-covered crackers for 10 minutes, after which the top should be bubbly and brown. Remove the pan from the oven and scatter the chocolate chips (or chopped chocolate) over the top. Wait about 5 minutes for the chocolate to melt, then use an offset spatula to spread the chocolate over the surface. Sprinkle the nuts over and gently press them into the chocolate with the back of a spoon. Place the pan in the freezer for about 30 minutes, or until the chocolate sets.

Remove the pan from the freezer and invert the pan onto a clean surface (you’ll lose some nuts, but just save them for nibbling). Carefully peel back the foil to reveal the soda-cracker underside of the cookies. Using a heavy, sharp knife, cut the cookies along the cracker outlines. This is easier to do when the cookies have begun to thaw slightly. Invert and cut the squares into quarters for bite-size pieces or thirds for finger-size pieces.

Posted by the cookworm on Saturday, April 18th, 2009 at 4:29 pm.