Liam's Salted Peanut Butter Millionaire Shortbreads
February 14, 2024
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Welcome to Katrina's Great British Baking Project, aka Bake Along with Bake Off! If you haven't checked out my post about the hows and whys of this project, please head over there and give it a quick peruse. (TL, DR: I am baking the recipes from Bake Off that sound the best to me for fun, deliciousness, and learning!)
Check out the other bakes from this episode:
COMING SOON!
The Challenge
This challenge comes to us from Collection 5, Episode 4: Caramel Week. I am scared of caramel, so I think this will be an interesting episode! I am starting with The Signature, which in this episode is for "18 identical millionaire shortbreads".
The Rules
The Bake Off rules stipulate that the desserts must have three layers: shortbread, caramel, and tempered chocolate. The bakers had 2hr and 15min to complete the bake.
Pitfalls To Beware Of
Paul and Prue mentioned that they were looking for a few specific things.
- Paul wanted three distinct layers - soft shortbread, gooey yet firm caramel, thin chocolate coating
- Prue said the caramel has to be firm but not chewy, and that she wanted something "special".
My Favorite Bakes
There wasn't a single bake that sounded bad, but I narrowed it down to three:
- Stacey's Rum, Lime, and Chili Millionaire Shortbreads
- Steven's Orange, Macadamia, and Coffee Millionaire Shortbreads
- Liam's Salted Peanut Butter and Vanilla Millionaire Shortbreads
The PB Millionaire Shortbreads are Chosen
I'm not usually a fan of peanut butter (unless it's in a spring roll dipping sauce - yum) but for some reason I felt drawn to it this time! (Spoiler alert: I'm glad I went with them because they were INCREDIBLE!)
There are three components to these biscuits. I needed to make:
- Vanilla shortbread
- Peanut butter caramel
- Tempered dark chocolate
Luckily, Liam's exact recipe is free for the baking on the Bake Off official website, so I decided to just follow along and hope for the best!
How I Did It
The Shortbread
I started with the shortbread, which was made entirely in a food processor and was unusual only in the addition of rice flour.
Once the dough was doughing, I rolled it out to about 1cm thick and cut it into rectangles to perfectly fit my 7.5cm x 2.5cm silicone mold.
After tucking them gently into the mold, I docked each one with a fork to prevent puffing in the oven, and let them chill for 15 min in the fridge.
Once the shortbreads were chilled, I baked them until they were golden. Easy!
The Peanut Butter
I've made homemade almond butter before, and this was exactly the same process.
I started by tossing the peanuts in the oven until roasty toasty and then blended the majority of them with salt, neutral oil, and a little honey. (Pro tip: measure the oil first and the honey just slidddddes right out of the spoon!)
It took a while but eventually, the peanut butter was smooth and shiny. Next, I put the remaining peanuts into the food processor until they were finely ground, but not yet turning into a paste.
The Caramel
I am scared of caramel. Nonetheless, I forged ahead with a moderately positive attitude and the anticipation that I would have to do it twice (but delightfully, it worked the first time!).
I melted corn syrup and granulated sugar together for a looooong time before adding heavy cream, vanilla, and salted butter. Then I took it off the heat and added the peanut butter and ground peanuts. AND HOLY SCHIKES, this was so incredibly delicious. I am writing this after the fact and I really wish I still had some of this caramel in my fridge!
After tasting it and FREAKING OUT about how good it was, I spooned the caramel into the molds on top of the shortbread and then fridged it to chill and set.
Tempering the Chocolate
I had never tempered before, but I've watched people do it a million times! Liam's recipe uses the seed method of tempering which was very successful in producing a snappy, glossy, chocolate.
Then I spooned the melted chocolate onto the chilled caramel and topped with the crushed peanuts.
I popped the tray back into the fridge to set and when it came out, the millionaire shortbreads looked positively PERFECT!
The Official Rating
Paul’s handshakes are only bestowed upon the bakers when they have baked something really exceptional.
My rating for how likely I am to bake this recipe again is: 10/10 handshakes!
🤝🏼🤝🏼🤝🏼🤝🏼🤝🏼🤝🏼🤝🏼🤝🏼🤝🏼🤝🏼
NO NOTES. This recipe is amazing. You should strongly consider making it! The caramel AND the chocolate both are the simplest, "foolproof" ways to execute those items, and that caramel is so good I would and will bathe in it.
My rating for my execution of this bake is: 10/10 handshakes
🤝🏼🤝🏼🤝🏼🤝🏼🤝🏼🤝🏼🤝🏼🤝🏼🤝🏼🤝🏼
The only little thing I would do differently is do a thinner layer of chocolate on the top. It was a bit thick to bite into and the dark chocolate flavor was very strong and sometimes overpowered the caramel. But that's such a small thing, I'm still giving myself a 10!
To Sum Up
Millionaire shortbreads are worth it. That's the summary. That's all you need you know. A highly recommended project, with or without peanut butter!
Stay tuned for the rest of the bakes from Collection 5, Episode 4 - Caramel Week!
I hope you have a beautiful rest of your day and thank you so much for being here!
💖, Katrina
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