Millionaire's Shortbread

Millionaire’s shortbread is such a classic slice of joy - crumbly shortbread base, sweet amber caramel filling and a thin chocolate top. They’re the perfect mid-afternoon pick-me-up dose of sugar to go with a cup of coffee or tea. Or just eat them all day long like I do!

Jump to:

• ✏️ Making a tasty and easy recipe
• 🥘 Ingredients notes
• 🔪 Equipment notes
• 🍱 Storage
• 💭 Top tips for success
• ♻️ Alternatives and substitutions
• 🧁 Other goodies
• 📋 Recipe

✏️ Making a tasty and easy recipe

I tried a few different variations of this recipe but eventually found that delicious combination. I love including cornflour (cornstarch in the US) in the shortbread base to give it a shorter texture.

Also, using sweetened condensed milk to cook up your own caramel allows you to give it the perfect amber colour while still keeping it simple.

🥘 Ingredients notes

• I prefer to use vanilla extract rather than vanilla essence, as it has a better stronger flavour. It’s a purer vanilla taste as it’s less processed than vanilla essence.

• Always sieve your flour. I used to be a bit lazy and skip this part, but it really makes such a difference to get you a lump-free mixture.

• When measuring your ingredients, I always recommend using weights rather than cups for greater accuracy.

🔪 Equipment notes

• I like to use digital scales for weighing my ingredients as it's easier and more accurate than other scales (or using no scales!). I'm a fan of these KitchenAid or Salter ones!

• Use measuring spoons for your teaspoon and tablespoon amounts where possible. Make sure the scoops filled with your ingredients are levelled before adding them to your mix!

🍱 Storage

Store your shortbread bars in an airtight container at room temperature. It should stay fresh for up to 4 days.

If it's hot where you live, you might prefer to store these bars in the fridge instead. They should last up to 5 days in the fridge.

If keeping in the fridge, you may want to bring your millionaire's shortbread slices up to room temperature before eating. They might be too hard for your teeth otherwise!

💭 Top tips for success

The first time I made these, my chocolate layer came out with white streaks! This was because I’d been a bit lazy... I'd melted my chocolate too quickly in the microwave. I'd also used a fairly cheap brand of cooking chocolate (which I will steer clear from in the future!).

I recommend heating the chocolate nice and slowly over a bain-marie (a heatproof bowl over a pan of hot water). Heat only two-thirds of the chocolate in the bain-marie. Once this has mostly melted, take it off the heat and add the remaining third and stir until smooth. This probably won’t actually temper your chocolate (you’d need a bit more faffing and thermometer to nail that), but should help your chocolate layer to be smooth and streak-free.

Alternatively, get yourself on the couverture chocolate hype! This is essentially a fancier cooking chocolate that melts like a dream and was made for pro chocolate work. You don’t really need to temper it for the millionaire’s shortbread. I'd just melt these gorgeous chocolate buttons slowly and you’re good to go. My favourite brand is Callebaut milk chocolate and Callebaut white chocolate callets.

Troubleshooting help:

If you’ve got any specific questions on making these millionaire's shortbread traybake slices, please feel free to leave a comment below and I’ll try my best to help out!

Alternatively, you can get in touch via my Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest – I’d love to hear from you!

♻️ Alternatives and substitutions

Personally, I like my chocolate layer to have that bit of bite and snap. If instead, you prefer a slightly softer chocolate top, add 1 tablespoon of double cream, vegetable or coconut oil. A softer layer allows you to bite into your millionaire’s shortbread slice without the caramel layer getting squished out of the sides. It’s a lot less messy, but I often snaffle mine so fast I’m not too fussed by the extra mess for that pure bite.

I like to use white chocolate and milk chocolate for my traybake topping, but you can easily use the same quantities of chocolate and use either full milk, white or dark chocolate, or even a combo of them all.

If you like salted caramel, you can add even more salt to the caramel layer. This recipe calls for ¼ teaspoon of salt, but you can increase this to 1teaspoon of salt for a strong flavour.

Gluten-free option:

For a gluten-free version, you can swap the regular plain/all-purpose flour for a gluten-free plain/all-purpose flour blend of the same quantity.

I usually recommend swapping in a pre-mixed flour blend such as King Arthur's measure for measure flour or Freee from Doves Farm.

If anything, this can make your shortbread even “shorter”. You'll get a lovely soft crumbly crust for your caramel shortbread bars!

To be safe, always check your other ingredients for allergen warnings on the nutritional label, as they may have cross-contamination warnings.

🧁 Other goodies

I definitely recommend that you whip up a batch of these delicious millionaire's shortbread traybake bars! But as an avid home baker, I’m sure you’re asking yourself “what next?”.

I think we can all agree that millionaire’s shortbread is a classic treat. If you’re a fan of the classics, check out my recipes for blueberry muffins and Victoria sponge cake.

Or if you've got a lot of love for a shortbread slice, why not take a look at my recipes for lemon bars, raspberry bars or Bakewell shortbread slices.

Looking forward to some new recipes? Check out my Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest pages for a few sneak peeks and some sweet inspiration!

Or if you’d like to hear about our latest recipes, why not subscribe to our newsletter?

📋 Recipe

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