‘Millionaire’ shortbread

Best millionaires slice I’ve had was at Gloucester services on the M5.

Not surprising – that place is amazing (unless its mid day on a Friday/Saturday during summer).

@Sandwich Ah yes, Pump Street Bakery. My mother visits there a lot on dog walks and sends me photos of the teas she has had there. For me though, Orford will always be the place I used to buy smoked eels and other delicious smoked treats.

Has Wickham Market upped its game? I can’t remember the last time I went there by choice outside of visiting friends or going to the restaurant that the New Peach Bower replaced. My misspent youth meant I was mostly just hanging around the Pettistree Greyhound playing pool.

As an adult when I moved 20 miles north to Glasgow, it was called “caramel shortcake” and people looked at me like I was a communist if I asked for “millionaire shortbread”

This has solved a long-standing source of puzzlement for me … I always wondered what millionaire shortbread was, as it looked just like caramel shortcake to me. Turns out they’re the same thing. I’m off for a wee lie down.

I like Portuguese custard tarts though.

Me too.
We had a lovely Portuguese tart and Millionaire shortbread at: The Old Barn, Marton in Cheshire. Always cut any cakes in half and share with hubby.

I like Portuguese custard tarts though.

I’m just off on a lunchtime walk. They local coop sell them. I might divert.

Interesting all the analysis of different recipes being discussed above. The sad reality is that probably 95% of the rancid millionaires shortbread you get in UK cafes will have been produced in the same Brake Brothers factory in Kent….

https://www.brake.co.uk/bakery/sweet-bakery/traybakes-slices/traybakes/la-boulangerie-millionaires-shortbread/p/3850?term=shortbread

caramel shortcake

Caramel shortcake doesnt have the chocolate top coating, just usually a few chocolate sprinkles.

Thats kind of a Glasgow thing as they used to serve it at school.So not sure which part of Glasgow they’re saying such.

The sad reality is that probably 95% of the rancid millionaires shortbread you get in UK cafes will have been produced in the same Brake Brothers factory in Kent….

You are definitely going to the wrong cafés! Motorway services, greasy spoons*, and high street chains? Maybe. Independent cafes, never in my experience. Maybe it’s because I seek out those with really good coffee, homemade cakes and friendly staff. There are no shortage anywhere I’ve been if you make a little effort to seek them out.

*The subject of another thread perhaps. I really like a good ‘greasy spoon’ sometimes. A massive mug of steaming builders tea, a decent bacon butty or ham, egg and chips etc. when that’s what you’re in the mood for is epic. Not where I’d go if I wanted a goats cheese and quinoa salad followed by homemade cake though.

You are definitely going to the wrong cafés!

I didn’t say I went to them. Like you I try to find decent ones.

I always find it a bit too rich personally

Very good

@thegeneralist, you’d be thrown out of Yorkshire for trying to pass that off as home made.

If the shortbread is really good then neither caramel or chocolate should be allowed anywhere near it.  That millionaires shortbread is a good way of disguising, or even enjoying average shortbread .

Interesting all the analysis of different recipes being discussed above. The sad reality is that probably 95% of the rancid millionaires shortbread you get in UK cafes will have been produced in the same Brake Brothers factory in Kent….

well yes, in the same way that 95% of restaurants/pubs are generic & a bit shit. But I don’t go to those if I can help it!! Homemade cakes are very high on my list of criteria for cycle stops! (as is locally made/craft beer if a pub is involved!)

@gordimhor – but if the shortbread is really good, chocolate and caramel make it even better.

I didn’t say I went to them. Like you I try to find decent ones.

Fair enough. I do dispute your 95% of cafes using Brakes stat though. In most small towns, for every Starbucks and Costa there will be 4 or 5 independent cafes. Often tucked away down side streets or in slightly odd locations off the high street. Nearly all of them bake their own cakes or use a local independent producer who does ime.

Cafes in museums, visitor attractions or the aforementioned motorway services and chain cafes etc. Then I would agree.

@Kramer Naah really good shortbread melts in the mouth, caramel and chocolate messes that up.

@willard Cafe 47 on the market square, there’s also the CTC approved one down the street towards Lower Hacheston.

The Jamie Oliver – ‘Best shortbread in the world’ recipe is really, really good. Sugar, butter, flour and semolina (cornflour if no semolina). I’ve tried a lot of shortbread recipes in my time and his is the best. But for biscuits I’d probably go for Mary Berry.

If the cakes don’t look completely perfect (unless made by a patissiere or trained pastry chef), then they’re properly home baked and not churned out in a factory.

Our small town has some wonderful cafes and they produce top notch pastry and cake products.

I do love a bakewell slice, they’re always moist and nutty, with that little kick of raspberry jam, but not with a soggy bottom.

No one wants a soggy bottom, cake or otherwise.

@Sandwich Thanks for the tip. If/when I am next back in the UK visiting relatives I will swing by and check them out!

We have some Gu zillionaire cheesecakes in the fridge.

all the sweet stuff is ruined by the use of margarine.

Say what, now? This isn’t the 1950’s, do they even still make the stuff?

Bit of a tangent but R6 is just playing this and it’s always well worth a listen.

Meh, it’s okay I guess but it’s no Lardy Cake

I’m amazed how many of you are getting a bit of this and thinking about the shortbread! The shortbread base should only be there as a way of holding the caramel and very thick chocolate together.

