Millionaire WOW

Well, I am impressed. I have never attempted Millionaire Shortbread because it scared me - the layers, the caramel, AHH. Until now. I had friends come over last weekend and wanted something impressive and oh so tasty, so I thought I would give them a go. This recipe is a little bit of a cheat - it uses shop bought shortbread mixed with melted butter for the base (like cheesecake) but as I have never baked shortbread I didn't want to go wrong at the first layer, so for me, this was perfect. Anyway the impressive and oh so tasty criteria was accomplished as I have had several requests for another batch just 4 days later. - that's when you know something is good. By now you probably know I'm a sweet/chocolate/gooey-aholic - the sweeter and richer the better for me - so, millionaire shortbread, WINNER.

The recipe I used was from the actual Carnation website but I have adapted it after trying it last weekend - I found there wasn't a thick enough shortbread base and too much caramel - as you can see from the picture above. I have also used 'Cake flavored covering' on the top as I remember trying a few homemade millionaire shortbread's and the melted chocolate on top is so hard, it hurts your teeth and obviously the layers all crumble whilst you are trying to get through the chocolate and you end up in a big, crumbly, sticky mess.

Prep -
Grease and line a 20cm square tin. I used a metal tin rather than silicone because this needs to set and be moved around so it needs to be sturdy.

You will need -

• 20cm Square tin
• 375g Shortbread biscuits
• 82.5g Unsalted Butter
• 300g Dark or Milk Chocolate flavored cake covering (I just used Tesco own brand - it's fab)
• 100g White Chocolate flavored cake covering

Depending on how much caramel you want in them: if you want quite a lot, like the picture above - 

• 150g unsalted butter
• 150g dark brown soft sugar
• 397g can Carnation condensed milk

If you do not want a lot of caramel I would either half these quantities or make the whole batch but only pour however much you want into the tin - I'm sure you can find a use for the left over caramel... (like eating it all out of the bowl in front of the tv)

1. Melt the butter (82.5g) in a saucepan gently, over a low heat. Put the shortbread biscuits in a freezer bag and bash them with a rolling pine until you have fine crumbs (lumps will make the base crumble). Put your crushed shortbread in with the melted butter - away from the heat, mix together until all the shortbread is coated.

2. Press the shortbread mixture into the tin and smooth over - I use a potato masher to get a nice even layer. Chill for 20-30 minutes.

3. Gently heat the dark brown soft sugar and unsalted butter (150g) in saucepan constantly stirring until melted. Add the condensed milk and bring to a rapid boil, again stirring continuously. Cook for around 1-2 minutes until the mixture has thickened. Pour your caramel over the shortbread base, cool, and then chill until set - I left it for a couple of hours.

4. Melt the dark/millk and white chocolate flavored cake covering in separate bowls in the microwave in 30 second bursts to make sure you do not spoil it. Pour the dark/milk covering over the caramel - it should fall to the sides and even out on its own. Then drop teaspoon sized blobs of the white into the dark - about the size of a 2 pence piece. Using the handle of a spoon, swirl the white blobs into the dark to get the marbled effect and chill until set.

5. Remove from the tin and cut into squares - use a knife that has been dipped in hot water and dried if you have trouble getting through the chocolate.

ENJOY!