Millionaires Shortbread Recipe

 

 Crumbly shortbread, sweet salted caramel filling and topped with dark chocolate, this millionaire shortbread definitely lives up to its name. Welcome to our website where I share with you how to make classic and simply delicious recipes, make sure to  follow our website for a new recipe each week. 

Ingredients 1½ / 160 g Sticks Butter ⅓ Cup / 65 g White Sugar 2 Cups / 250 g Plain Flour 1 Tin / 400 g Sweetened Condensed Milk ¾ Cup / 150 g White Sugar 1 Stick / 110 g Butter 2 Tbsp / 50 g Golden Syrup (can be substituted with Honey) 1 tsp Vanilla 1-3 tsp Flaky Salt 5 oz / 150 g Chocolate 2 Tbsp / 30 ml Oil

We’re going to start off by making the shortbread base. There’s only three ingredients you need for making perfect traditional shortbread, Butter, Flour and Sugar, occasionally depending on what you’re making a pinch of salt and maybe some vanilla for flavour. In a small bowl we’re going to measure out our butter and sugar. We’ll need 160 g or 1 and a half sticks of room temperature butter. I’ve cut mine up into little cubes so it would come up to room temperature quicker as I forgot to get it out of the fridge. To the butter add 1/3 of a cup or 65 g of white sugar. We don’t want too much sweetness here as the caramel layer on top will carry so much of that. Using a whisk give it a quick cream together for a few minutes. You can use a hand mixer or stand mixer here if you would like but we don’t need it light and fluffy so if your butter is at room temperature a whisk should be pretty easy. 

To the combined butter and sugar we want to measure out the flour. We’ll need 250 g or 2 cups of all purpose or standard flour. You’ll notice I give the recipe amounts in cups and grams so no matter where you live in the world you should find this recipe easy enough to follow. Add it straight into the bowl and using a wooden spoon or silicone spatula, fold the ingredients together until combined. You’ll end up with kind of wet sand texture,just make sure it clumps together and we’re ready to bake. Let me know in the comments below if you know this as millionaire shortbread or chocolate caramel slice as people seem to be divided. I definitely made this many times years and years ago but knowing it as chocolate caramel slice. Whatever its called it’s definitely delicious and incredibly rich like the name millionaire shortbread suggests. I’m making a salted caramel today for the filling as salted sweet things are my favourite but you can easily leave out the salt if you want it more traditional. This is also a great base recipe to many slices or squares so feel free to use it for any other type of baking you would like to do if caramel really isn’t your thing. Take a square baking pan and line with nonstick paper so the shortbread can easily be removed. You’ll need to use some kind of barrier here that isn’t just nonstick spray as the caramel won’t come out of the pan easily. I’m cutting diagonally down each side so it sits perfectly into the corners so I can have perfect looking caramel slice without jagged corners. 

Alternatively you can use two pieces of nonstick paper here, both going in opposite directions so it sort of falls over the edges that you can then use as a kind of sling to get the shortbread out when its ready. Tip the shortbread base into the pan and using a metal spoon press the base down evenly into a single layer. There are a few different techniques for this like using a cup with a flat base or another piece of nonstick over the top and pressing with your hands. Whatever works best for you, it doesn’t need to be 100% perfect. There are a couple of variants you can make this recipe and one of them is a different base. A popular version here in New Zealand is to use anzac biscuit dough as the base as its chewy and oats and goes really well with the caramel, another would be more of a coconut chocolate kind of base. Let me know if you prefer traditional shortbread or something different. When you have a nice even layer place the shortbread base into a 160 C or 325 F oven for about 35 minutes or until the edges are just starting to get brown. It’ll be soft when it comes out of the oven and will harden as it cools. This caramel is pretty easy to make, we’re just going to combine a few ingredients and cook it until it starts to turn golden. It’s best to wait to start this step when you’ve taken the shortbread base out of the oven, giving it time to cool as we make the caramel as we’ll be pouring it straight over the top. In a medium sized saucepan we want to add the butter. You’ll need 115 grams or 1 stick, we’remelting it here so you don’t need to worry about it being room temperature. Cut it into a few pieces just so it melts easier and add it to the pan. 

Next we’re going to need 400 g of sweetened condensed milk, this is just one of those small cans worth. If you wondering what Sweetened condensed actually is, its just regular milk that has been heated so most of the liquid evaporates,plus the addition of sugar ending in this sweet thick liquid gold that creates the most beautiful and luxurious caramel. Pour it all into the bowl, scraping the last of it out. It’s pretty sweet but as this is caramel we’ll also be adding some sugar. You’ll need 3/4 of a cup or 150 g of white granulated sugar. You can also use brown sugar here if you want a stronger more toffee flavour to your caramel. The last ingredient is 50 g or two tablespoons of golden syrup. I get many questions on golden syrup as it doesn’t seem to be a common ingredient in many places. It’s a sort of sweet toffy sort of syrup. It may also be called light treacle but if you can’t find it you can use honey, maple syrup or corn syrup in its place. I would recommend golden syrup or honey here as both will give a delicious flavour to the caramel. Take your saucepan and heat it over medium low heat, making sure to stir as it melts. This caramel will burn super easy so make sure to not take your eyes off it and keep the heat relatively low. Ideally for the absolute best caramel texture,not too hard but not too soft we want to get it to about 110 degrees celsius or 230 degrees Fahrenheit. I know so many of you won’t have thermometer and it’s really not essential at all, I’ve made it with and without and as long as you pay attention you’ll get it just about perfect. We want to heat the caramel just until it starts to change colour. It’ll go from kind of beige from when you’ve first combined the ingredients to starting to get more of a golden tinge - about 5 minutes or so. When this starts to happen you want to remove it from the heat as the residual from the saucepan will continue cooking it a little longer. Wait a few minutes for it cool a little before adding the last two ingredients. We’ll need a teaspoon of vanilla extract and about a teaspoon of flaky salt. Here you can add as little or as much salt you would like depending on the flavour you’re going for. One teaspoon is about the perfect amount for just rounding out the flavours but not adding that salted flavour, but I would go for a couple if you want a little more salted or 3 if you want it properly salted. Add these to the saucepan and mix caramel until everything is evenly combined. The heat should dissolve the salt and you’ll notice its changed colour even further at this point from the heat, more of a deep golden shade. Pour the caramel out onto the baked shortbread base and tilt the square pan around making sure each corner is covered. Keep your pan flat from this point as the caramel will self level as it cools. You can either do this at room temp for about 4 to 5 hours or leave it in fridge for a few before starting the next step.

 Lastly all we need to do is add the chocolate topping. In small bowl we want to add our dark chocolate and oil. We’re using oil here as it makes the chocolate a bit thinner so the finished caramel slice can be sliced without the chocolate cracking. You’ll need about 150 g of dark chocolate or 5 oz and 2 tablespoons or 30 ml of any kind of flavour less oil. Either melt the chocolate in the microwave in 20 second bursts or over a water bath. When its smooth pout it over the set caramel layer and place it back into the fridge for at least a few hours to set. I made this all in one day and left in the fridge overnight to completely set before cutting it up the next morning. Slice it up and enjoy! It’s best kept in the fridge and if you have too much it freezes perfectly! Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed this recipe .