Serves: n/a
Approx cost: ~€7
Approx calories (per square, if cut into 40 pieces): ~240
Approx cooking, preparation, and cooling time: 6 hours
[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #0B0B61;”]Here’s a warning to start this post off with… rather more of a “Public Service Announcement”, one could say. If you are on a diet, do not make these under any circumstances! There, now that’s out of the way I can go on to talk about this tray of 9700 calorie awesomeness. Some of you may remember a long time ago I made Millionaire’s Flapjacks – What makes them “Millionaire’s” you ask? Well, the fact that they have a thick, delicious layer of caramel sauce and chocolate on top probably has something to do with it. But anyway – back to the flapjacks. So I made these, and they weren’t bad, though when eating them a couple of things became apparent.
Firstly – there wasn’t nearly enough caramel on them as there could have been, and secondly, let’s face it – I kind of failed at the chocolate. Chocolate should not be a paste when hot. I learned a valuable lesson that day that actually, water-baths aren’t actually as over-rated as I initially suspected. Sure, I still melt the chocolate sometimes directly in a pan, but you have to be careful – oh so careful – and quite frankly using a water bath is just easier.
I thought about doing a “redux” style post on the flapjacks but then decided against it. Why bother when there is another, albeit quite similar, perfectly decent EnglishScottish treat which is just begging to be made. (I just looked it up – apparently it’s believed Millionaire’s Shortbread is Scottish in origin… who’d ‘a’ thunk it?!). As I mentioned above, the entire tray’s-worth is about 9700 calories. I cut it up into 40 pieces, which are about 2 large bites, or 4 “regular” bites, although you could easily go a bit smaller. This is sweet, tasty, and horrifically unhealthy, but it’s well worth making if you’re not familiar with it. Many cake shops and bakeries in England will often sell slabs of this stuff, though the shortbread is spongey and really doesn’t taste buttery, the caramel is tasteless, and the chocolate tastes artificial, so do yourself a favour – make this!
I know I stated recently that I’d be trying to go back to basics and keep everything at €5 or below, but I just had to share this, and to be fair, the things which really pushed the price over was the chocolate. If you buy store-brand chocolate, and try and trim costs on other things you can easily keep this below 5 euros I think. You’ll need a baking tray to make these, of course – I used one which is about 3cm deep, 31cm long by 23cm wide (yeah, I know – weird dimensions! (It’s quite an old tray)). The thing which takes the most time in this recipe is the creation of the dulce de leche.
If you’ve opened a can of condensed milk before, and seen it all white and goopy inside, there’s something hugely satisfying at opening a can after 4 hours of boiling and seeing it all thick and caramelised. That said – if time is a premium for you, you can buy dulce de leche ready made. It’s a big time saver, although I would suspect it will be an expensive way of buying it, compared to a couple of cans of good old condensed milk. As always, with chocolate heavy things, make sure you buy a chocolate which you can stand to eat. Using bad chocolate will seriously impact the quality of the end product.
I’d also like to thank Karen from Back Road Journal who very kindly passed on the “Liebster” blog award to me in her recent post. I’d actually received this not so long ago, so I’ll link back to that post where I nominated 5 other bloggers here. Thank you so much Karen – I truly enjoy reading your blog. Your recent travels, as well as your posts about your house and surround area where you live have been genuinely pleasurable reading!
Have a great almost-weekend-thursday everyone and enjoy!
Millionaire’s Shortbread
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Ingredients
For the Shortbread
- 360g Plain Flour
- 250g Butter
- 120g Caster Sugar
For the Caramel Topping
- 2 x 400g Cans of Sweetened, Condensed Milk (or 1 x 800g Can if available, or 800g Dulce de Leche)
- 100g Butter
- 6 tbsps Double/Heavy Cream
For the Chocolate Topping
- 400g good quality Plain or Milk Chocolate (per your preference)
- ~100ml Cream
- 70g Butter
Instructions
- If you’re using ready-made dulce de leche then you can skip this step, but if not, take your cans (or can) of sweetened, condensed milk and punch a few holes in the top using a cork-screw or sharp knife. Just 2 or 3 holes will suffice. Take an old saucepan (you’ll need an old one because some some of the milk will bubble out of the holes, mix with the water and the cans and make a mess all over the inside of the pan. It will wash off, but you’ll have to give it some muscle!) and place the tin(s) inside. Fill the pan with water until the water level is almost at the top of the cans and then place on the hob and bring to the boil. Keep boiling for 4 hours. You’ll need to replenish the water about once every 20-30 minutes as it will evaporate rapidly. Make sure you don’t let the water level drop too much. Sissi from WithAGlass.com mentions that she makes dulce de leche in the same way, but without piercing the tins, and keeping them completely covered in water. This sounds like a much cleaner method of doing it, although I’ve had too much experience with bursting cans of beans in my life (once is enough!) so I’m a little afraid to try this myself!
