Recipe: Millionaire's Shortbread

Ever since Rob bought me my trusty Kitchenaid mixer, I have been a little bit obsessed with baking. For me, a perfect evening in is spent in the kitchen, music on, candles lit, following a recipe and creating a delicious mess.

(The Kitchenaid almost deserves a blog post of it's own - it is quite simply one of the best kitchen essentials you could ever own and I wouldn't go without mine now. I love it. Indeed they're rather pricey, selling at John Lewis for around £429 but Rob managed to find mine on eBay for about £350). 

 About once a week or so I'll ask Rob and his work team to give me a 'baking request' and then bake what they choose! A perfect set up - it means I can enjoy practicing different recipes and they receive the goods, which brightens their day at work and I'm not left with a load of food guilt! Sharing is caring!

One of their all time favourite recipes and one which they repeatedly ask for is millionaire's shortbread. This is a something I was a little nervous about trying initially as I thought it would be complicated but I was so pleasantly surprised and have now perfected the recipe. So, I thought I'd share it here!

 

For the Shortbread:
250g plain flower
75g caster sugar
175g butter, softened
For the caramel:

100g butter or margarine
100g light muscavado sugar

2 x 397g cans of condensed milk

For The Topping:

200g plain or milk chocolate, broken into pieces(I use 300g as I prefer a thicker chocolate topping)

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180'C/Gas mark 4. Lightly grease a 13 x 9inch (33x23cm)tin.
2. Start by making the shortbread. Mix the flour and caster sugar in a bowl. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Knead the mixture together until it forms a dough, then press into the base of the prepared tin. Prick the shortbread lightly with a fork and bake in the pre-heated oven for about 20 minutes or until firm to the touch and very lightly browned. Leave to cool in the tin.
3. Meanwhile, get on with making the caramel. Measure the butter, sugar and condensed milk into a pan and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil, stirring all the time, then reduce the heat and simmer very gently, stirring continuously, for about 5 minutes or until the mixture has thickened slightly. (Over time I have realised that I get better results when heating these ingredients really slowly. Don't be surprised if it takes a good 18 minutes until the consistency and colour looks like caramel!) Then pour over the shortbread and leave to cool.
4. For the topping, melt the chocolate slowly in a bowl over a pan of hot water. Then pour over the cold caramel and leave to set. Here I used toffee and caramel icing pens to decorate the top with some wavy lines, but you can leave them plain - whatever you prefer! 
   
   Cut into squares or bars and most importantly, enjoy!

 Mmmmmmm, delish!

(Original recipe from BBC Good Food here)

Lydia xxx