Sybaritic Diversions

***New Product Alert***   It’s currently summer in Japan, party season as is obvious.  In the Land of the Rising Sun, beer is the social lubricant of choice and nothing goes so well with it than a bowl of crisp green edamame pods.  These are young soybean pods boiled - well, more like blanched - in lightly salted water.  Like peanuts in the shell, you crack the little suckers open and munch on the beans inside.  It’s a taste that sort of grows on you. 

That said, Japanese urbanites don’t have to faff about with the whole "blanch-in-saltwater" deal because of the new edamame-flavored variant of Glico Pretz.  That’s right: as seen above, these are salt pretzels flavored with green soybean.  According to a few other Jap-a-holics and some Nihonjin tomodachitachi of mine, it’s pretty good.

In case you’re one of those die-hard junk food junkies and pretzels don’t exactly catch your fancy, there’s an edamame alternative for you.  Tohato, maker of my all-time-favorite-treat Caramel Corn, has a savory little number called Bino that captures the flavor of edamame quite well.  This snack involves little green corn puffs - similar in principle to Caramel Corn - dusted all over with flavor.  With the Tanabata-no-Matsuri (Star Festival) coming up, I don’t see any reason why these two snacks should be excluded from your party menu.

Anyways, now that I’ve dispensed with today’s shameless product alert, let me tell you about Saturday’s baking experiment which involved copious amounts of flour, butter, caramel, and chocolate.  It’s something I first encountered in Mademoiselle Clotilde’s amazing food blog Chocolate and Zucchini, specifically in the category Chocolate is My Friend.  A friend of Clotilde’s in England sent her a packet of Sainsbury’s chocolate-topped caramel shortbread - a real taste sensation if ever there was one.  Think of it as a Twix bar: only thicker, more substantial and satisfying.  Having a major league sweet-tooth, it was a recipe I just had to try.

I’ve made shortbread before, usually the traditional Scottish kind made with oatmeal.  It’s a crumbly kind of cookie best eaten with a hot cuppa tea and a few Scottish terriers frolicking at your feet, but these doggies are optional.  I wasn’t exactly prepared for the richness of the shortbread that forms the base of this dessert: it uses about a cup of butter or margarine and it’s so rich!  However, the condensed-milk-caramel that fills this treat isn’t as rich as it appears to be.  Even with the chocolate, it’s more comforting than decadent.  For a less heavy dessert, skip the chocolate and just scatter about a quarter-cup of chocolate chips or an equal amount of chopped nuts. 

I should advise everyone, however, to cut this dessert into very small pieces.  Unless you’re a glutton of monumental proportions, eating whole slabs of this dessert is totally off. 

Chocolate Caramel Shortbread

For the shortbread:

• 450 grams all-purpose flour
• 150 grams granulated sugar
• 1 cup margarine

For the caramel filling:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 can condensed milk
• 50 grams brown sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon almond extract

For the topping:

• 250 grams dark chocolate, melted 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees / Gas Mark 4.  Grease two 7 x 11-inch baking pans.  Mix flour and sugar; rub in margarine and work mixture to a clumpy dough.  Divide dough between the pans and bake for 25 minutes; set aside.  For topping, melt together butter, condensed milk and brown sugar over a gentle heat. Boil for 5 minutes, stirring continuously. Add vanilla and almond extracts and beat well. Pour evenly over the cooked shortbread and allow to cool.  Spread melted chocolate over topping and allow to set thoroughly before cutting into fingers.   

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 19th, 2005 at 8:15 am and is filed under Food and Drink. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.