Salted honey and walnut bars

Salted honey and walnut bars

Ingredients

Crust

• 250g plain flour
• 100g icing sugar
• 227g butter
• Little cold water

Filling

• 170g butter
• 200g soft brown sugar
• 350ml honey
• 120ml double cream
• 250g shelled Diamond walnuts, toasted
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp coarse sea salt

Garnish

• 100g dark chocolate
• 1 tsp coarse sea salt

Method

1. To make the crust, pre-heat the oven to 180C.
2. Combine the icing sugar and the flour.
3. Rub in the butter and add a little cold water until a dough is formed. Add the water very slowly as too much water will make the dough too sticky to handle. Dust your hands in flour if the dough gets sticky.
4. Line a pan with greaseproof paper and press the dough into the bottom.
5. Bake in the oven for 20 – 25 mins until golden.
6. To make the filling, melt the butter with the brown sugar and honey in a deep saucepan. Once the mixture starts to boil it will approx. double in volume.
7. Bring to the boil and allow to simmer for approx. 5 mins, stirring occasionally.
8. Remove from the heat and stir in the cream, vanilla and salt, stirring until combined.
9. Stir in the toasted walnuts and pour the mixture on top of the crust.
10. Place in the oven and cook for 20 – 25 mins. The mixture will still be wobbly in the centre but should be covered in bubbles.
11. Remove from the oven and allow to cool at room temperature until firm, ideally overnight.
12. Melt the chocolate in bain marie.
13. Cut the bars into bite-sized pieces and drizzle with chocolate.
14. Sprinkle coarse sea salt over the top and serve.

These bars will keep for approx 2 weeks in an air-tight container.