- While the cans are boiling away, pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius and we’ll start making the shortbread. Mix the butter and sugar together to form a paste and then mix in the flour to form a slightly crumbly dough. Press the dough as neatly as possible into your baking tray. If the tray is not non-stick then you may want to consider greasing and flouring the tray very lightly. The dough is very rich in butter anyway, but all the same it’s better to be safe than sorry. Fork the surface of the dough lightly all over before placing into the pre-heated oven and cook for about 20 minutes, or until starting to turn golden brown on top. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin.
- After four hours has elapsed, remove the cans of condensed milk from the heat and allow to cool for 20 minutes or so. We’ll now make the caramel sauce so in a clean pan melt the butter gently and mix in the cream. Open the cans, drain off any water which may remain on top of the dulce de leche by dripping through the holes, and then spoon out the mixture into the butter/cream mixture. Gently heat the mixture through, stirring all the time, until it starts to bubble and thicken. Pour the contents of the pan over the shortbread and smooth out to fill all corners and make it as smooth as possible. Set aside to allow the tray to cool down.
- After the caramel has been cooling for about an hour we’ll move on to the final stage – the chocolate topping. Break up the chocolate into squares, and then heat the cream in a pan on the stove over medium heat until almost boiling, then remove from the heat. Add in the chocolate to the cream and stir until smooth and glossy, then add in the butter, stirring again until completely dissolved and blended. In case you’re wondering, the butter allows the chocolate to set with a glossy sheen than it normally would. Pour the contents over the top of the caramel and smooth out as neatly as possible to evenly cover the caramel topping.
- Allow to cool for 15 minutes or so before placing into the refrigerator. Check the centre of the tray periodically (this section of the chocolate will set last). When the chocolate here is beginning to get firm, cut the tray of shortbread into appropriately sized pieces using a cold knife, wiping it between each cut. Return the tray to the refrigerator until completely set before removing each piece from the tray and storing in a decently sized container. The flavours will meld after 24 hours or so, which is when the shortbread is best! Enjoy with a nice cup of tea, and try not to think about the calories! 🙂
Charles, your Milllionaire's Shortbread looks so seductive! Soft chocolate, dulce de leche, crunchy shortbread… I love when different textures and flavours mix in the same piece of cake. It must taste heavenly, at least as great as the Millionaire's Flapjacks.
As you already know, I have made your Millionnaire's Flapjacks and I strongly encourage everyone to try them (especially if like me, you like the nutty taste of oats in cakes!). They were amazingly good! (They still are actually, I try to have just a little bit every day…). Moreover, they are really very easy to prepare! I wanted to make them once more, but now that I see this shortbread, I think I have found at least an equally good candidate! Actually I have heards lots of times about this Shortbread and have been planning to make it for years!
I have forgotten to tell you, but I enjoy greatly also British recipes you post. (Not only Swedish). British culinary repertoire is full of excellent dishes, especially desserts that, as you say, most of the time can be bought in industrial, cheap versions, but when made at home they are a pure delight.
Thanks so much Sissi – I hope you will try these. Flapjacks are great, but the shortbread is where it's at! 🙂 I'm happy to hear you like the British things I post sometimes – there are a great many things I can post – sticky toffee pudding, english fruit cake, Christmas pudding, "spotted dick", mincemeat are just a few of the desserts which the little island is famous for! Definitely enough stuff to keep me busy for many months to come on my blog! 😀
Some dish names make me certain I would love them. Sticky toffee pudding is one of them. If you plan the famous English Christmas pudding, I would love to observe your preparations! (Isn't it too late to start it?). I have always wanted to make it. I'm sure it's fantastic if properly made. Spotted dick sounds so funny. I have already read about it in many books, Ping has also made it I think, but I would love to see your version! Please, please, more British dishes!
