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Caramel Bars with Salted Cashews

These chewy caramel bars drive pretty much everyone crazy when they take their first bite of them. Adding salted roasted cashews on top just brings them over the edge. Be sure to store them in the fridge but bring them room temperature before you serve them, as they are rock hard when they are cold. I highly recommend buying a candy/deep frying thermometer to make these but if you don’t have one, you can use the cold water test and bring the caramel to the firm ball stage. That said, I’ve always found that method temperamental so I can’t guarantee the bars will turn out perfect.

By eatthelove · From Open Recipes · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 41,516 recipes mention both. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Caramel Bars with Salted Cashews

24 bars
Prep15 min
Cook45 min

Ingredients

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

By eatthelove. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla share little aroma chemistry, yet 35,032 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the vanilla

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, butter, cream):

  1. Vanillathe original
  2. Raisinabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, butter, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).