Clairesquares

It's La Cocina week here at Food Musings. La Cocina is a commercial kitchen that provides cooking space, marketing expertise and support to low income and/or minority women with dreams of owning their own food related small businesses. Since the La Cocina stand at the Ferry Plaza farmer's market opened the first weekend of this month, I've interviewed and sampled treats from many of the participants. This week I'll introduce you to several of those I've met.

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I used to think that there were only two kinds of people in this world: the kind who like chocolate sauce on their sundaes, and the kind who like caramel. Then I met Claire Keane, founder of Clairesquares, and an unabashed lover of both.

Her Clairesquares, dubbed that by a friend, embrace both cravings. They're built in squat towers of thick, buttery shortbread topped with ribbons of creamy caramel and a stamp of chocolate. Butter. Caramel. Chocolate. I could probably end this post right here and have two-thirds of you stampeding to Ferry Plaza on Saturday to buy some.

But there's more. Claire makes all the squares herself, by hand, in small batches. First she bakes the shortbread, using unbleached flour and premium butter, and lets it cool. She spends the next few hours cooking up a pot of caramel, which also has to cool. She spreads the cooled caramel on the cooled shortbread, adds a layer of imported Belgian chocolate (dark or milk, depending on the batch) and scores them into squares the size of a small fist. Ooo-wee, but they are good. (Right, Sam?)

Though Claire can't be credited with inventing these sweet morsels, we don't love her the less for it -- after all, she brought them to  our personal slice of America. Called caramel squares in Claire's native Ireland (or millionaire's shortbread in Scotland & England), they are often found in cafés but are usually made with cheap chocolate and margarine.  Thankfully, Claire's are preservative free.

Claire has been making her signature squares since she was a teenager living in County Cork. She even sold them in school to make a little extra cash here and there. The business really picked up steam last year after what she calls a "crazy month of orders in November," so after Thanksgiving, Claires went full-time, spending 2-3 days a week in the La Cocina kitchen and the rest of the time sampling or selling her treats at places like the Alemany Farmer's Market. She also makes flapjacks, oat cookie bars dipped in chocolate, and recently introduced a white chocolate-covered square (which I haven't tried). She's working on getting her product line into local retail stores by late spring, but until then you know where to find them.   

Clairesquares available at: Alemany farmer's market, Ferry Plaza farmer's market, and online.

Comments

[sam]

right, oh yes, I love them!
I caved in and had one on Saturday.
Right except for the minor detail you got wrong, and since you were so strict with me in your honey cake game I have to point out that these are called Millionaire's Shortbread, not Squares in Britain.

Have you tried the chocolate covered Alfojores too? They are next in line for the highlight treatment.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[Catherine]

No, haven't tried those yet, but they are on the list!

Thank you for the correction...I am changing the post.