Temptation, I am not afraid of you!

Last weekend was my friend’s bridal shower and I volunteered to make these amazing caramel butter bars to serve at the party. They are from Jill O'Connor’s book Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey (find it at Amazon Gooey Caramel Butter Bar recipe here). In my opinion, it is the best dessert book ever! My friend who is getting married is the one who gave this book to me for my birthday a while back simply because she thought my baking style fit perfectly with the type of recipes inside the book; rich, sinful, sweet and horribly bad for you.

I made the butter bars but for some reason they didn’t turn out and I just couldn’t possibly bring them to her family. They were edible, but not “right.” It’s different when you bake a lopsided Dalek cake (Wiki on Dalek) for your boyfriend than when you bake somewhat soggy butter bars for a friend’s immediate and extended family. So I put the butter bars in a container with the intention of bringing them to my family. That never happened and the temptation was too great.

I ate a butter bar on Tuesday telling myself that I was doing a good job with the diet and that I deserved a tiny little treat. My conscience clear I went on with my day.

But, yesterday, after not eating bread for three solid days, I broke down again and I ate a butter bar!

When you’re on a strict diet and you have very little willpower (like me) it’s a good idea to eliminate all tempting foods from your house. Or at least hide them. At the same time, though, it is good to treat yourself to a little something and you shouldn’t feel guilty about it. The problem is when you make a habit of treating yourself to a little something everyday. I’m going to assign one day of the week where I can eat whatever I want just to satisfy my cravings. I think it will be every Saturday and then Sunday the diet starts all over again and I won’t feel so deprived. Just two more days until I can eat bread!

Ok, Ok, I also sprayed whipped cream into my mouth. But then I threw away the can, it was going to expire anyway…

I don’t have pictures of the finished butter bars but here’s a shot of the first step. Yes, that is a pound of butter.