Caramel Shortbread

True to my word, I did indeed bake for you yesterday afternoon, did indeed photograph my baking efforts and now today am delighted to be sharing this fabulous recipe with you all.

Caramel Shortbread :: do you love this stuff? Oh boy, I do.

I do, I do, I do.

However, this is not a recipe I bake often, mainly I think because it doesn't fall into the spontaneous quick and easy baking category. A little bit of time is needed for this creation, plus you need to remember to have the ingredients available. To be honest, a rather large slab of chocolate would not be sitting patiently in the cupboards around here waiting to be melted and used in a recipe. Nor would we tend to have a block of butter or a tin of condensed milk at the ready either. So I have to really make a definite decision to bake caramel shortbread, and go henceforth to the shops to purchase the ingredients. Which is what I did yesterday, especially for You. Well, and me too. And the Little People. Oh, and J too. We were all VERY glad I made that decision yesterday.

There are many recipes for Caramel Shortbread/Millionaires Shortbread to be found on the internet :: the one I use comes from a handwritten recipe written down for us many years ago by J's Nana, which has been baked and adored by generations. It's a real gem.

For those of you not familiar with caramel shortbread (oh how sad), it consists of three layers :: a shortbread biscuit base, topped with a layer of caramel fudge and finished off with a layer of milk chocolate. Its very sweet. And oh-so-moreish. You will not be able to just take one piece and leave it at that, so be warned :: if you are in any way trying to diet, then do not make this recipe.

OK..lets crack on shall we?

INGREDIENTS ::

170g sugar

230g butter

170g self raising flour

1 tin (397g) condensed milk

1 tablespoon golden syrup (or substitute corn syrup in the US)

140g (maybe more) good milk chocolate

LAYER 1 :: the Shortbread.

Into a bowl, measure 55g of the sugar and 115g of the butter and cream together until smooth and fluffy.

Mix in 170g self raising flour until it begins to come together into a crumb like consistency. Keep working it with a spoon (and possibly your hands) to form a soft dough.

Now you will need to spread the dough over the bottom of a shallow baking tray, lined with baking parchment/greaseproof paper. The tray I use is actually called a Swiss Roll tin I think, and measures 20 x30cm (8 x 12 inches).
The dough will be spread quite thin so you need to work it with your hands and fingers, pushing it right out to the sides and into the corners of the tray, flattening it out as you go. It seems for a while as if it's never gonna spread that far or that thin, but persevere, it will work.
Prick it all over with a fork to stop it rising too much, then bake in a moderate oven (gas 4 / 180 / 350) for 15mins until very lightly golden brown.

 

LAYER 2 :: the Caramel Fudge

The magic ingredient here is condensed milk. This is probably not something you would normally buy, it's an incredibly sweet, sticky, sweetened, thickened milk. In the UK, you can easily find it in the supermarket, usually on the shelf alongside the tinned fruit with the other sickly creamy/milky products.

Note :: please don't confuse it with evaporated milk, which is sold in an almost identical tin, because then you will probably get home and realise you have the wrong product, throw a rather large hissy fit, resulting in the need to go back to the supermarket yet again (can you tell I've had this experience?)

 

So, into a saucepan, put 115g of the butter, 115g of the sugar, 1 tbs golden syrup, and the whole sticky tin of condensed milk.

Bring it s-l-o-w-l-y to the boil, over a medium heat, stirring constantly.

Be patient.

It can feel very s-l-o-w.

But you don't want the sugar to burn or the mixture to stick.

 

After much stirring, the mixture will finally  begin to bubble and boil.

At this point, when  you are sure it's bubbling and boiling nicely, set a timer and boil the mixture for FIVE more minutes, stirring vigorously in a jiggy-jiggy fashion.

The mixture will thicken and begin to caremalise and darken slightly.

It will smell delicious.

Pour the caramel fudge straight over the shortbread base and spread evenly.

Then pop the tray into the fridge for 30 minutes to allow the caramel fudge layer to cool/set.

 

LAYER 3 :: the Chocolate

Now the original recipe I have states 140g milk chocolate...but you know what, I think I would recommend using a little more, maybe 180g?? That way you are not fighting with the melted chocolate trying to spread it out thinly over the caramel, and the finished thing will have more of a chocolatey bite.

 

Melt the chocolate (I zapped it for 40 seconds in the microwave until partially melted, then stirred it a lot to melt it all down completely)

Spread the chocolate quickly over the caramel fudge layer, smoothing it out evenly as you go.

Lick the spatula.

Now lick the bowl.

Put the tray back into the fridge for about an hour or so, until the chocolate has set, but is not rock hard.

It's very difficult to cut when it's rock hard, so be warned...try and time it right or else you might end up having a tantrum.

 

Lift the whole slab of gorgeousness out of the tray (should be easy if you've used greaseproof paper) and cut into squares/rectangles of whatever size you fancy. We tend to make ours quite small so they are more child friendly.

And mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ENJOY!!!!

Extremely good at any time of day.

With a cuppa, or just rammed in with no beverage to hand.

The choice is yours.

Oh, and I challenge you to just eat ONE piece.

