White Chocolate Peanut Caramel Bars

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup sugar
• ¾ cup (1½ sticks) butter, cold and cubed
• 1 tsp Amoretti® Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla 2X W.S.

• ¾ cup sugar
• ⅔ cup heavy cream
• 5 tbsp butter
• ¾ cup dry roasted peanuts, roughly chopped
• ½ tsp Amoretti® Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla 2X W.S.

• ¼ cup Amoretti® White Chocolate Peanut Spread
• mini pretzels
• melted white & dark chocolate, optional

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Lightly grease a 7-inch square cake pan. Line with parchment paper with the ends overhanging. Lightly spray the parchment paper.
3. In a food processor or mixer, combine the flour and sugar.
4. Add butter and Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla, mix or pulse until the dough is like coarse breadcrumbs.
5. Press the dough into the parchment-lined cake pan and chill in the freezer for 10 minutes.
6. Dock the dough and bake for 30 minutes, until light golden brown.
7. Cool on a wire rack for 15-20 minutes.

8. In a medium saucepan, slowly dry caramelize the sugar.
9. Meanwhile, warm the cream.
10. Once all the sugar has melted and it is a reddish-brown color, remove from the heat and whisk in the warm cream.
11. Add the butter and return the saucepan to medium heat and cook to 240°F degrees.
12. Remove from the heat and strain the caramel if there are bits of sugar that have not dissolved.
13. Add the peanuts and Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla, stir to combine.
14. Pour the caramel over the shortbread base and smooth to even it out. Let this set for about 3 hours or overnight.

15. Melt White Chocolate Peanut Spread slowly in the microwave, just until melted, not too hot. Stir well until smooth.
16. Pour over the set caramel and sprinkle pretzels over the top.
17. Let this set for one hour.
18. At this point, if desired, you can drizzle white and dark chocolate over the top.

• You may want to wear gloves in step 10, as the caramel will steam and can splatter as you whisk in the cream.