MILLIONAIRE'S SHORTBREAD

Pascal has been away for ages but is finally coming home and so I am cooking up a storm for his arrival. First on the list is millionaire shortbread - his favourite and I am quite a fan too. I am such a piglet I was finishing off the Cadbury's Creme Egg Brownies as I baked….they ended up being MUCH better than I expected - I kept them in the fridge and they tasted so phenomenal I literally had some every time I opened the fridge door - so not good for the waistline!!

Ingredients for around 12-15 squares (depending on the size of your tin):

For the shortbread:
225g plain flour
175g unsalted butter, cold, cut into cubes
75g caster sugar

For the topping:
150g butter
1 x 379g can condensed milk
100g golden syrup
350g dark chocolate or a mixture of dark and milk chocolate

Preheat the oven to 150 C / gas mark 2.

Line a 23cm / 9in square cake tin with baking parchment. I didn't have the right size so used a slightly smaller one.

Combine the flour and butter cubes in a food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs (alternatively you can rub the butter in by hand). I used my food processor which I sometimes think doesn't actually work very well!!! It seems to get stuck a lot.

Anyway then add the caster sugar and pulse again until combined.

Tip the mixture into the lined cake tin and spread it out evenly with the back of a spoon. This was easier said than done as it's really sticky and the baking parchment kept moving. Then press the shortbread down firmly with your knuckles so that it is tightly packed in the tin. (I failed to read this part of the recipe - doh)!

Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until lightly golden brown (I did 30 minutes).

Then set aside to cool. Mine was very raised but that was no doubt because I forgot to press it down and I also used self rising flour as that is what I had in the cupboard….hope it doesn't ruin it!!

While this is cooling, it is time to make the topping.

Heat the butter, condensed milk and golden syrup in a saucepan, stirring occasionally until the butter is melted and the mixture is smooth. This again was a very sticky process!

Then increase the heat and bring the mixture to the boil, stirring frequently. The caramel will thicken and turn golden brown - I did this for about 5-7 minutes.

Set aside to cool slightly and then pour over the cooled shortbread and allow to cool completely.

Melt the chocolate in a bowl over hot water in a saucepan, stirring occasionally (obviously you will probably want to lick the spoon several times as well)!

Once this is less hot, pour the melted chocolate over the caramel and set aside until the chocolate has cooled completely.

I then popped it into the fridge for a couple of hours until it was completely set (this wait was like torture). However it was worth it - when I finally tucked in, it was completely delicious - every single part of it!

There will certainly be no diet happening this week! I now only wish I didn't have to share with Pascal! Oink oink!! If I were to change anything I might make the topping all milk chocolate or even use just white chocolate….one thing is for sure is that I will definitely be making this again. This is a great recipe, I love that it is easy with not too many ingredients and the results speak for themselves!