Baking, for me, is a very homely thing. We’ve always been bakers in my family, and whether it was making flapjack with my Mum or making coffee cake with my Grandma, a lot of my childhood memories start with me in the kitchen covered in flour, creaming together butter and sugar and eating half of it before it made its way into the recipe.
Millionaire’s Shortbread is a particularly British recipe in my mind, although it’s known by a variety of names all over the world, such as Caramel Shortbread, Slice of Caramel and even Wellington Square. This will always be a British cake tin staple for me, though.
For such a decadent and indulgent treat, this is actually pretty easy to make; the most difficult part is the caramel, and that just takes a bit of time. I find that making vegan caramel takes longer than making its buttery counterpart, but once you know what you’re doing, it’s not a problem at all!
Don’t eat too much of this, or you may actually die. Share and share alike; that’s what I always say!
Enjoy this with a proper cup of tea for a real home-country treat!
You’ll need
(Makes 10-16 shortbreads)
For the shortbread:
1 cup non-hydrogenated vegan margarine (like Earth Balance)
1 cup sugar (granulated or icing sugar)
2 cups all-purpose flour
pinch of salt
For the caramel:
1/2 cup non-hydrogenated vegan margarine (like Earth Balance)
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 cups coconut milk
For the topping:
200g dark chocolate
Method:
Preheat the oven to 150 degrees Celcius
Grease an 8×8 baking tray
Cream the butter, salt and the sugar together until they’re thick and creamy
Stir in the flour a cup at a time to make a moist dough
(If your dough is too dry, add a tiny splash of almond milk to bring it to the right consistency)
Flatten the dough into the baking tray and bake for 20 minutes
Bring out of the oven and allow to cool
Heat the coconut milk, margarine and sugar in a pan, and stir until the margarine is melted
Bring to the boil, then reduce the mixture to a high simmer and keep stirring. Eventually the mixture should start to thicken and change to a slightly browny colour; once you can part the caramel with a wooden spoon or roll it into a ball with your fingers, its ready
Pour the caramel on to the cooled shortbread, making sure to spread it fully and evenly over the shortbread
Place into the freezer to firm up the caramel
Melt the chocolate in a bain-marie / in a ceramic bowl over simmering water slowly, stirring until its all melted
Pour over the caramel layer and return to the freezer to firm up
Once the chocolate layer is firm, remove the shortbread from the freezer and cut into squares
Keep in the fridge so it is perfect!
*A little trick here: I like to pop the cooled shortbread out of the tin, then to line the tin with wax / baking paper and return the shortbread into it again. This means that the caramel and chocolate layers will form into the correct shape, but you will be able to get the whole lot out easier at the end!
Don’t be afraid to but this into 20 pieces if you like; it’s a very intense treat and one that should be enjoyed in small bits!
What’s your favourite British treat? Let me know in the comments!
I baked these for a friends birthday – everyone commented on how good they were. Thank you for the recipe 🙂 the new website is great!
Thanks so much for your kind words, Stacey! I think everybody falls in love with these things. They are the perfect treat! 🙂
Look amazing! I only have coconut cream in the house at the mo – do you reckon I use instead on coconut milk – maybe half the measurement?
That should work, Hannah!
Yay! Will let you know how it goes! xx
Help. Tried the millionaires short bread base fine but when I made the caramel no luck. I used coconut milk with rice milk. Do I really need 2 cups it didn’t set after 30 mins x
Hi Jane,
Unfortunately the rice milk will be too thin for this to work. You really need to use 100% coconut milk (full fat) for this to properly turn into a caramel! The rice milk is just too watery and doesn’t contain enough fat. I hope that helps!
Heather
Thanks Heather. Better luck for me next time .What I did make was fab so doing it with the right milk should be even fab we x
Ps fab we. Was ment to read fab er x
This recipe looks incredible!! Would it be possible to use all purpose gluten free flour in place of regular? 🙂
Hi Lucy! I’ve never tried used gluten-free flour, but if it’s a GF flour mix designed to be used in place of normal flour (like Bob’s Red Mill Mix) then I think it should be fine. Let me know how it goes!
Heather
thrse are delicious! I tried the coconut milk initially but the caramel broke and it was yuck, but i didn’t give up, I used regular soy milk and they worked perfectly. You can also use soy creamer and it works just as well. Thank you for an excellent recipe! Also for us American folk, I baked the shortbread at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Thanks!
Hi Heather
What temperature are you getting the caramel to here? The description sounds like something between firmball and hardball?
Thanks.
I tried this with soy milk and the caramel wouldn’t thicken so I just tossed in more sugar and a pinch of salt
Voila!!! It turned out amazing. I left off the chocolate and added toasted pecans. Thanks for a great find.
Hello,
This recipe looks fab!
I’m planning to use it in my food technology course work. I saw that you said rice milk doesn’t work and I was wondering if any milk other than coconut would.
Thank you
Hi Charlotte! Good luck with the recipe! I use coconut milk because it’s fatty and creamy, so any other milk that’s particularly thick would be best. I would personally stick with coconut milk if you can, but good quality soy milk could also work, although it will need to cook for longer.
I hope it works out for you!
Can I use other plant based milks? Not a fan of coconut.
Unfortunately some other vegan milks are a little too thin; the fattiness of the coconut milk is essential in this recipe!
Hi, I love this recipe and my first batch came out amazing, but ever since even though I haven’t changed coconut milk the coconut is separating its self within 10 minutes of being in the freezer! My sister in law is having the same problem… any advice?
Hi Chelsea. Do you mean after you’ve made the shortbread the coconut caramel layer is separating?
You say a cup of, but what’s that in grams/ oz?
Hi,
I’ve made the shortbread base and it’s been in the oven for about 30mins. It doesn’t seem to be getting firm and feels like squishy and airy.
What have I done wrong?
I’m planning on making this and am wondering whether to use coconut milk in a tin, or the coconut milk in a bottle that you can drink?
It’s the tinned stuff; the coconut milk in a bottle is actually coconut water 🙂
Hi Heather,
Can you use caster sugar instead of granulated?
You can 🙂
Hello, I found the amt of oil in the shortbread to be too heavy. It took longer to bake because the center looked wet after 25 min. Then it wouldn’t release from the pan to cool. After a few days the bottom of her pan was holding oil that had come through the shortbread. Maybe this dessert is intended to be eaten in one day?
I also didn’t understand that the coconut milk for the caramel should have been condensed coconut milk. Caramel came out ok without it, but the texture was off. I’ll know for next time.
Hi Dee,
There is no oil included in this recipe; are you sure you’re commenting on the correct one?
Also, the coconut milk for the caramel is just regular coconut milk, not condensed coconut milk. I’m unsure where you’ve got this information from.
I think if you try the recipe with vegan margarine as listed, you’ll find that it cooks in the correct time and it comes out of the pan easily.
Good luck!
I’ve tried the caramel three times now and e eru time it won’t thicken so I keep stirring it on the heat and then it splits 🙁 Really bumming me out.