Sometimes, I just can’t leave well enough alone. Take, for example, the Chocolate Obsession Bars I made the other day. They’re an awesome bite of happiness. But there’s always room for improvement, expansion and experimentation. More variety is never a bad thing.
As I mentioned earlier this week, it’s been a crazy stress-fest around here. At one point I found myself waiting a couple of hours for the hosting magicians to work their magic so I could begin a gross, painful, difficult ginormous amount of work. We had just discovered that we weren’t going to be able to recover any of the paid content from our previous insert your favorite expletive host that went AWOL and disappeared on us, which is around 200 videos and a few hundred pdf files, or any of the 1,000+/- pictures or media files from the blog. We were upset, of course, over the amount of time that would be needed to re-upload and restore all of the missing files, but thankfully we have all of those files stored in multiple locations and everything can be repaired. It’s just a darn inconvenient time of the year to have a few hundred hours of extra work laid at your feet on top of what you already have going, you know?
I decided that I needed to bake something sweet instead of sitting here, fretting over the huge, enormous, frustrating mess. I was craving chocolate so I decided on something with creamy butterscotch. I know, that makes sense, right? I knew if the chocolate monster came out, there wouldn’t be any putting him back in the box for a month, a few weeks a while. My gut, my thighs I knew better than to get on that slippery slope.
The crust is basically the same as the Chocolate Obsession Bars it’s just the filling that has changed. If you like a lot of filling or a really strong butterscotch flavor, you might want to try doubling the filling so there’s more to love. These pictures were taken with the filling amount as written, to give you an ida of what to expect. Next time I make this dessert, I will double the filling. If you try it, please leave a comment below and share how it turns out.
Unfortunately, the characteristic flavor of butterscotch comes, in part, from butter. So this treat looses a lot in the translation to dairy-free. If you move from butter to coconut oil, it just tastes sweet instead of butterscotch-y. Since my son is fine with butter, he was able to do this dish without difficulty. We went ahead and used coconut cream to make the butterscotch.
If you want, you can just make the filling and use it as a butterscotch sauce for use over some raw milk or coconut cream ice cream or other holiday treats. Pour it into a mason jar and it should keep a week or two in the fridge.
Butterscotch Obsession Bars
From CookingTF.com
I purchase my rapadura, coconut palm sugar, coconut cream, salt, almond flour and other baking supplies from Green PolkaDot Box. For our complete listing of suppliers, see our Resources page.
For the filling:
4 Tbs (1/4 cup or a 1/2 stick) butter
scant 1/2 cup rapadura or coconut palm sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream or coconut cream or coconut milk
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
For the crust:
1-1/2 cups almond flour
1/3 cup tapioca starch
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp sea salt
8 Tbs cold butter or coconut oil, cut into cubes
1 egg
1/2 cup crispy or raw pecans, chopped
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8×8 pan and set aside.
Begin by making a butterscotch sauce to use as the filling. In a 2-quart or larger saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Whisk in the rapadura, cream and salt. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, reduce heat so that the mixture stays at a simmer instead of a rolling boil and cook for about 5 minutes, whisking constantly. Remove from the heat and allow to cool briefly.
Whisk the vanilla extract into the butterscotch sauce and taste. Adjust the amount of salt and vanilla until you hit a happy spot. Set the sauce aside to cool.
Meanwhile, in a food processor, combine the almond flour, tapioca, baking powder and salt. Pulse to combine. Add in the cold butter and pulse until the mixture resembles crumbs. Remove a little less than half of the mixture from the processor and set aside. Add the egg to the processor and run on low until combined- the mixture will look wet. Scrape the mixture into the 8×8 pan and spread in an even layer, smoothing the top. Bake for 10-12 minutes.
Meanwhile, return the crumb mixture you set aside to the food processor. Add the remaining nuts to the processor and pulse to combine. Set aside.
When the crust comes out of the oven, pour the butterscotch filling over the top of the crust and spread to the edges, then sprinkle the crumb mixture over all, breaking it up and sprinkling it over with your hands, if needed. Pat down any of the crumb mixture that is sticking up. Return to the oven and bake for 25 minutes or until the crumbs on top are done.
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I have everything but the tapioca starch. Could I substitute something like arrowroot powder or just skip the starch?
Thanks!
Barb @ Frugal Local Kitchen recently posted..menu plan monday 12.17.12
Arrowroot will work just fine, too.
That is funny, after I made the chocolate version I started thinking that a caramel version would be really good (and less heartburn-provoking at 7.5 months pregnant) so I printed out a couple of recipes for caramel sauce and was going to try to adapt the recipe, and now I don’t have to! Thanks for creating a delicious grain-free dessert.
😀 I’ll be trying other variations soon.
One other question…do you think I could substitute regular milk (actually goat milk) instead of the cream/coconut milk? I don’t tolerate cow milk except butter so can’t use cream, but I have lots of goat milk and it’s a lot cheaper than a can of coconut milk.
I’m sure that would be fine. I would cook it over a low heat to reduce it, though, unless you know how easily goat milk curdles under heat. I haven’t cooked with it, so I don’t know.
Thanks.
Hi KerryAnn, I am making this with Emmer Flour since I discovered that I don’t react at all to Emmer. If I don’t eat all the butterscotch sauce before the crust is done pre-baking, I’ll let you know how it turns out with this ancient grain.
Just an update for anyone interested in the Emmer (or anyone using a whole grain and NO, I didn’t soak it), it turned out great….I just royally screwed up the calculations for a 9×13 inch pan and it is more like butterscotch jumble or something.
Delicious.
I’m glad to hear it turned out! I’ve considered making a 9×13 of this, it’s just so good!!
If you figure out the porportions for a 9×13, let me know….I’m guessing I just should done maybe 1.5 times everything instead of straight doubling.
Why does there always have to be math involved? 😉
Addendum (sorry to spam this thread) but after the dessert cooled, they ARE fine and hold together well. No more jumble, I got BARS!
Yay!!! I hope you enjoy them!
Would it be possible to use coconut flour instead of almond flour? I’m avoiding nuts.
Coconut flour requires large amounts of liquid and eggs to leaven, so I’m not sure it would work. Someone else had success with emmer flour, so I think you’d be able to use any flour with or without gluten, and just add xanthan gum if you’re gluten-free.
I don’t have tapioca starch or arrowroot. Any other suggestions?
Kaitlin, you could try cornstarch.
Thank you, would it still be 1/3 cup?