I follow a channel on YouTube called What's For Tea. Its run by a lady from Scotland named Cheryl. I just love listening to her accent. Every Saturday I tune in to see what she has picked up in her shopping. Its a bit of nostalgia for me from when I lived in the U.K.
I will see things that I used to buy and wonder to myself, why don't they have those things here! Things like frozen baked potatoes. I really miss those, and the frozen mash as well. They were both ever so handy to have in the freezer and for a single person they would be ideal.
On Sundays she posts her Meals of the Week. I always like to watch those videos as well. I am always so surprised at some of the things they eat together, such as a pasta dish with chips. They seem to like chips with a lot of things.
Sometimes she and her husband Mr Whatsfortea will have gone away for a few days and she will share the meals they have eaten while they were away as well. Always interesting to me.
Carb heavy or not, it always looks pretty tasty however and I do enjoy watching. The other day she had put a video up of these Salted Caramel Shortcake Cups. They looked positively decadent and oh so delicious!
What they have here is a shortbread cookie type of baked base, topped with a homemade salted caramel and then with a wee bit of chocolate on top. They looked really similar to a Twix candy bar, or Millionaire Shortbread.
She made them look very simple to make and I loved the idea that they were in a single serving size, rather than a tray bake that you had to cut into squares.
She used a silicone sphere mold to bake her cups. I ordered a couple from Amazon, but when I went to make the cups they were a bit on the small side and so I ended up making 12 in the sphere shape and then 12 in the bottom of a medium sized muffin tin.
So, its nice to know that you don't actually need to have any special molds to make them. Rounded bottoms are cute, but whether the bottoms are rounded or flat, they are just plain delicious no matter the shape.
True confession here, when I went to melt the milk chocolate to put on top, my chocolate seized. I am not sure why. Perhaps my microwave is much hotter than the one suggested on the package of chocolate chips.
What I ended up doing instead was taking some of the chocolate leftover from Halloween and breaking it into squares and then popping a wee square on top of each and popping them back into the heat of the oven for a few minutes to soften so that I could spread it over the tops. This actually worked really well!
WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE SALTED CARAMEL SHORTCAKE CUPS
There are a few ingredients that are not so much every day like sweetened condensed milk, but for the most part you probably have all that you need right now to make these. There is nothing very complicated about these. The original measures were given by weight. I have translated them to North American Measures to take the guess work out of them for you.
For the Base:- 1 cup + 1 1/2 TBS (250g) butter
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2/3 cup (80g) icing sugar
- 1 1/2 cups + 2 TBS (225g) all purpose plain flour
- 1/2 cup (75g) cornstarch (corn flour)
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 TBS golden syrup (can use corn syrup)
- 14 oz tin (400g) of sweetened condensed milk
- 3 1/2 ounces (7 TBS/100g) butter
- 1/2 cup (100g) soft light brown sugar
- 18 milk chocolate buttons, large (can use broken milk chocolate bars)
Make sure you use SWEETENED condensed milk, not evaporated milk. Whilst both have been heat treated and condensed, the sweetened one has had sugar added and is very thick, very sweet and creamy. I could eat it with a spoon actually.
Yes, I am that naughty. 😁 I likes what I likes.
We don't get Cadbury's milk chocolate buttons here in Canada, not big nor small. I had quite a few mini sized chocolate bars left from Halloween and so I used the Aero bars and the Caramilk bars. I just broke them in half and they were the perfect size.
I preferred the aero over the other ones as they were pure chocolate and melted nicely so that I could spread them. The Caramilk ones did not melt that well, although they were still delicious. They ended up more like a milk chocolate covered knob of caramel on top of the bakes.
HOW TO MAKE SALTED CARAMEL SHORTCAKE CUPS
These only look complicated. The hardest part is making the caramel.
First make the bases. Preheat the oven to 375*F/190*C/ gas mark 4. Butter 18 muffin cups.Cream the butter with an electric beater until light and fluffy. Sift the icing sugar in and beat it until well incorporated. Beat in the vanilla.Sift the flour and cornstarch together three times, then beat this mixture into the creamed mixture until thoroughly combined. Divide the batter between the muffin cups, pressing it evenly into the cups. (use wet fingers if you need to)Bake in the preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, until well set and golden brown around the edges.
While the shortbread bases are baking make the caramel. Pop all of the ingredients into a heavy based saucepan. Cook and stir over low heat until everything has melted and amalgamated.
