This Millionaire Shortbread has layers of buttery, crunchy shortbread, sweet caramel, and thick, fudgy chocolate. Add a sprinkling of sea salt flakes to make it extra fancy. It's gonna be awesome.
I am a serious chocolate lover. It brings me deep pleasure, and at certain times of the month, I can't live without it. I have to have a stash of emergency chocolate in the kitchen at all times. I'm quite content to slowly savour just one delicious square and save the rest for tomorrow, but if I need it and I don't have it, you do not want to get in my way.
My husband is much more of a caramel fan. He likes things extra sweet, so anytime there's a dessert that's covered in gooey caramel, he's all over it. He likes chocolate, but he doesn't love it. However, he's also a Libra, so his tendency to just do whatever I want to keep me happy can be very strong. He gets really uncomfortable if I try to do something that he'd prefer. It somehow upsets it's Libran idea of fairness if he gets something he likes for once. I gave up trying to understand it long ago.
What makes Millionaire Shortbread so awesome?
This Millionaire Shortbread is the perfect marriage of chocolate and caramel, conveyed to you on a crust of buttery, crunchy shortbread. A Twix is a pale imitation of this absolutely delightful little treat. Each layer is delicious all on its own, but when they're brought together, they really sing. I also added a light sprinkle of flaky sea salt to make the flavors really pop.
These are awesome as an indulgent afternoon treat, but I think they're good enough for a proper dessert as well. They're also relatively easy to transport, so they'd be ideal for a picnic, if it's not too hot. Share them with friends, bring them to a meeting, send them home with someone who needs a bit of cheering up. They're pure pleasure wherever you eat them.
Magical Properties of Sugar & Caramel
Caramel is basically just cooked sugar and water, sometimes also cream and/or butter. So you can use caramel in your spell the same way you would use sugar or other sweet ingredients. It's main energy, of course, is that of attraction. Caramel will sweeten the deal and make any spell more attractive to the deity or energy you're hoping to work with. It can also be used in spells for love and romance.
For more on the magical properties of the ingredients in this recipe, be sure to check the Kitchen Magick page.
Ingrdients
Here's everything you'll need for this dish. The full details are in the recipe card below.
- Flour - all-purpose or plain
- Brown sugar
- Corn starch - aka corn flour
- Salt - both fine and coarse sea salt
- Butter - unsalted
- Water
- Egg - just the yolk
- Sweetened condensed milk
- Golden syrup - or light corn syrup
- Vanilla extract
- Chocolate - semi-sweet, chopped or chips
- Cream - double or heavy cream
Tips for making Millionaire Shortbread
Okay, admittedly this recipe does have a few steps to it as each layer needs to be made separately, but none of them are complicated. Just make this on a day when you're excited to potter around the kitchen for a few hours.
The shortbread is a bit like making biscuits. You'll mix dry ingredients, work in some cold butter, then add a bit of wet ingredients and form into a thick dough. Then you can press this into the bottom of your square baking pan, and bake until golden.
While that's baking, you can make the caramel. This is the trickiest step as you need to babysit it a bit. You'll add your condensed milk, brown, sugar, butter, and golden syrup to a saucepan and heat it, stirring all the while until it thickens and reaches about 220 degrees fahrenheit. Then take it off the heat, stir in the vanilla and salt, and pour it over your shortbread crust. Be very careful with the hot caramel. It will burn like lava.
The chocolate layer is super simple, especially if you do it in the microwave. You just melt your chocolate with your cream, and stir until smooth, then pour it over our caramel layer.
Let the whole thing chill for at least an hour before slicing into 16 delicious squares. Sprinkle over some flaky sea salt if you want to make it extra awesome.
Looking for more awesome caramel treats? Try these Caramel Butterscotch Muffins or some Caramel Stuffed Apple Cider Cookies.
PrintMillionaire Shortbread
This Millionaire Shortbread has layers of buttery, crunchy shortbread, sweet caramel, and thick, fudgy chocolate. Add a sprinkling of sea salt flakes to make it extra fancy. It's gonna be awesome.
- Prep Time: 45
- Cook Time: 30
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Yield: 16 bars 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: British
- Diet: Vegetarian
Ingredients
For the crust
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons corn starch
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 ounces cold butter, cut into chunks
- 1 tablespoon cold water
- 1 egg yolk
For the caramel
- 1 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 3 ounces unsalted butter
- 2 tablespoons golden syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pinch of sea salt
For the chocolate
- 6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped of chips
- 3 tablespoons double cream
Instructions
For the crust
- Preheat your oven to 350F (175C) and line a 8x8 baking pan with parchment or foil leaving a bit of an overhang for easy removal later.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, corn starch, and salt until combined and lump free.
- Work the butter into the flour mixture until it looks like wet sand. I find my clean hands are the best tool for this job.
- Add the water and egg yolk and blend together with a fork until everything is well combined.
- Transfer this mixture to your baking sheet, and press it evenly into the bottom. Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.
For the caramel
- While your crust is in the oven, you can start making your caramel. Start by whisking together your sweetened condensed milk, brown sugar, butter and golden syrup in a medium sauce pan with a candy thermometer attached. Make sure you have enough space as the mixture will expand as it boils.
- Cook this over medium heat, whisking gently all the while until the butter melts and the mixture starts to boil. Continue to cook and stir until the temperature reaches 220F. Once you hit your target temperature, turn off the heat and quickly add in the vanilla and salt. Whisk this all together, then quickly and carefully transfer your caramel onto your crust. Allow it to cool for about 15 minutes for the caramel to set.
For the chocolate
- Combined your chopped chocolate or chocolate chips with your cream in a microwave safe dish. Microwave the mixture for 30 seconds at a time, stirring after each round, until the chocolate is just melted. Give it a good stir to smooth everything out, then pour this over your caramel layer. Use an offset spatula to spread the chocolate mixture as evenly as possible right to the edge.
- Refrigerate the whole thing for at least an hour to set everything before slicing into 16 pieces. These are pretty rich, so you could make them even smaller if you have the patience. If you're finding your bars difficult to cut, allow them to come up to room temperature first.
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