Salted Caramel & Walnut Millionaires Shortbread
During this time of lockdown, I’m shouting about home cooking, cooking from scratch, the Foodie Book Club and anything else that lets us all lead “our best Life” as my adult kids keep telling me.
There are some phrases that drive me insane (I know it’s an age thing on my part), but I like “leading your best life”. It feels like it puts a very positive spin on what can sometimes be seen as an everyday, just getting on with living, activity.
I guess that some would say, now more than ever, we need to be thinking positively about life in general and using this time during isolation and lockdown to put life’s woes in perspective maybe even re-evaluate our lives
Done that, so bugger that for a game of soldiers.
Let’s all embrace the uniqueness of who we are and welcome a little normality to our lives, after all, we’ll be thrust straight into the real world very soon, and the sooner the better.
For me, normality is cooking, and as we’ve just had the Easter weekend, a time for chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate, I thought I’d share with you a millionaire’s shortbread recipe with a little difference.
Salted Caramel & Walnut Millionaires Shortbread
While cooking with my Mum, this type of cooking wasn’t really the sort of thing she would make on her weekly Sunday morning baking marathons. Treats like this were made very rarely.
Her baking was all about keeping her four daughters fed and enough baked goods to ensure my Dad had bate every day for his underground food break.
Something as indulgent as a salted Caramel & Walnut Millionaires Shortbread would have felt a little too middle class for her to bake.
I’ve never known anyone who labelled herself as “working class” to be as middle class in her attitudes as she was, without her even realising it. I say this with love of course.
Snobby with a small s, as I would describe her. She was often caught up with what outsiders thought of her, and to be seen to be not having enough good home cooked food to last the week just wouldn’t have been right.
I know I follow in her footsteps, were the amount of food Is concerned (always cooking enough food just in case an army drops in unannounced), not the snobby attitude.
In any case, I don’t think that salted caramel was even thought of as an edible combination way back then.
My Mum had her own quirky eating habits, and would often survive on bread and butter, always Lurpak; thick enough to be seen from space. As a dessert, chocolate covered biscuits, Bar Six being her biscuit of choice. Not because she didn’t have access or couldn’t afford more, I’ve already told you in other posts about her mammoth baking days, but because this was her food of choice.
Although if she had tried this, she may even have added it to her list of things she loved to eat.
Give this recipe a go, and remember, to make a great salted caramel, I would recommend not to use table salt. Too bitter.
Go for Maldon sea salt, once you do, there’s no going back
Enjoy Your Sweet Life
Sticky, chocolatey goodness. I’m sure the walnuts make it healthy?
What You Need
Biscuit Base
Plain Flour – 125g
Self Raising Flour – 125g -See Tip Box
Butter – 175g – Room temperature
Castor Sugar – 75g
Salted Caramel & Walnut Layer
Butter – 100g
Soft Brown Sugar – 100g
Condensed Milk x 2
Chopped Walnuts – 200g
Maldon Sea Salt – Pinch to taste - See Tip Box
Chocolate Topping
Milk Chocolate or Chocolate of choice – 200g
The shortbread ready to be packed down into the oven tray
How It’s Done
Heat the oven to 200c – See Tip Box
Shortbread –Place all the flour, castor sugar and butter into a bowl and rub together with your finger tips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
Pour the mixture into a flat oven tray with sides and spread the mixture evenly over the tray. Press firmly down until its packed down tight.
Place the tray into the hot oven and bake 10-20 minutes until a very pale golden brown- See Tip Box
Once cooked, remove from the oven and leave to cool.
Once cooled, sprinkle over the chopped walnuts, making sure they are evenly spaced so everyone has their fair share.
Caramel – Open both tins of condensed milk and pour them into a heavy bottomed saucepan.
Add the butter and brown sugar and heat gently , stirring, until the sugar is dissolved.
Bring the mixture to the boil, then reduce the heat to a very gentle simmer, stirring constantly - See Tip Box
Keep stirring – the mixture will thicken a little. Keep heating and stirring for about 10 minutes
Add the Maldon sea salt and stir to incorporate and melt it into the hot caramel– See Tip Box
Pour the caramel over the baked, cooled shortbread and walnuts and level it. Leave to cool completely
Once the caramel is cold, melt the chocolate in the microwave or in a bowl over a pan of water and poor the chocolate over the salted caramel levelling out so that all of the caramel is covered – See Tip Box
Leave to cool completely before cutting to size and enjoying.
Make sure you spread out your walnuts. Everyone wants a share
Tip Box
Oven – All ovens vary so adjust cooking times accordingly.
Flour – If you don’t have any self-raising flour, don’t worry, no need to go out and buy some just for this recipe. Use all plain flour instead.
Caramel- Never take your eyes off the caramel once you reduce the heat to simmer. Never stop stirring. Guaranteed, once you turn around, the mixture will stick to the bottom of the pan and burn
WARNING – Caramel is very hot so don’t taste it straight from the pan, let it cool first.
Maldon Sea Salt – Add as much or as little of this to the caramel as you like. It’s your individual taste. Don’t overdo it though.
Melting the Chocolate – If you choose to melt your chocolate in the microwave, be very careful not to burn it. Start with a 30 second burst, mix, then another 30 second until its nice and smooth
I couldn’t wait to take the pictures before i has a nibble