Eek, Christmas pudding – not my favourite thing in the world, and I will be leaving right after Christmas so it would be a waste to make a full-size one I think, though I'll have a look into it. It's not too late to start it. Many people start around now, about a month in advance – some people don't even make it until just before… and of course many people just buy them. Of course, mixing something and adding more alcohol every day for a month gives excellent results, but it can be very time consuming and expensive, and then of course you have to steam the pudding for many hours for best results. Usually my mother steams it for about 10 hours just before Christmas, and then another 4 or 5 I think on Christmas day itself (if I remember correctly!). I didn't realise you were such a fan of British dishes – I'll definitely try and cook more! I can think of one I want to bake right away – "Clooty Dumpling", haha. It's Scottish, my grandmother used to make it. It's like a giant cake-like dumpling ball which you cut into slices and eat with custard… really yummy 🙂
I agree with Sissi, Charles, the flavours and textures sound awesome together. Although I am not usually a sweet tooth, I adore sweetened condensed milk (could eat it right out of the can, if truth be known!).
Thanks Eva – you know, I never knew that dulce de leche was a "thing" in France… they call it "confiture de lait", and it's often eaten by kids after school on bread apparently. Of course, nowadays they probably prefer nasty things like Nutella or something :/
This looks great! however I would not want to be on the other end if eating they full tray 😉 9,700 calories!!! That will make you gain a few pounds over night! Hahaha! These look so rich a delicious, nice job! Lovely pictures too!
Thanks Jen – best thing is to suddenly grow a big generous heart if faced with a tray of these. I gave a load to my neighbour and took more than 50% of them in for people in my office – they seemed to appreciate them a lot 😀
So this is Millionaire's shortbread…I have heard of it, but until now have never seen it. It looks absolutely millionaire-ish. 😉 I still can't get over the calories though! Holy cow! Some things are worth it though right?! I also appreciated the lesson on what to do with condensed milk – another thing I've never used. Oh I just love learning new things! Any adventures planned for the weekend?
Hi Kristy – you should definitely boil a can of condensed milk. Even if you don't use it for anything you can just keep it in a tub in the refrigerator and eat it with ice-cream, or on bread. I saw someone else cook it the way Sissi does recently – no holes in the can, completely covered in a lidded pan, so I guess it's ok. Cook one up – your whole family would be addicted in no time I think.
I haven't been on any adventures for a while, it's true. I'm going to go out for dinner on the Ile St Louis on the weekend (haha, jealous?!), although not sure if I'll get around to taking any photos though. I have a whole load of "Paris" photos which I've taken before, so I might run some of those over a few posts I think. Then of course in a bit over a month I'll be off to Sweden so I'll be able to get some good photos there hopefully 🙂
Yes! I am jealous! That's an incredible way to spend a weekend dinner. 🙂 I keep working on Mike to get a sabbatical in Europe when it's his turn for one…I'd love to live over there for a year or so. Have a great weekend Charles! And I'll be buying a can of condensed milk in the next few weeks for sure. 🙂
Charles has opened up a can of … well, there's so many things you can do with the dulce de leche once you've made it. I would buy 2 or 3 if you can. 🙂
Depending on the recipe you look at, it's recommended that you cook the can in the water bath for 2-4 hours with the caveat that your water level never goes below the top edge of the can. The longer you cook the condensed milk, the darker and richer the flavour you get and you can also freeze the leftovers. There are also recipes in which the condensed milk is poured into a microwaved dish and cooked that way.
Great chance for your children to see the world and start learning a new language too! Bientôt ils peuvent bien comprendre ce que je dis, peut-être?! 😉
Charles, your shortbread squares look positively swoon-worthy. Love the public announcement! Too funny. Yes, indeed. Let's just say that they are a 'concentrated energy' bar (sounds entirely harmless :)). I don't know, your chocolate looks pretty delectable to me – but I agree, very hard to multi-task when chocolate is on the stove. It's so finicky. One degree too high or one drop of moisture in the pot and it’s all over…the caramel looks plentiful but I think I’d have to taste it to be the ultimate judge :0 YUMMY Charles!
Thanks Kelly! Concentrated energy bar…. hahah 😀 Definitely! The chocolate and the caramel on these ones were actually really good – it was my previous attempts at the Flapjacks which didn't turn out so good – I still have to perfect the caramel making technique though. When you bit into the chocolate shell on top, caramel came shooting out from the sides all over your fingers, lol 😀
I love shortbread more than regular cookies and these look so good! It's nice to cut into small pieces but my problem is that I can't stop eating for sure…so no matter how small it's cut I still can't control my portion. I really don't know how people control… maybe everyone is not crazy as I am. If you can send just one little square for me… then I would be safe… just kidding. That's my favorite chocolate brand and all I can do is drool in front of your photos… so jealous! 🙂
Thanks Nami – I'm as crazy as you I think. If I have a box of these in the fridge, I go and grab one and before I've even poured some coffee, it's gone… so then I have to take another out to actually eat with my coffee 😀
Shortbread's really great too in general, I agree, even if it's not covered in caramel and chocolate. It's often eaten in England around Christmas time. If I make some this year, I'll make it in one big block in a tin like this time, and cut it after cooking it. In the past I cut it into pieces before cooking it… I think doing it in one big piece is better.
