Great British Bake-Off Week 4: Millionaire Shortbread

We'll get back to Week 3, the terrifying bread week, at a later date. My efforts to make bread have not been very successful, fail proving! So I'm taking it to the pros, more to come.

Something I do know and enjoy, unlike Prue, are sweet things! I'm not sure you should confess to not liking sweet things when you're the judge on a BAKING show. Just sayin'.

Anyways, a friend of mine makes something similar to this shortbread but it uses crackers and some peanut butter chips instead. So it's a low maintenance version of this and it's amazing. But I'm also sworn to secrecy so I'll do the British version instead. This isn't really a common thing in the US but shortbread is a known, as are caramel and chocolate, just as separate entities.

I've made caramel once before and learned the hard way, don't poke the hot caramel. Like for real, even when it's out of the pan and is spilled on your counter, it's not safe. Blistering will happen. Much pain and sorrow WILL HAPPEN. Just don't do it, okay? Okay.

In theory, this is a simple recipe. The shortbread consists of cubed butter (no softening required!), flour and sugar which is mixed together by hand and then pressed into a square baking tin. Once it is browned, you can add the caramel which is just melted butter, golden syrup and condensed milk. And once the caramel is set and cooled, you just add melted chocolate. Simple.

But when the caramel ingredients are melting and you take a moment to enjoy the sunset and then realize you've left the caramel unattended and even though it's supposed to boil, it's somehow burnt a bit and you can tell from stirring that you've burnt the pan as well--well, then it becomes more complicated.

Never fear though, the caramel was salvaged. If there's one thing I learned from Bake Off, you don't throw the whole baked Alaska out with the soft ice cream, ammiright? True fans know what I'm talking about. So I used the caramel anyways which had the nice flavor of toasted marshmallow. The only problem was it never fully set, it stayed as a thick goo. So when I cut the squares, it became a caramel sandwich which oozed out.

In a bin. This is not a recommended serving suggestion for Baked Alaska. #GBBO #BINGATE pic.twitter.com/FqgNX9f5Lc

— BBC One (@BBCOne) August 27, 2014

They were still tasty and they were still mass consumed by my colleagues as well. I brought them in to raise funds for a charity half marathon I'm running in less than 2 weeks! So maybe they ate them out of charity, twice over.

Recipe
Crust

• 225g plain flour
• 175g unsalted butter, cold and cubed
• 75g sugar

1. In a food processor, pulse together the flour and cubed butter until crumbly. Alternatively, mix by hand in a medium bowl until the butter is well incorporated and the mixture is crumbly.
2. Add the sugar and mix to combine.
3. In a parchment lined square baking tin, dump the dough and press evenly to fill the pan.
4. Bake in the oven at 150C (300F) for 15-30 minutes until slightly browned.
5. Allow to cool before adding the caramel.

Caramel

• 150g unsalted butter
• 379g condensed milk
• 100g golden syrup

1. In a saucepan, melt the butter, milk and golden syrup together.
2. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring frequently, until it is a golden brown and has thickened.
3. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
4. Once cooled, pour the caramel over the shortbread, still in the baking tin. Allow the caramel to cool and set completely before adding the chocolate layer.

Chocolate

• 350g dark chocolate

1. In a double boiler, melt the chocolate.
2. Pour on top of the caramel.
3. Allow to set before cutting into squares. The easiest way to do this is to lift the mass out of the tin by the parchment paper edges and cut on a cutting board (rather than cutting in the tin).