Over Covid-19 lockdown and during furloughed life I've been doing a lot of baking - much like everybody else! I was put on the furlough scheme at the start of April, 2 weeks into UK lockdown, and since then I've made a variety of cookies, brownies & cakes...with varying degrees of success! I'll hopefully share the recipes that I used for them all at some point but today I want to share the recipe for Caramel Squares, or Millionaire's Shortbread, whatever you usually call them!
The original recipe is from Jane's Patisserie - you should definitley check her out on everything! Her website, Instagram & Youtube are coming down with amazing recipes & I can't wait to try more of them! I found her recipe for Millionaire Shortbreads so easy to follow & understand, even though I've never even attempted to make them before.
These went down really well in my house & had been requested by David since pretty much the beginning of lockdown! I used a mix of dark chocolate & white chocolate on mine, but on reflection I let the white chocolate harden up a bit too much before I poured it on. This just meant that the white chocolate was a bit harder to spread evenly, so we ended up with one half mostly white chocolate with a little dark through it & then the outsides had a bit more of a normal, swirly pattern! From David's perspective this was totally okay - he is a big lover of white chocolate, so he had no complaints!
These went down really well in my house & had been requested by David since pretty much the beginning of lockdown! I used a mix of dark chocolate & white chocolate on mine, but on reflection I let the white chocolate harden up a bit too much before I poured it on. This just meant that the white chocolate was a bit harder to spread evenly, so we ended up with one half mostly white chocolate with a little dark through it & then the outsides had a bit more of a normal, swirly pattern! From David's perspective this was totally okay - he is a big lover of white chocolate, so he had no complaints!
Ingredients
Shortbread
200g Unsalted Butter
100g Caster Sugar
275g Plain Flour
Caramel
200g Unsalted Butter
3tbsp Caster Sugar
4tbsp Golden Syrup
1 tin of Condensed Milk
Decoration
200g Milk or Dark Chocolate
100g White Chocolate
Directions
- Pre-heat your oven to 160C in a fan oven or 180C non-fan & line a 9x9in baking tin with baking paper. If you don't have a 9x9in tin, just make sure the one you use is fairly deep to allow for all the layers! Just make sure your tin isn't too big, as the shortbread may be too thin.
- For the shortbread: Cream together the butter & sugar until smooth. Mix in the flour until it forms a crumbly dough.
- Press the mixture evenly into your lined tin. Bake for 20-25 mins until it turns a golden colour. Remove from the oven & set aside to cool.
- For the caramel: In a large suacepan pour the butter, caster sugar, golden syrup & condensed milk. Melt slowly on a low/medium heat until all the sugar has dissolved, stirring frequently to prevent any from burning.
- Once the sugar is dissolved turn the heat up high, let the mix come to boiling point & boil for 5-7 mins, stirring constantly. The mix is ready when it is a darker, golden colour & the texture is soft & fudgy.
- Pour the caramel onto the shortbread base & spread it out evenly. Set in the fridge for 1 hour.
- Once set, melt both the dark/milk & white chocolate in separate bowls over boiling water. Pour the dark/milk chocolate over the caramel and spread evenly. Then pour the white chocolate on top & swirl together using a cake skewer or toothpick.
- Chill in the fridge for another 1-2 hours until set. Then keep them in a container at room temperature.
- Cut into squares of your preferred size & enjoy with a cup of tea!
And there you have it. Lovely, moreish, homemade Caramel Squares.
I can't wait to make my next batch!
If you make these, let me know how you get on!
