Thursday baking - crunchie bar shortbread

As we bake our way through A Treasury of NZ Baking...

This recipe jumped out at me when I first flipped through the Treasury. A shortbread recipe with ground almonds and big chunks of smashed up Crunchie bar. Yum. I have made these twice now, the second time with self raising flour as we had run out of regular flour. This resulted in chunky cookies rather than crisp shortbread, these were ok but rather ordinary, and I preferred the texture of the shortbread.

The second time I also used half chopped Crunchie bars and half chopped Crunchie bar chocolate block (you can see the difference on the chopping board below...) and it was better with the chopped bars as you get more honeycomb, which melts as they cook so provide a lovely toffee-ish crunch. It looks cool too.

This shortbread would be a fun recipe to make with kids, who I am sure would love to smash up the crunchie bar. Next time I make this (and there will definitely be a next time) I think I will double the recipe, in order to keep one roll of dough in the freezer for last minute baking.

Crunchie Bar Shortbreads - week 10 (Claire Aldous)

250g butter, softened
1 c icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 c flour
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp rice flour
3 tbsp cornflour
70g (1 pkt) ground almonds
2 x 50g Crunchie bars


Preheat oven to 175c and line 2 trays with baking paper. Beat the butter, icing sugar and vanilla until pale and creamy. Combine the remaining ingredients except the Crunchie bars, and add to the butter mix. Beat to combine.

Put the Crunchies in a plastic bag and crush roughly with a rolling pin. Gently mix this through the dough, taking care to not crush the larger pieces - you are after a range of sizes.

Roll tablespoons of dough into balls and flatten lightly with a fork. (I rolled the dough into a log, chilled it and then sliced it into rounds) Bake for 12 minutes, rotating trays halfway through to ensure even cooking. Leave shortbreads on the tray for 5 minutes to firm up before transferring to a rack to cool.

This makes about 24