Millionaire's Shortbread

To be completely honest, I have never heard of Millionaire's Shortbread. When I heard about "Millionaire's Shortbread", the first thing that came to mind was that it was some sort of dessert that has to do with shortbread, obviously. But what exactly is it? While watching a show on the food network called 5 Ingredient Fix with Claire Robinson, I was intrigued when she said at the top of the show that she would be making Millionaire's Shortbread. To find out what Millionaire's Shortbread was, I watched the whole show and now understand what it is. Simply, Millionaire's Shortbread is a "cookie" that has a layer of shortbread, a layer of caramel and finally, a layer of chocolate to top it off. It's sort of like a Twix candy bar. Sounds good, right? I mean, we're talking about caramel and chocolate! That's definitely one of my favorite combinations when it comes to dessert. The best part is, even though it has three layers to it, it's pretty simple to make. You probably already have the ingredients on hand just waiting to be turned into Millionaire's Shortbread. This is the first time making it and the recipe is from Claire Robinson's show. *This is definitely a test recipe.

Millionaire's Shortbread
Ingredients
Shortbread:
2 sticks butter, cut into small pieces, plus more for preparing pans
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for preparing pans
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
Caramel Layer:
2 (14-ounce) cans sweetened condensed milk
2 tablespoons butter
Chocolate Topping:
3/4 pound good-quality milk chocolate
Directions
Shortbread:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Butter 2 (8-inch) square nonstick pans and coat with flour, tapping off excess. Place the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse once. Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles peas. Press the shortbread mixture into prepared pans and bake until golden brown around the edges, about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool completely.

Caramel Layer:

In a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium-low heat, combine the condensed milk and 2 tablespoons of butter. Slowly bring the mixture to a boil, stirring continuously. Continue stirring over the heat until mixture becomes thick and amber in color, about 15 minutes. Pour the caramel over the cooked shortbread and spread evenly using an offset spatula. Cool to room temperature.

Chocolate Topping:

In a glass bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water, melt the chocolate. Once chocolate has melted, pour it over the cooled caramel layer. Cool at room temperature for about 10 minutes, and then place in the refrigerator to cool completely, allowing chocolate to slightly harden but not get hard. Cut into 2-inch squares and enjoy, or store in an airtight container, at room temperature, or my favorite - keep in the refrigerator for a yummy sweet and cool treat!

Millionaire's Shortbread is SOOO GOOD! I mean, the chocolate was of course good, the caramel was made with ONE ingredient so that was easy and the shortbread was simple to make. Overall, I do think this recipe needs to be tweaked. The things I would tweak would probably be adding more salt along the way, whether it be in the shortbread or caramel, to balance out the sweetness and the shortbread was definitely one dimensional. It needed that, what I like to say "Somethin, somethin" to bring it to the next level. But, in all, really great "cookie" that reminded me of a fresh take on a Twix candy bar but looks fancier.


-Aaron John
My Food Outings: AJ's Food Adventure
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