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Recipe by Jane Hornby

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1. Heat oven to 160C/fan 140C/gas 3 and lightly butter a 20 x 23 cm shallow baking tin. Sift the flours together, then stir in the sugar, almonds and a pinch of salt. Rub in the butter and vanilla seeds to make fine crumbs, then tip into the tin and press down with the back of a spoon. Put in the freezer for 5 mins, then bake for 35-40 mins. Cool.
2. For the caramel, put the sugar and 100ml water in a heavy-based pan, heat gently until the sugar dissolves, then turn up the heat until it turns dark amber. Stir in the cream in four additions until smooth and shiny - take care as it will bubble up. Stir in the butter and ½ tsp salt. Pour over the shortbread and cool. For the topping, melt the chocolate and butter over a pan of simmering water, then pour over the caramel and smooth out with the back of a spoon. Chill until firm, at least 30 mins. Cut into quarters, then 16 pieces. Will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Per serving

358 kcalories, protein 4g, carbohydrate 34g, fat 24 g, saturated fat 13g, fibre 2g, salt 0.15 g

Latest comments and suggestions

• Sarah

  04 March 2008

  Sarah rated and commented on this recipe

  

  I (stupidly) bought double instead of single cream and used cheapo butter for the caramel so it didn't set particularly well, but the slices tasted soo good and the kids loved them - will do the recipe again - and properly next time!

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• kirstyjolly

  11 March 2008

  kirstyjolly rated and commented on this recipe

  

  I have mixed feelings about this recipe! The base was lovely, really good texture - not too crumbly, not too hard, and had a really nice flavour. The dark chocolate topping was also good. Unfortunately, the caramel did not go at all to plan and did not set hard enough. I ended up binning the caramel and using another recipe that suggested using condensed milk, golden syrup and butter instead. So before going for this, I strongly recommend reading up on how to make caramel as I feel the instructions in this recipe are too vague.

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• mary

  23 March 2008

  mary commented on this recipe

  Must agree the caramel not too good

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• Frantic Flapjack

  25 March 2008

  Frantic Flapjack commented on this recipe

  The shortbread and the chocolate were fine but the caramel was too runny, although not unpleasantly so. Mine was much paler than the picture above. All in all, a bit too sweet for me but my son loved it.

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• Joy Rowell

  25 March 2008

  Joy Rowell rated and commented on this recipe

  

  I loved it although it is rather sweet. As for the caramel I made one batch and thought it looked really too pale to set so having enough ingredients I made another batch of caramel and cooked it longer and reading the recipe again, it said the caramel would bubble up when the cream was added and mine didn't the first time, so on the second attempt I added a small amount first to see if it bubbled up which it did and was fine. Also now and again I took it off the heat as I felt I couldn't see if the colour had gone to amber when it was bubbling up.

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• Jo

  25 April 2008

  Jo rated and commented on this recipe

  

  I didn't like this recipe. The caramel was far too sweet & didn't set properly although i have to admit that maybe that was because I didn't boil the sugar & water for long enough as my caramel was much paler than the picture. Very disappointing.

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• sarah

  27 May 2008

  sarah rated and commented on this recipe

  

  I made this despite the bad reviews hoping that taking heed of peoples suggestions here would mean a better result. No such luck. Agreed that the chocolate and the shortbread worked fine and are tasty, the caramel however doesn't really qualify as caramel. More sticky sugar paste. I tried cooking longer as suggested but to no avail. Not awful, but a can of dulce de leche would have worked much better.

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• Mrs B

  07 June 2008

  Mrs B commented on this recipe

  I also made a batch of these despite poor reviews and was determined to get the caramel right. Unfortunately I had the opposite problem on my first attempt. I heated it for too long and the caramel was more like tablet and didn't pour very well at all. It tasted good though but still not what I envisaged. Having enough ingredients, I made a second batch but this time, I did the cold water test and waited for the sugar to reach the soft ball stage, about 30 minutes. This time, it poured beautifully and set within minutes. However, the colour was no where near the same as the one in the picture . In fact the caramel was lighter than the shortbread! I agree that the instructions on making the caramel needs to be a bit more specific particularly with the timing. Someone mentioned using Dulce de Leche. I tried this before but it was difficult to cut the slices cleanly and is very sticky and messy to eat.

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• sandy_baby

  24 June 2008

  sandy_baby commented on this recipe

  does anyone have a alternative recipe for the caramel?

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• spacemonkey

  12 July 2008

  spacemonkey commented on this recipe

  Perhaps some of you have spotted this but I thought it might be worth saying that there is a similar recipe in the october 2007 edition on P112. It is for chocolate and hazelnut caramel bars and is utterly fab! I was actually looking for somewhere on the website to rate it when I came across all the caramel capers here. In case you don't have the magazine in question you need 125g butter, 1x397g tin condensed milk, 2tbsp golden syrup and 75g caster sugar. Just melt the butter add the other ingredients on a low heat and stir continuously for 15 minutes or so. Job done! Good luck everyone!

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• Anwen

  28 July 2008

  Anwen commented on this recipe

  Can anyone help? Tried making millionaires shortbread, the base and chocolate topping was fine but the caramel did not set and I had to throw the whole lot in the bin. The recipe I followed for the caramel was 5 oz brown soft sugar, 5 oz butter and 397g tin of carnation condensed milk. Melted all the above ingreadients over a low heat, stirring continuously until bubbles appear then remove. The mixture was then poured over the biscuit base and put in the fridge to set but it never setted. Does anyone have a recipe for caramel that sets??

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• Ali

  18 October 2008

  Ali commented on this recipe

  Hi all, I have made a similar recipe to this and it is homemade, and it is a lovely toffee sauce and sets really well, however you do have to leave it for an hour. The ingredient are; 7oz condensed milk, 4oz lurpax butter unsalted, 2oz of Billington's muscovado sugar and 2oz golden syrap. Method: 1/ Melt the butter, sugar and syrap on low heat in a saucepan. Once it has melted add the condensed milk. 2/ Once the mixture has come together and starts to bubbly, time 7 minutes. However you can't leave it as it will stick. 3/ Put over your cooled shortbread, and the longer you leave it the better give a minimum of an hour. 4/ From this when the toffee has set, melt some chocolate and put it over it. Vola Enjoy. Any questions or queries, do not hesitate to email me. Alicia Xxx

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Ingredients

• 175g plain flour
• 25g cornflour
• 50g golden caster sugar
• 85g blanched almonds , toasted then finely chopped
• 140g unsalted butter , cold and cut into cubes
• seeds from 1 vanilla pod

FOR THE CARAMEL

• 225g golden caster sugar
• 142ml single cream
• 50g butter , cubed

FOR THE TOP

• 200g bar dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
• 85g butter

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Difficulty and servings

Cuts into 16 pieces

Preperation and cooking times

Prep 16 mins

Cook 50 mins

Plus 30 minutes cooling and chilling

Ingredients

• 175g plain flour
• 25g cornflour
• 50g golden caster sugar
• 85g blanched almonds , toasted then finely chopped
• 140g unsalted butter , cold and cut into cubes
• seeds from 1 vanilla pod

FOR THE CARAMEL

• 225g golden caster sugar
• 142ml single cream
• 50g butter , cubed

FOR THE TOP

• 200g bar dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
• 85g butter

Per serving

358 kcalories, protein 4g, carbohydrate 34g, fat 24 g, saturated fat 13g, fibre 2g, salt 0.15 g

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