Millionaire Shortbread Bars
Decadent triple layer dessert bars featuring shortbread, caramel, and chocolate ganache. Topped with sea salt flakes making them the perfectly sweet dessert bar.
Servings: 16 bars
Ingredients
Shortbread
- 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 ¼ cup all purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Caramel (*see note)
- ½ cup corn syrup
- ½ cup butter unsalted or salted is fine
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
- 1/4 tsp salt
Chocolate Ganache
- 1 ½ cups semi sweet chocolate chips
- ⅓ cup heavy cream
- sea salt flakes to top
Instructions
Shortbread
- Line a 9x9" pan with parchment paper; set aside. Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Using a hand or stand mixer, cream together butter, sugar, and vanilla. Mix together for a couple minutes until light. Add egg yolk then gently mix again.
- Add flour and salt and mix until combined and it transitions from crumbly into a smooth dough.
- Press the dough into the pan evenly. Bake for about 22-25 minutes until lightly golden brown. Set aside.
Caramel
- Prepare the caramel by mixing together all of the ingredients in a large pot over the stove at medium high heat. STIR CONSTANTLY.
- After the first bubble appears, stir constantly for about 10 minutes. The caramel will thicken and begin to get a richer, darker color. If you have a candy thermometer, it should get to 225°F.
- Immediately pour over your prepared shortbread crust. Spread as needed to get a nice even layer. Chill in the fridge to cool and allow caramel to set.
Chocolate Ganache
- Heat up cream in the microwave until boiling. Pour over chocolate chips. Cover and let it sit for about 5 minutes.
- Whisk together until smooth. If it doesn't appear to be warm enough to fully mix in, heat in 10-15 second intervals in the microwave to get to a nice smooth consistency.
- Pour over set caramel. Let it sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes to allow the chocolate to partially set, then top with flaky sea salt.
- Chill then cut and serve. These can be made in advance easily, even frozen! You can freeze the individual squares or freeze the whole pan then let it thaw until it's soft enough to cut through.
Notes
This caramel recipe is a modified version from my family's famous caramels. I've modified it slightly to be the right ratio for this size of pan for the recipe. It's also not quite as hot as normal caramels. It's slightly softer then the wrapped up chewy caramels.
If you want to double this recipe and use it in a 9x13 pan, you can use this caramel recipe and heat to 225 F as directed above.
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