GBBO week 4 – caramel: salted peanut millionaire’s shortbread

I watched the GBBO caramel episode from our cabin at Centerparcs, drooling over the different varieties of millionaire’s shortbread.

But of course I am trying to be healthy, so how can I munch on millionaire’s shortbread? Well, luckily my friend Lucy had been looking after the cats while we were away, so this seemed like the perfect gift. But I wanted to make a peanut variety, and was worried it would go wrong, so made this traditional version as well (on top of which I sprinkled crushed up crunchie biscuits).

Actually, my salted peanut version worked really well: the caramel in millionaire’s shortbread is so, so sweet, that the saltiness of the peanuts, and the swirl of peanut butter mixed into the chocolate, counter-balances all that sugar very well.

So here is how I made these layers of yumminess.

Salted peanut millionaire's shortbread for a #GBBO challenge Click To Tweet

Salted peanut millionaire’s shortbread

  • For the biscuit layer: 225g plain flour, 75g caster sugar, 175g butter
  • For the caramel layer: 200g butter, 1 can of condensed milk, 4 tablespoons of golden syrup, 150g salted peanuts
  • For the chocolate layer: 200g milk chocolate, 2tbsp smooth peanut butter

I used a square tin of approx 10cm x 10cm which I lined with foil (so that I could lift out the traybake easily).

Preheat your oven to 170 degrees and make your biscuit base first of all by rubbing the butter into the flour and sugar until it resembles breadcrumbs (I did this using a food processor to speed things up – you just need to keep blitzing until the mixture starts to clump together).

Then squish the mixture together until it clumps into a ball and press it evenly into the bottom of the baking tin. Prick the mixture with a fork and put it in the oven for 5 minutes before turning the oven down to 150 degrees and baking the shortbread for another 30 minutes until it’s golden brown. Allow to cool completely.

Make the caramel by melting the butter in a saucepan and then adding the can of condensed milk and golden syrup. Heat to a gentle boil and when the mixture thickens and turns slightly darker yellow it is ready. Be vigilant and keep stirring the caramel as otherwise it will catch on the bottom and burn. Add the peanuts to the caramel and pour on top of the shortbread. Again, allow to cool completely.

Melt your chocolate (either in the microwave in 10 second bursts, stirring each time; or using a Bain Marie method on the hob). Allow it to cool slightly so you don’t pour piping hot chocolate onto the caramel. Pour the chocolate gently onto the caramel in an even layer, then drizzle the peanut butter on top and gently swirl it into the chocolate.

Put the tray into the fridge to set completely and then cut into slices, scoffing any bits that break (chef’s privilege).

Check out what my fellow bloggers have been cooking up for caramel week over at Jenny from Mummy Mishaps’ Great Blogger Bake Off linky – head on over to her site to see what the other bloggers made, and don’t forget to read her latest round-up. Her apple millionaire’s shortbread sounds utterly delicious – I am sure Andrew would like the idea of that …

Oh, and you may have noticed that week 3 of the challenge (bread week) is missing … I was on holiday so didn’t have a chance to bake any bread, but I really fancy the idea of teacakes so hope to catch up on the challenge soon.

2 Replies to “GBBO week 4 – caramel: salted peanut millionaire’s shortbread”

  1. jennypaulin says: Reply

    I like your new blog header 🙂
    Peanuts with caramel and chocolate is so delicious . I am pleased to see that you made your caramel the same way as me! Thank you for linking to #GBBOBloggers2017 x

    1. Aw thank you! Yes, I didn’t know there was another way to make caramel to be honest (apart from buy it ready made!!!)

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