What’s not to love about Millionaire’s Shortbread? – Buttery shortbread, sweet caramel and crunchy chocolate all together in bite sized pieces. Add a hint of champagne and you take it to a whole new level! It’s really easy to make too, this recipe doesn’t even need you to bake the shortbread. The cooling time between each layer does make for a long process start to finish, but it keeps really well in an air tight container in the fridge, and even freezes well, so this recipe can easily be made days in advance. You could even do the first two layers and leave it in the fridge over night to set and add the chocolate the next day.
This Millionaire’s Shortbread wont have a really strong champagne flavour, and certainly wont be alcoholic. Reducing the champagne on the hob intensifies the flavour so you only need to add a small amount and it also burns away the alcohol. It just gives a little hint – a background flavour which adds depth and, along with the pinch of salt, makes for a more grown up flavour, it’s not so sickly sweet.
This recipe does make a lot of caramel – about 500mls, when you only actually need 200mls for the shortbread. But I thought it was easier to use a standard sized tin of condensed milk than have you messing around with half measures. The leftovers are great warmed through in the microwave and poured over cake though, or make a bigger batch with double the amount of biscuits and chocolate. Maybe spread the love and take some into work – bribery with sweet treats is a sure fire way of edging closer to a pay rise!
To ramp up the romance, I melted a bit extra of the white chocolate and piped some hearts onto baking paper. They set in the fridge after about 15 mins and look great scattered on a big pile of the shortbread.
Ready in about 2hrs 15 mins (5 mins prep, 30 min reduction, 10 mins on the hob, 1h 30mins chilling) – makes about 16 pieces
Ingredients
- 200mls of champagne
- 150g of shortbread biscuits
- 25g of unsalted butter, melted
- 100g of unsalted butter
- 100g of dark brown sugar
- A pinch of salt
- 397g can of condensed milk
- 150g of milk chocolate
- 50g of white chocolate
Method
- Put the champagne in a pan and simmer over a medium heat for about 30 mins or until it’s reduced by half. (Pour into a measuring jug to check if it’s down to 100mls. If not, pour back into pan and continue to simmer) – Pic 1
- Crush the shortbread in a food processor, or in a sealed freezer bag with a rolling pin like I did. – Pic 2
- Mix the crushed shortbread, 25g of melted butter and 40mls of the reduced champagne together in a bowl and press firmly into the bottom of a buttered tin. – Pic 3
- Set the rest of the reduced champagne aside and put the pan back on the heat and add the rest of the butter, the sugar and salt.
- Once everything is melted, add the condensed milk and turn the heat up.
- Stirring all the time, get the caramel mixture to the point where it is bubbling in the middle, not just around the edge of the pan, and let it boil for 60 secs. – Pic 4
- Add the rest of the reduced champagne and boil for another 60 secs. (boil for longer if you prefer a harder set, I like it gooey)
- Take it off the heat and pour about 200mls over the biscuit base.
- Tap the tin on the counter to get rid of excess bubbles and allow to cool completely, until it is set to touch. – Pic 5
- Break up the chocolate into pieces and melt, keeping milk and white separate, either in the microwave or over a bain-marie (if microwaving check and stir it every 30 seconds, you don’t want it to burn)
- Pour the melted milk chocolate over the set caramel and spread out evenly. – Pic 6
- Pour the melted white chocolate into a piping bag and snip a very small hole in the end. Pipe dots, well spaced out, into the milk chocolate. – Pic 7
- Using a toothpick, drag a line from one side of the tin to the other, going through the white dots to create heart shapes. – Pic 8
- Experiment with different sizes to create interesting patterns. – Pic 9
- Place in the fridge for about an hour, or until completely set.
- Turn out onto a clean board and cut into small pieces. The set chocolate is harder than the caramel and biscuit, so I find it easier to cut it into strips while it’s upside down, and then turn each strip into it’s side and slice into chunks. – Pics 10, 11 & 12
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Pic 6 
Pic 7
Pic 10 
Pic 11 
Pic 12
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