Florentine Island shortbread cookies with almond caramel

Shortbread

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons cornstarch

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/3 cup sugar

Combine the ingredients above in your food processor bowl. Process with the metal blade of your food processor until the dough comes together. Finish kneading with your hands.

Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for an hour.

Almond-Caramel:

2/3 cup sugar

2 tablespoons honey

7 tablespoons butter

1 cup heavy cream

2 cups slivered almonds

7 ounces bittersweet or dark chocolate

Combine sugar, honey, butter and cream in a heavy saucepan; cook for 5 minutes over medium heat. Stir in almonds. Cook for 7 minutes or until the mixtures turns to an amber color. Let stand, uncovered, away from the heat until the shortbread cookie dough is ready.

Roll the shortbread dough into balls that are ½-inch in diameter. With your hands, press the balls flat onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. The rim of the cookie might crack a little; that’s OK.

Bake cookies in a preheated 375°F oven for 10 to 12 minutes. The cookies should be light in color; they are not done yet. With a spoon in one hand and the fingers of your other hand, form an indention in the center of the shortbread cookie and add a “little heap” of Almond-Caramel into the center of the cookie. Return cookies to the oven for about 5 minutes or until the almonds turn dark amber.

Place cookies on a baking rack and let cool. Melt chocolate in a saucepan or your microwave oven; drizzle over the cold cookies. Let harden. To store, layer cookies carefully between wax or parchment paper in a cookie tin.

From The Sweet Biscuit Inn in Asheville, NC; a member of the Asheville Bed & Breakfast Association, AshevilleBBA.com