Hyde Park Dessert Bars

This recipe has three parts: a shortbread crust, the dulce de leche filling and the ganache.

First, let’s make the shortbread-type crust: Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F. Put together in a large bowl the butter, the self-rising flour and the caster sugar. With very clean hands, rub them together until it resembles coarse meal and everything is combined. Press onto the bottom only (not the sides) of a 10″ x 15″ oven safe cake pan or glass casserole dish. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the shortbread is a nice golden color. Remove from the oven and let cool completely before proceeding.

Once the crust is cool (room temperature), put the dulce de leche in a small pan and heat slightly over low heat, stirring constantly. You want to achieve an easily spreadable consistency without it getting too liquid or too hot. Once it is nice and malleable, spread the dulce de leche all over the shortbread crust (pour it all on top of the shortbread and then spread it carefully with the back of a metal dinner spoon). Let cool to room temperature and then refrigerate until very cold and firm (at least a couple of hours).

Once the dulce de leche is nice and cold, you can go ahead and make the ganache: finely chop the chocolate and put in a heat resistant bowl. In a separate heat resistant bowl put the butter and the heavy cream, and bring to a boil in the microwave (check it often and only heat it until it boils but don’t let it over-boil). Pour the hot heavy cream over the chopped chocolate and very slowly stir and mix until the chocolate is completely dissolved in the heavy cream and you have a nice and shiny chocolate ganache. Add the vanilla and stir. Let it sit for about 5 minutes before proceeding. Then pour the ganache over the shortbread and dulce de leche and – with a light hand – spread it all over (you do not want to overwork the ganache, otherwise it may lose its shine, and you definitely do not want the dulce de leche and the ganache to mix).

Refrigerate for several hours until the ganache is completely set and hard (think truffle material). Cut into bars or squares and enjoy! Keep leftovers refrigerated.