I Finally Nailed Millionaire’s Shortbread

Millionaire’s shortbread, also known as a caramel slice or caramel shortbread, is something that I love to eat. When you happen upon a good one, usually from a table at a school fair who’s Grandma has made, it’s pretty unbeatable by anything else. However, for me, making it has never really worked out.

That was until this week when I decided to give it another go. The key, it would seem, is in the caramel and getting that just right so that it’s not too hard, or worse, too soft. So I looked at a number of recipes, read the methods and settled on this receipe from Jane’s Patissarie, although I did skip using the Biscof spread in the topping. Credit to Jane here, this is insanely good!

The first thing to note is that I made a “quickie” receipe. Rather than making a shortbread base from scratch the base in this millionair’s shortbread is made using bisuits and melted butter, like in a cheesecake. I decided that using digestives was borning so I used the Aldi copies of the Lotus Biscof caramel biscuits to add an extra dimension to the finished slices.

Ingredients

Base

• 500g caramel “Biscof-style” biscuits
• 185g melted butter

Caramel

• 1 397g can of condensed milk
• 200g butter
• 3 tbsp caster sugar
• 3 tbsp golden syrup

Topping

• 300g milk chocolate
• 3 caramel “Biscof-style” biscuits – crumbled

How to make the Millionaire’s Shortbread

1. Grease and line a 23×15 cm baking tin (needs to be at least 3cm deep)
2. Blist the bisuits in a food processor until you have fine crumbs. If you don’t have a food precessors then use a tough plastic bag and go at it with a rolling pin.
3. Add the butter to the biscuit crumbs and either blitz in the food processor briefly to combine or mix together well in a bowl.
4. Tip the butter-crumb mix into the prepare baking tin and press firmly and evenly ti cover the bottom. Set asside to cool and set.
5. In a large, heavy-bottome saucepan, combine the condensed milk, butter, castor sugar and golden syrup. Heat gently until the sugar has dissolved and stir frequently
6. Once the sugar has dissolved and you have an even smooth mix, turn the heat up and bring to the boil.
7. Once bubbling, stir constantly for 5-7 minutes. Careful not to get splashed as this mixture is damned hot!
8. The caramel is ready when th colour darkens and it has thickened.
9. Pour the caramel onto the buscuit base and agitate the tray to allow it spread. Set aside to cool and seto for 1 to 2 hours (if it’s warm then put into the fridge after an hour).
10. Break the chocolate into pieces and put in a glass bowl. Melt over a bain-mari intil smooth.
11. Remove the base & caramel tray from the fridge and poor over the chocolate. Using a spatualy smooth out evenly.
12. Using a seive, sprinkle the biscuit crumbs over the chocolate.
13. Set asside to cool completely, use the fridge again if necessary, before cutting.

Enjoy!

Thanks for reading.