Good morning!
First of all, I want to say a huge THANK YOU for your votes in Project Food Blog Challenge #6. I received ‘Reader’s Choice’ for the last round and I couldn’t be more thankful for your continued support!! :) Challenge #7, is a video of a recipe, and I am equally excited and nervous for this next challenge.
Secondly, did Halloween ever creep up on me this year!
Let me briefly flash back to Halloween 2009…
Alex, Krissy, and I were yoga instructors!
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and Eric was a Yogi Master…
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bahahhaa. Doesn’t he look overjoyed?
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Now you know me, I am all about decorating for every holiday. Well, sadly, this year I haven’t had time to decorate the house for Halloween!
I think I might have to move straight into Christmas decorations. :) It’s not like Eric and I haven’t been playing Christmas music lately…
I do have a delicious Halloween inspired recipe to share with you today to make up for my lack of Halloween participation this year…
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Twix or Treat Fingers (Millionaire bars)
Shortbread adapted from Mangio De Sola.
Shortbread Crust:
- 3/4 cup Earth Balance or unsalted butter, room temp
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
Cascading Caramel
- 1/2 cup brown rice syrup
- 6 tbsp Soy Free Earth Balance
- 2 tsp fleur de sel
- 2 tbsp pure maple syrup
- 1 tbsp peanut butter
Chocolate Ganache:
- 3/4 cup good quality chocolate, chopped
- 2 tbsp full fat coconut milk (the cream on top of the can)
- 1/2 tbsp pure maple syrup
Directions: Preheat oven to 350F and line a 9 x 9 baking pan with two pieces of parchment paper (one covering each side). Lightly grease parchment paper. Cream the Earth Balance and sugar until fluffy. Add vanilla and salt. Stir in the flour just until the dough begins to come together in walnut-sized chunks. Press the dough into the prepared pan and bake 20-23 minutes or until golden brown around the edges. Do not over bake.
While the shortbread is baking, make your caramel. In a sauce pan, add the Earth Balance and sugar and bring to a boil. Stir well and reduce heat to medium. Stir for a few minutes. Add in the salt, maple syrup, and peanut butter and stir well for another couple minutes. Heat over low until the shortbread has cooled for about 10 minutes. Now pour the caramel over top of the shortbread and spread out quickly until smooth. Place in the freezer for about 30 minutes to set.
Now make the chocolate ganache by heating the chocolate and coconut milk on low. Stir frequently until smooth. Now add in the maple syrup and stir. Heat on lowest heat setting until the shortbread is out of the freezer.
Remove the shortbread from freezer when the caramel is firm and sit for 5 minutes. Pour on the Ganache and spread covering all sides and corners. Place back into the freezer for about 20-30 minutes or until firm. Remove from freezer and let it sit for about 10 minutes before gently cutting the sides and removing from pan. Slice into ‘fingers’. Makes about 20-26 fingers. Keep in the fridge as the chocolate will get sticky when at room temperature.
I used cake flour for my shortbread because I was out of all-purpose and the result was a very crumbly shortbread. I would not suggest using cake flour!
Smooth out your dough.
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Breathing holes. ;)
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After baking for about 20-23 minutes and cooling for another 10, pour on the cascading caramel…
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This is fun.
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Smooth out!
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That’ll do.
While it sets in the freezer for 30 minutes, make the Ganache.
Now pour onto the firmed up caramel…
![20101029-IMG_9181-2 20101029-IMG_9181-2](/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/20101029IMG_91812_thumb.jpg)
Smooth out.
![20101029-IMG_9199 20101029-IMG_9199](/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/20101029IMG_9199_thumb.jpg)
Firm in freezer…and then gently remove from pan.
![20101029-IMG_9206 20101029-IMG_9206](/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/20101029IMG_9206_thumb.jpg)
Cut into fingers!
![20101029-IMG_9218 20101029-IMG_9218](/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/20101029IMG_9218_thumb.jpg)
Do some ‘quality control’ and taste test.
While these fingers don’t taste exactly like a Twix bar, I really enjoyed them. Next time I would use all-purpose flour for the shortbread since I had such crumbly results with the cake flour.
You might also want to try out these delicious Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups that I made a while back! They are AMAZING and I think they are my favourite.
![IMG_8587_thumb IMG_8587_thumb](/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/IMG_8587_thumb_thumb.jpg)
1) Are you dressing up this year, if so, what will you be? 2) Will you be making any Halloween inspired foods?
I’m off to run some errands and then I have a day of recipe testing for Challenge #7. See you tomorrow for OSG’s 2nd birthday!
Those look so tasty! I’m not dressing up as anything…but I might be making pumpkin muffins, haha.
Those bars look delicious! Do you think I could use maple syrup instead of brown rice syrup in the caramel? I’ve never used brown rice syrup (never found it anywhere), so I have no idea what to use instead.
Finally found brown rice syrup (two days after saying I can’t found it, they decide to add it as a new product at my grocery store :P). Definitely going to make those bars!
This are like a recipe for bars that I make, except I use oats in the crust part. Chocolate + caramel is to die for! :D
Love the yoga themed Halloween! I’m dressing up as a pirate this year (a sad fail after last year’s Edward Cullen costume). I have no Halloween themed recipes but my friend’s mom made us all of these treats last weekend, which I shared here: Summer Blog Project: http://www.glutenfreebiesbymiel.com/?p=84
I love your Twix or Treat fingers! They look so yummy. I can’t wait to make them gluten free!
Oh Yum!! Quality control is the best!!!
I’m dressing up as a classic nutcracker! Had most of the costume already, too…so proud!
And I’d love to bake treats, but I’m visiting my BF so the pre-made twix and snickers have had to do. TOooooo bad:(
My mom made millionarie bars last year for Christmas and I really enjoyed them!!
Congrats on making it to the next round of Project Food Blog!
Oh my gosh! There aren’t too many sweets recipes I see anymore that really grab me and say, “you HAVE to make these!” but these did…so delish! Will definitely be making a batch soon.
I don’t really do Halloween anymore…really, we just turn off the lights, watch a movie, and hope nobody knocks on our door. Such Halloween scrooges, we are!
Those sound amazing! And twix is hands down one of my favorite candy bars. It’s the only one I haven’t been able to keep my hand out of from our trick or treat bags :)
Angela, you are a baking genius!! I can’t wait to make these! Happy early Halloween!!!
Those looks simply amazing! :)
Those treats looks divine!
My husband and I went as Alice and the Mad Hatter!
OH my gosh, those look sooooooooo frightfully YUMMO!!! I bet they’d be amazing if you used peanut or almond butter in place of the caramel, too. Oh I’m dying here…..!
I don’t remember what a Twix bar tastes like, the last time I had one was so many years ago! But… wow. It sounds awesome. Happy halloweeeeeen! :D (Cannot WAIT to see your PFB #7!!!)
congrats on the win!
was totally pulling for ya.
Delicious looking fingers!
We don’t celebrate Halloween here like you do so no dressing up for me since there were no Halloween parties :D
angela, did anyone ever tell you how much you look like (a prettier) anna paquin from true blood? you should totally dress up as sookie ;)
I’m going to be a Hogwarts wizard! Well, a witch technically. It’s a homemade costume, but I’m really excited! :D
They look just like Twix bars! Last night I was a punk rocker. My boyfriend was Indiana Jones (for the 4th year in a row…)
These look soooooooooooo good!