Dulce de leche … something I've always wanted to try, especially after hearing about the Tres Leches cake, either the poke version or the more fancy ones. 🙂 An experiment that needs to be attempted. 🙂
"Tres Leches" cake… sounds yummy… I'm off to look that up myself now! I'd really recommend having a bash at dulce de leche – it's so easy to make (and oh so delicious!).
Making the dulce de leche is the start of a number of highly caloric desserts. These are the 3 most outstanding versions: the cake I mentioned of course, but there's also a take off of napoleons, made either with puff pastry and then layered with dulce de leche (and sometimes with whipped cream as well) or with 9 layers of individually baked cake rounds.
Dulce de leche cake
http://www.sporkorfoon.com/spork_or_a_foon/2010/0…
Napoleon version of milhojas
http://southamericanfood.about.com/od/desserts/r/…
Torta de milhoja (thousand layer cake) – the cake layers can alternatively be sprinkled with brandy, spread with the dulce de leche and then chopped walnuts are sprinkled over before the next cake layer is put on
http://kitchenlife.wordpress.com/2008/12/27/torta…
Oh my God – you're dangerous! Those look seriously, dangerously tasty, especially the first one! I don't even want to BEGIN thinking about the calories in that. Some things are better left unsaid 😉 Thanks for the links – when I've earned a treat after burning off the fat from scoffing a load of these I'll try and have a bash at these!
That chocolate topping has just done me in. It looks absolutely amazing. I love this shortbread recipe.. definitely have to save this one
Thanks Kay! It was definitely a good eat. Unhealthy but worth it, lol 😀
Well I don't know what happened. I read your post this morning and made a comment. At that time there were no photos other than the small one at the top. Now I'm back on your post and there are lots of photos and my comment is missing. I just wanted to say that I'll make this and divide it among my friends so that I don't consume 9700 calories by myself. Also I wanted to thank you for the link so that I could learn the 7 things I didn't know about you.
Hi Karen, that's really weird – I had no notification of my site being down or anything. I use a service which should (in theory) keep my site online even when my host is down, though only read-only functionality is supported. It's possible if my site was down just for a minute or two then it didn't correctly save your comment.
Dividing the cake is the only way to go… or quartering the recipe or something. Otherwise it's just way too much for one or two, or even three/four people. It just has to be shared 😀
Millionaire's shortbread at only Five euros sounds like an excellent deal!:) I don't care if you claimed that the caramel and chocolate didn't turn out as good as you expected, as they looked perfectly good to me in the photos! Of course, it's always good to be critical of your own baking to be able to improve, but I know these can't turn out that bad! If it was me, you probably won't be able to make out even the shape!:p
Thanks Christy – one day when I have my own coffee shop I can make these and sell them for €1.50 a piece… Instant profit!
You should have a try at making these. The good thing is, even if they break up, all the flavours are still there and won't affect the taste! 😀
So did I do the math right – about 240 calories a piece or 60 calories a bite?!?!!? You're right – if you're on a diet – run away!!!! These look so amazingly good that I definitely wouldn't be able to have them sitting on my counter. Restraint is NOT one of my characteristics! 🙂 However, I know others will certainly enjoy them – like my niece who loves to make treats like this. Maybe I could sneak a bite. 🙂
Haha, yeah – 60 calories a bite *if* you end up taking 4 bites. Sometimes I finished them in two… 120 per munch, ouch. Luckily, they're all gone now – my colleagues were pretty happy one could say 😀
LOL, of course, buying Lindt chocolate will push over the budget! 🙂 But quote: If you buy store-brand chocolate, and try and trim costs on other things you can easily keep this below 5 years I think.
…wow, I never knew Lindt chocolate makes this recipe over 5 years! 😛 I'm only joking Charles, just letting you know so you can go back and change it 🙂 This looks so naughty, I really want to try some! Express Post? 😉
oops, thanks Fati – I've updated it now 🙂 Alas they're all gone – I took them into work… my coworkers seemed quite happy :D, but no chance of being able to fedex one to your 😉 Chocolate-wise, in France, the market is dominated by Lindt, and it's not too bad. I think these bars of 200g were about €2.20 each maybe? We have some other brands, Nestlé, Côte d'Or etc, but I'd only ever use Lindt for baking. I tried one chocolate once, Nestlé I think, which was advertised as being "extra good for melting"… omg, the taste was terrible!