Granny Bradley’s recipe has the chocolate as the thickest layer and the caramel is only just a smidge thinner and very runny. It should be impossible to eat neatly – the caramel should be squeezing out as you fail to snap the chocolate. The shortbread holds it together a smidge but you won’t remember it as the diabetic coma from the caramel really hits home.

It’s the best “traybake” style treat and I generally get it anywhere I see if if I want something sweet. Very hit & miss though; some make me reach enlightenment, some make me sad.

The Jamie Oliver – ‘Best shortbread in the world’ recipe is really, really good.

I googled this.

Ingredients
 
1 cup and 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter at room temperature, plus extra for greasing
1/2 cup and 1 Tbsp. superfine sugar , sifted, plus extra for sprinkling
2 cups (scant) all-purpose flour , plus extra for dusting
2/3 cup semolina or 1 cup (scant) cornstarch

Go home America, you’re drunk.

Inspired by this thread I went to our work “restaurant” (canteen) (owned by fudging Costa!) and bought the nearest I could find to Millionaires Shortbread… it was called Billionaires! Gotta be amazing, right? Nope, it was a chewy FLAPJACK topped with a drizzle of some stuff coloured to look like caramel and chocolate, but actually tasted of nothing. So a flapjack then. Slightly disappointing I must say. And I think it was over £2.

1 cup (scant)

Eh?

Eh?

Yeah, I had to look that up too.  It means “a bit less than a cup.”

@desperatebicycle – probably made by Brake Bros as referenced earlier in the thread?

I pity the poor folk who’ve not experienced the epiphany that is a proper home made millionaire’s shortbread.

Yeah, I had to look that up too.  It means “a bit less than a cup.

Imperial or US measurements in cooking irritate me. I do have some cup, tablespoon etc. measures somewhere for when I am forced to use them in a recipe, but I will always seek out a metric one for precision if I can. Even though I’m old enough to be comfortable working in imperial or metric with other stuff. ‘Fluid ounces’? GTF!

My OH doesn’t weigh/measure stuff when she bakes. She does it by eye (apparently) . So sometimes the result is excellent and sometimes it’s awful.  With a tiny amount of effort it could be consistently good all the time.  This is why I don’t understand people who say ‘I can’t cook’.  If you can read well enough to follow a recipe and are numerate enough to understand weights, measures, temperatures and time – then you can cook. It’s pure laziness. I suspect what people really mean when they say that is ‘I can’t be arsed, I want you to do it for me’.

Nope, it was a chewy FLAPJACK

Flapjack is far superior to shortbread, fact.

Imperial or US measurements in cooking irritate me.

I wrote about this at length a little while ago.

A South African friend was bemoaning that she found the differences between American and British English really confusing, particularly around weights and measures and the British interpretation of Metric, so I tried to explain. [a thread]
/1

— Alan (@UKCougar) August 27, 2022

Or for the Ex-X users, https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1563524116975874049.html

I do have some cup, tablespoon etc. measures

To my mind I parse “cup” as “part” rather than an absolute measurement.  Eg my pancake recipe is a cup of eggs, a cup of flour and a cup of milk, that works for whether the cup is a china teacup or a litre jug.  Where the wheels come off is when you get non-cups measurements in the same recipe.

I bought a set of American measuring cups for when this is actually useful (eg, cooking absorption-method rice).  They were hard to source because most measuring cups in the UK are slightly different, which should come as a surprise to no-one on either side of the pond.

Flapjack is far superior to shortbread, fact.

Agreed. When you want a flapjack!

Talking of cake(ish)… you seen this cake shop thing? Oooh lovely.

.https://youtu.be/g9Ty1sokoDQ?si=GeIdzJk5tKz6TSbv

For Cougar

When you want a flapjack!

The only time anyone does not want a flapjack is when there also an option of a lardy cake

I wrote about this at length a little while ago.

Very good.  I knew all that (less the motorway metre/yard thing) but it’s not quite so absurd and amusing until you see it all listed like that.

A flapjack isn’t ‘better’ it’s just different. At different times you may legitimately prefer either.  Flapjacks are far better suited to packing for travel (on a bicycle perhaps), due to superior structural integrity and the higher melting point of component parts.  However low GI and slow release carbs just don’t cut it when you want a sugar rush and instant gratification.  It is written (somewhere) that man cannot live on flapjacks alone

A flapjack isn’t ‘better’ it’s just different.

Oh no, it’s definitely better

However low GI and slow release carbs just don’t cut it when you want a sugar rush and instant gratification.

My flapjack recipe (and yes it’s imperial measurements, but it’s from an old book)

– 15oz oats

– 9oz butter (i.e. a whole block)

– 6oz sugar

– 6oz syrup

…so one-third of the thing is sugar, which should be ample gratification of your rush needs.

It is written (somewhere) that man cannot live on flapjacks alone

Maybe, but I bet I could give it a bloody good go.

Very good.  I knew all that (less the motorway metre/yard thing) but it’s not quite so absurd and amusing until you see it all listed like that

I was wachting a youtube video about a car (not a regular occupation of mine, I might add) and he said it’s mpg* was 16km per litre. I think that’s quite good. My brain will never be able to convert to that though.

*he said fuel economy, but you know what I mean.