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Sunday, June 21, 2009

Sweet Melissa Sundays: Caramel Cashew Bars



The lovely Pamela of Cookies with Boys chose this week's Sweet Melissa Sundays recipe, Butterscotch Cashew Bars. It has a lovely buttery shortbready-ish crust which is smothered with gooey butterscotch, and topped with yummy cashews. Sounds like a winner to me!



Well... it all sounds great but the Butterscotch part. I've never been a big fan. So, besides quartering the recipe to make a smaller two-person-home sized portion, I changed the butterscotch part to caramel. And I used Sea Salted cashews. Mmm boy. The cookie-ish crust came together perfectly and easily, and baked up very nicely. For my gooey topping, I simply melted some caramel bits with a little smidge of water, and spread it on top of my baked and cooled crust. I sprinkled some Sea Salted Cashews on top, popped it back in the oven for a few minutes to melt it all together, and we were done. Very simple recipe, with delicious results. The crumbly buttery shortbread crust paired perfectly with the gooey caramel, and the sweetness from the caramel and crust was cut with the sea salt and crunch from the Cashews. This recipe was a serious winner in my book. Be sure to check out how the other SMS bakers did!

20 comments:

Flourchild said...

Great idea in using caramel..I love the cashews too! YOur bars look very good and so perfect! Great recipe!

Megan said...

I wish I had thought to use caramel instead of butterscotch. It was a great idea and they look delicious!

Jessica of My Baking Heart said...

Sea salted cashews?? YUM! :) Beautiful photos!

Kerstin said...

I like caramel more than butterscotch too! They look so good, cashews should be used in treats more often :)

Jessica said...

Butterscotch isn't really my "thing" either and caramel sounds like a great change to the recipe. I'm going to make these again because they were so simple and such a hit but I think that I'll definitely try your caramel change.

Unknown said...

I love your version! I don't like butterscotch either so caramel would have been perfect! Next time I'll have to try that :)

k.a.r.e.n said...

Im not a big fan of butterscotch either... i wish i thought of caramel... or how about chocolate?

Your photos are great.

Pamela said...

Oh, yeah...caramel is definitely a fabulous idea!! Thanks for baking along this week!!

apparentlyjessy said...

Yum! I love cashews! But I would prefer caramel over butterscotch too I think!

Sarah said...

Mmmm... your shortbread crust looks so yummy and buttery. I didn't really make the recipe this week... I made caramels, and topped some of them with cashews. Delicious, but I'm kind of wishing I had put some of the mixture on a crust...

Anonymous said...

Your changes sound delicious. Your bars look wonderful! I'll have to try these with caramel.

Donna-FFW said...

Great use of the caramel, sounds delicious and it looks fantastic!

Ingrid_3Bs said...

Good call on adding sea salted cashews to cut through the sweetness and switching up the butterscotch for caramel.

Kudos on successful cutting the recipe into fourths! That's seriously impressive. I struggle halving a recipe!
~ingrid

Lulu the Baker said...

The caramel and salted cashew combo sounds heavenly! I didn't love them, but maybe I'll try your way!

Joy said...

Hi Stephanie!

Fantastic job with your bars- way to be creative and try it with caramel instead of butterscotch! And the sea salted cashews sound phenomenal! I'd love for you to stop by my site to check out my bars, as well, if you have a chance! My family really loved them!

Can't wait to talk to you again after this Sunday's SMS recipe postings!

-Joy

jb said...

Oh my, these look divine!

unconfidentialcook said...

I prefer caramel to butterscotch, too! The bars look absolutely amazing. What about a drizzle of chocolate on top?

Jackie @PhamFatale.com said...

It's like a salted caramel nut all combined. Divine!

Creative Classroom Core said...

These looks totally heavenly! Such great ingredients! Ive been wanting to make these!

Great blog!

Doreen said...

Yumm, this looks so good. I love the flavor combinations going on in this bar from the contrast of the sweet and salty. I actually have some caramel on hand, so I think I know what I know what I want to bake this week..:)

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