Before having a baby I would never “cheat” at recipes. I didn’t see the point. I liked things to be done properly. Now I have a 10 month old causing mayhem I don’t have time to waste so any way I can cheat with cooking I will.
A few weeks ago it was my brother’s birthday and we had all agreed that we would take a dish of food each. We were in charge of pizzas and I said that I would make something to bring along. In the end I settled for these salted caramel millionaires shortbread. As a family we all have a love for salted caramel, do you remember my salted caramel cake? The thought of making my own caramel made me sigh.
“Making my own caramel? No way.”
No way, I thought. Luckily some clever bod invented tinned caramel. Oh yeah. So I that was it sorted. I just needed to make the shortbread and pour over the melted chocolate. It’s pretty much made from scratch isn’t it? Not making my own caramel doesn’t really matter. That’s what I’m telling myself anyway.
The shortbread went down a treat and as my mum had baked lots of cakes we went home with a few slices too. I love it when that happens. It was even better after it had been in the fridge for a few days as the caramel had hardened up a little but still gooey enough so you wouldn’t break your teeth on it.
I’m definitely going to be making this again. It was so easy to make and went down a treat with everyone.
Salted Caramel Millionaires Shortbread
– Makes 16 small squares –
185g unsalted butter
75g caster sugar
250g plain flour
397g tin of caramel
1 tsp sea salt flakes
150g milk chocolate
50g white chocolate
– Line a 20cm square tin with baking paper. Make sure the baking paper comes up high on the sides of the tin. Pre-heat your oven to 180ºC/Gas 4.
– In a bowl place the butter and sugar and beat with a wooden spoon until light and creamy.
Beat in the flour until a dough had formed.
– If you have a food processor you can put all the ingredients in and whizz together until a dough starts to form.
– Press the mixture into your baking tin and bake for 20-25 minutes until pale golden brown.
– Once cooked leave to cool completely in the baking tin.
– Once cool cover the shortbread with the tinned caramel.
– Place in the fridge for a couple for hours to firm up. This will make it easier to spread the chocolate over the top.
– After a couple of hours, place the melted white chocolate into a piping bag and set aside.
– Pour the melted milk chocolate over the top of the caramel.
– Pipe 6 lines of white chocolate over the milk chocolate. Take a skewer and run it through the white chocolate the opposite way to create the feathered effect.
– Place back into the fridge to chill.
– To cut the shortbread, warm a large knife and cut into slices while in the baking tin.
– This shortbread will keep for 3 days. I personally found it tasted better kept in the fridge although you don’t have to.