Increase the heat to medium and bring to a boil. Boil for 5 to 6 minutes stirring constantly so that it doesn't catch. By that time the caramel should be set and a small amount dropped in cold water should form a soft ball.Divide the caramel between the baked shortbread bottoms evenly, covering them completely. Pop a chocolate button on top and return to the oven for a few minutes to melt.Leave to cool completely and set before eating. Store in an airtight container.
SOME HINTS AND TIPS TO ENSURE SUCCESS
1. Butter your molds or muffin cups really well just to make sure that the finished baked will release easily.
2. Do not try to hurry the caramel. It will scorch if you have the temperature up too high. Caramel is not something you can rush.
3. Do not walk away from the caramel. Right from the start when you are melting the ingredients, stay with it, and stir, stir, stir. It can catch very easily and so you need to keep it moving.
4. The caramel is done when you can drop a little bit of it into a glass of cold water and it forms a soft ball that doesn't disintegrate when you try to pick it up.
5. Pour the caramel into a large glass jug or measuring cup for pouring. This will make it much easier to pour it on top of the bakes.
6. Work quickly once your caramel is done so that it stays liquid for pouring. It will start to set as it cools.
These are incredibly delicious. That shortbread base would be delicious even on its own. It is short textured, buttery and crumbly, not too sweet. Just like what a perfect shortbread should be.
The caramel is the right texture. Not too soft or runny, not too hard. It lays on top of the biscuit base perfectly and adheres well.
The three bits together are incredibly edibly MOREISH! I took half of these over to my sister's for them as I knew I could not be trusted with these all by myself! Yes. Its true. I have little to no self control when it comes to things like this, lol.
Just look at how buttery and crumbly these are. Mmm . . . If you are interested in baking some small batch cookies and bakes, you might also enjoy the following. They are incredibly delicious as well and with a small batch, there isn't much opportunity to over-indulge!
SMALL BATCH AMISH SUGAR COOKIES - This is a cookie I used to bake for my children quite often when they were growing up. I used to try to have some kind of a treat waiting for them every day when they got home from school. You can leave them plain, or you can glaze them if you like. I actually really like them both ways! Delicious, delicious, delicious! Recipe makes 2 1/2 dozen.
LEMON FROSTED GINGERBREAD COOKIE BARS - These lush bars are crisp edged and chewy middled. The recipe makes exactly 8 nice sized bars. No more, no less. Spiced just nicely with a lush lemon frosting, they always go down a real treat. Perfect with a hot cuppa!
Yield: 18Author: Marie Rayner
Millionaire Shortbread Cups
Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 30 MinTotal time: 40 MinYour favorite square in a easy to hold cup, with a crisp and buttery shortbread base, rich caramel topping and melted milk chocolate on top. Delicious!Ingredients
For the Base:- 1 cup + 1 1/2 TBS (250g) butter
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2/3 cup (80g) icing sugar
- 1 1/2 cups + 2 TBS (225g) all purpose plain flour
- 1/2 cup (75g) cornstarch (corn flour)
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 TBS golden syrup (can use corn syrup)
- 14 oz tin (400g) of sweetened condensed milk
- 3 1/2 ounces (7 TBS/100g) butter
- 1/2 cup (100g) soft light brown sugar
- 18 milk chocolate buttons, large (can use broken milk chocolate bars)
Instructions
- First make the bases. Preheat the oven to 375*F/190*C/ gas mark 4. Butter 18 muffin cups.
- Cream the butter with an electric beater until light and fluffy. Sift the icing sugar in and beat it until well incorporated. Beat in the vanilla.
- Sift the flour and cornstarch together three times, then beat this mixture into the creamed mixture until thoroughly combined. Divide the batter between the muffin cups, pressing it evenly into the cups. (use wet fingers if you need to)
- Bake in the preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, until well set and golden brown around the edges.
- While the shortbread bases are baking make the caramel. Pop all of the ingredients into a heavy based saucepan. Cook and stir over low heat until everything has melted and amalgamated.
- Increase the heat to medium and bring to a boil. Boil for 5 to 6 minutes stirring constantly so that it doesn't catch. By that time the caramel should be set and a small amount dropped in cold water should form a soft ball.
- Divide the caramel between the baked shortbread bottoms evenly, covering them completely. Pop a chocolate button on top and return to the oven for a few minutes to melt.
- Leave to cool completely and set before eating. Store in an airtight container.