Millionaires Shortbread

If you’re here looking for a super simple recipe on how to make millionaires shortbread, I’ve got you covered.

If you don’t know what millionaires shortbread is, its basically a layered traybake. The layers consist of a shortbread biscuit base, which is topped with a rich caramel layer and finished with a chocolate layer on top. What’s not to like about it? 🤔

Anyway, I’m going to share my recipe on how to make the millionaires shortbread. It’s quick, easy and doesn’t require many ingredients, which is always a good thing!

The process of making the different parts isn’t exactly hard, nor do they take a lot of time to do. Making the shortbread will vary, depending on the method you use. There are two ways to make the dough, method 1 is using a food processor and method 2 is making it by hand. Both methods will work equally as well but method 1 is quicker than method two, however, method 2 is ideal if you don’t have a food processor or prefer to be hands on when making doughs.

Before you get into making this, you’ll want to do a small bit of prep. Measure out all of your ingredients in advance, this just saves you making mistakes and faffing about. Also, don’t forget to preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f. The baking tin I’m using is 11×7 inches but feel free to use a 9 inch square.

To make the shortbread layer, place your flour, sugar and butter into either your food processor or mixing bowl and pulse/rub in until its combined. Once you see a clear dough has formed, stop mixing and set aside while you prepare your tin, lining it with some greaseproof paper. Place your shortbread into your prepared tin and press it out until you have a level layer, I found using my hands and a small cup measurement really helps to spread it out and get it level. Do whatever works best for you. Bake in your preheated oven for 20-22 minutes (or until slightly coloured around the edge. While your shortbread is baking, feel free to make the caramel layer.

To make the caramel layer, it’s really easy. Get a small-medium saucepan and place the butter, sugar, golden syrup and condensed milk and place on the hob over a low-medium heat and continuously stir it until it melts, it will then become darker in colour, it should be a golden brown colour, no lighter or darker. Once you’ve achieved the right colour, pour the caramel over the baked biscuit base and level it off as best you can using a silicon spatula or cranked palette knife. Place this in the fridge until its cooled down, it should be firm to the touch. This doesn’t take very long.

The final layer is the chocolate layer. This is probably the easiest and most simple layer to do plus you can customise it to suit you. I chose to use dark chocolate (as it was all I had in) but feel free to use milk chocolate, if you’d prefer to. All you need to do is melt your chocolate, my preferred method is to melt the chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and stirring it often until melted. If you don’t like using this method, feel free to microwave the chocolate on 20-30 second intervals, stirring well in-between each interval, be careful not to burn the chocolate. Pour the chocolate over the top of your cooled and firmed caramel and level the chocolate off as best you can using a offset/cranked palette knife, place the baking tray back in the fridge and allow the chocolate to firm up.

Once the chocolate has firmed up, remove the millionaires shortbread from the tin (you may need to run a knife down the sides) and cut it up into slices, I cut mine into squares but feel free to cut yours into slices that suit you best.

 

Ingredients:

Shortbread:

115g Butter.

175g Plain flour.

55g Granulated sugar.

Caramel Filling:

175g Butter.

115g Granulated sugar.

45g Golden syrup.

400g Condensed milk.

Chocolate Topping:

300g Chocolate (dark or milk, whichever you prefer best).

Methods:

1. Do some prep work now, weigh up your ingredients, this saves you making mistakes later on and stops you faffing about later.
2. Preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f.

Shortbread:

1.  When it comes to making the shortbread, you can do it 2 ways, using a food processor or by hand. Either method will get you the results you’re looking for, I used the food processor method.
2. Place the flour, sugar and butter into your food processor or mixing bowl of choice and pulse/rub them together until a clear dough forms. Be careful not to over-mix it at this stage, otherwise your shortbread will be tough once baked.
3. Line your baking tray with a piece of baking paper/parchment and place the shortbread dough into the prepared tin, feel free to do this by using your hands or a small cup measurement, try and get the layer of shortbread as level as possible.
4. Once level, place your shortbread into the preheated oven and bake for around 20-22 minutes or until slightly coloured around the edge.

Caramel Filling:

1. I recommend making your caramel filling once your shortbread has been in the oven for round 10-15 minutes.
2. The caramel is really easy to make, get yourself a small-medium saucepan and place the butter, granulated sugar, golden syrup and condensed milk into your saucepan and place on the hob over a low-medium heat, once it starts to melt, you’ll want to continuously stir the mixture. You’ll notice it goes from a yellow-ish colour to a golden brown colour, this is when you know it’s done.
3. Once your caramel filling is done, pour it over the baked shortbread base and level out the caramel using a spatula or cranked/offset palette knife then place in the fridge to set completely cool and firm up. This doesn’t take very long.

Chocolate Topping:

1. Once your caramel layer has set, you can melt your chocolate. For the chocolate, feel free to use milk or dark chocolate, choose your preference.
2. You can melt the chocolate 2 different ways, method 1 is placing the bowl of chocolate over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring often once it starts to melt. Method 2 is placing the chocolate into a microwave safe bowl and microwave the chocolate in 30 second intervals until melted. Either method will work, I chose method 1 as this is my preference.
3. Pour the chocolate on top of the firmed caramel layer and spread it out using a cranked/offset palette knife or the back of a spoon and level out the chocolate as best you can.
4. Place back in the fridge and allow the chocolate to firm up completely.

 

1. To finish the millionaires shortbread, all you need to do is to remove it from the tray and cut it up into slices, I chose squares but feel free to cut them up however you like.