Salted Caramel Shortbread
You can never go wrong with some tasty shortbread, especially one with a layer of chocolate and a salted caramel filling. The trick is to get the ratio of shortbread to caramel to chocolate just right..
With three key components, you want to make sure that you get each of the layers spot on. Firstly, with the shortbread, you want to get a buttery base, not too flaky, but with enough crunch. In the batch I made, I found it a little too flaky, so I’ve tweaked the proportions in the recipe below slightly.
The caramel – you can go salt or no salt, its really up to your taste preference. In the original recipe I found, it called for 4 tbsp of golden syrup, unfortunately I had none, but I had maple syrup instead. After some quick googling, I realised that they weren’t direct substitutes in large quantities, but I ended up finding a recipe that only needed 1tbsp of golden syrup, which I did substitute for maple syrup in the end. Caramel came out just fine and turned a nice golden colour too!
Chocolate-wise, I’ve always been a dark chocolate girl, but it would have been a little rich for this bake so I settled on part-dark and mostly milk chocolate. Option to add white chocolate into the fix to create a nice feathered effect if you so wish!
With ratios, personally, I think there was a little too much chocolate, it needed a thinner topping and perhaps less crunchy. I initially just melted chocolate and poured it over, but I think if you add a little double cream, it softens up a touch and is much gentler on the teeth!
- 200g unsalted butter (room temp.)
- 75g caster sugar
- 250g plain flour
- 1tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tin condensed milk (normally about 405ml)
- 115g unsalted butter
- 100g caster sugar
- 1tbsp maple syrup/golden syrup
- 2tsp sea salt
- 200g milk chocolate
- 25g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
- 2tbsp double cream
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Line and grease an 8in/20cm square tin
- Rub in butter to flour, sugar and vanilla, until a dough comes together.
- Press dough into the tin, making sure to reach into the corners - use a cake smoother if you want to get an even surface
- Bake for 10 mins at 180 degrees, then turn down to 150 degrees and bake for a further 30 mins
- When done, remove from oven and let it cool in the tin
- Put all ingredients except the salt into a saucepan and simmer for 10 minutes
- Once it starts to thicken and darken slightly, add in the sea salt and taste - when you're happy, remove from the heat and pour over the shortbread in the tin
- Let this cool and set before adding the chocolate, I left mine in the freezer for about 30 mins, but fridge would work just as well, it just takes a little longer
- Melt the chocolate together in the microwave with short 30-second blasts, stirring until fully melted. Or, place in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan with some water until melted
- Stir in the double cream and pour chocolate over the shortbread and caramel, then let it set in the fridge/freezer until firm
- Use a hot knife to slice cleanly. This recipe makes enough for 9 large squares, or lots of mini ones depending on the size you cut - I ended up with 25 mini squares.
- When you're lining the tin - I highly recommend fully lining it, bottom and sides, so that you can lift it out of the tin when you come to cut it. You might struggle trying to remove the first few pieces otherwise!