I tell you, it's absolutely, totally, completely not possible.

xxxx

Edited to add :: if you're in the US and can't get golden syrup, then I think the closet substitute would be maple syrup light corn syrup (thanks for all your advice on this matter!). And as you're only needing a tablespoon I think it would be fine in this recipe. Hope this helps xx

Comments

[plasterers bristol]

Oh wow, this is my faorite treat ever. and this recipe turned out just perfect for us. Thanks for sharing.

Simon

[Monica]

I can't believe I have all the ingredients... it's fate, right?

I could make it and surprise the boys when they come home later on... IF I can resist eating it all myself.

[mariah]

hi!
I have found similar recepie,and instead of golden syrup, 2 tablespoon of honey was used.
It's good to know.
Mariah

[Connie]

I have it in the Fridge cooling as I am writing this. It actually was pretty simple to make and I know the men in my family will devour it. Thank you,
Oh and I converted all of the grams to Cups and such. Hope it works.

[Nanda]

Thank you for a lovely site and a delicious recipe. I made it even more dangerous. Hazelnuts pushed into the caramel, before the chocolate layer comes on. Hmmmmm....heaven...and yes, my diet flew out the window.
Thanks to you I have picked up a hook again for the first time since childhood. To practice ripples on small projects, my kids now both have new scarves for the winter, beautiful waves of colour around their necks, lovely rippled blankets...here I come!!

[Tracey]

If you can't get golden syrup, don't bother with it. Just boil the unopened tin of condensed milk for 2-3 hours (keep it well covered with water) let it cool, and spoon out the resulting delicious glop!

[Maria Eduarda]

Hi, I live in Brazil, visit your blog some time already and I find it very beautiful, I love my crochet visit, www.cantinhocroche.blogspot.com yesterday decided try this wonderful sweet, really not the only one to eat, thanks for the tips and the beautiful posts, kissing, Duda.

[Lesley King]

I made this yesterday. I really appreciated the easy instructions and multitudinous photos! My family thought they were fantastic. Thanks Lucy for taking the trouble to set it all out so beautifully!

[hill upon hill]

Oh this was so good. Thankyou for the recipe. Mine were not as pretty as yours, I did post about it recently.

Love all the updates from your life.

[Alice C]

Well...we made it...and it is just as delicious as I had hoped it would be. There is only one problem with the recipe - MissM said "What do you think Lucy means by stir in a jiggy-jiggy fashion? What we need is a demo on YouTube" which made us both laugh. Thank you for a lovely couple of hours baking.

[Erin]

OMG that looks amazing....
but how bad is it for you(i mean GOOD GOOD for you)

[Jayne]

Love your blog! I just made this caramel shortbread and it's fabulous! It's the perfect indulgent dessert. A trick I used to make it even easier was instead of melting chocolate in a separate bowl, I just laid pieces of a broken chocolate bar on top of the warm caramel layer. After a couple minutes the chocolate melts and you can spread it around evenly.

[jennie w.]

I've never heard of these things before. I can't believe it because these are my favorite things! Once I figure out how to convert metric to annoying American measurements I'll make them for sure! Thanks!

[claire]

Thank you for this, I actually made it this weekend, and everyone enjoyed it thoroughly! I had never had it before, a very sweet treat indeed.

[Gillian]

Oh my goodness. I only discovered your blog a week ago and have already started a ripple blanket and tonight baked this caramel shortbread. What a dangerously fabulous place!

[Marie]

I had my daughter make a batch of these goodies and I can declare that they are DIVINE. I am a caramel lover to start with and the combination of shortbread and chocolate added to that is DELICIOUS. For the record, we went with the greater amount of chocolate and it certainly didn't hurt! Thanks for sharing and thanks for a delightful blog.

[Amy]

That looks sooooooo good. I absolutely MUST make this - and if I find success, I MUST make it again for my friends housewarming party! Yay!

[Alessandra]

Lucy,

I didn't find the golden syrup here in the US and made it maple syrup and it worked perfectly, the caramel shortbread was a hit!

By the way, LOVE your spatula with the little hearts!!!

Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe!

[rosie hearts]

This is definately YUMMY. I know because the second batch is in the fridge as i type!! Thank you.

[Fruitful Fusion]

THANK YOU!!!! Have to make some tomorrow!!! :D

[kelly]

These look fantastic! Stopped off at the shops for condensed milk, on my way home from work, after reading this at lunch. Got my plans for Saturday morning now!

I've popped a link to your recipe on my blog - hope you don't mind. I'm not so tech-savvy to know how to do a link-back thing. I just know the words 'link-back'!

[Anna]

Yummy! I have to make those, thanks for sharing the recipe!

[Charlene]

I love caramel slice - thanks so much for the recipe - I am going shopping for the ingredients tomorrow :) Good-bye diet :) hehe!!

[Nathalie]

Oh my oh my, why do I even bother to start a diet ; ) Well still in dubio but I think the caramel might win it from the slim fit... I'll keep you posted . Thanks for sharing

[Melinda]

Wow. My Mum would make this for us when we were kids. Brings back such fond memories.