Charles, I don't have any business making such a high calorie treat, but I'm going to anyway! Though perfectly plain shortbread is perfectly delicious. AND I've always wanted to make flapjacks, so I must give that recipe a go as well.
Thanks Jean – I hope you enjoy them if you get around to trying them. Flapjacks are great too – my mother sometimes puts raisins and hazelnuts in them which is great – I like mine with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and a chewy texture. The oven and sugar used can play a big role in how they turn out so if you think it's something you'll like, you may need to fiddle around a bit until you find a good combination which works for you!
Thanks for the tips, Charles. Yes, I'll fiddle with the flapjacks, aiming for a chewy texture. I just discovered I had not yet added Five Euro Food to my Sites I Visit page. I've remedied that!
Thanks so much Jean – I could have sworn I added you down the bottom to my links a few days ago myself, but apparently not… I'll have to fix that myself too!
I'm not on a diet! Woo hoo. These look amazing. And you know of course they're Scottish since those guys are always looking for pots of gold under rainbows. Ha, kidding!
Haha, I'm not officially on a diet – though I could do with losing a few kilos 😀 Pots of gold under rainbows? Isn't that the Irish, lol 😀
You know what I say to that caloric insanity? BRING IT!
You saved me some, right? RIGHT?
xx
Thanks Ashley – they were really great, but I weighed myself today, as I always do on Saturday. Omg… let's just say I won't be making these in a while :p
the direction is so in detail .. really liked it! And the short bread looks yum.
Thanks Kankana – definitely yum, but certainly not kind on the hips! 😀
The site went down just as I sent this so I'm reposting. Hopefully, the 1st version won't reappear later. 🙂
"Oh my God – you’re dangerous! Those look seriously, dangerously tasty, especially the first one!"
A further caloric addition to this cake is to frost the outside with sweetened whipped cream and then to bake a sheet of meringue, break it up into shards and apply them to the outside. Each bite gives you the smooth and crunch texture of sugar and more sugar. 🙂
Aaaaaaaaaah, sweetly, tooth-meltingly delicious. I guess since you're going that far why not just cover the whole thing in white chocolate as well!
You could replace the meringue shards with white chocolate curls and apply them to the whipped cream frosting base.
OMG!!!! This is some serous temptation. I love a good shortbread cookie, but you added another level of temptation with the caramel and chocolate. Love this! I bet that caramel layer would be great with a little Fleur de Sel. Ok Charles, there goes my diet. I need to make these and then run 4 miles to burn them off. LOL
Thanks LV – Shortbread is indeed really good – we eat it a lot around Christmas time over here, though I don't think I'll be adding caramel and chocolate again for a while. I weighed myself today… big shock. Not good 🙁
Oooh..I normally allow myself more rich treats during the holidays, but oh boy, I caught the calories on this one! I've never made dulce de leche, the possibility of a can bursting scared me. Anyway, chocolate, caramel and shortbread…it simply can't get any better than that!
Thanks Linda – it seems that by all accounts there's no risk of the can exploding. You must keep it covered with water at all times, and I guess preferably in a pot with a lid to prevent all the water boiling away so you don't need to keep topping it up, but I think that method is much easier… then no condensed milk bubbles out from the top and goes all over the saucepan!
These look amazing!!!! MMMMM. Love chocolate, caramel and shortbread.
~Melissa
http://www.ChinDeep.com
They were pretty darn good – two weeks later and I'm still 700g heavier than when I started eating them… hopefully get rid of that this week!
This looks amazing!! I have always wanted to make these but somehow have never gotten round to it. I never used to like caramel but now I love it. Will definitely give this a go one day but as you said not if I am on a diet 🙂
Thanks bakingaddict! I hope you can give them a try – I can't believe you never used to like caramel?! What's not to like? Sweet, sugary deliciousness!
I made some shortbread cookies not too long ago – 'tis a long process!! The chocolatey ones look super!!!
btw, was saddened to see that my blog did not make the cut in the "blog I like" list 🙁 Ah well, I will try harder 🙂
Oh, Priya – I'm so sorry… It's hard to remember to update them sometimes… it's always good to get reminders from people! I'll do that now 🙂