Holiday Millionaire’s Shortbread

I might or might not have totally binged on those until I got sick… but how could you not?! I mean look at these: A thick layer of buttery almond shortbread covered with soft maple caramel and topped with cinnamon chocolate ganache. This Holiday Millionaire’s Shortbread – a seasonal twist on a classic just in time for Christmas – is definitely one of the most divine treats I’ve made in a while, if not one of the best of all time. Seriously. SO GOOD. 

I do have to admit that the first batch of these was a total fail. I made a rookie mistake and I want to share it – although it was a pretty dumb mistake and I’m not assuming you’re as dumb as me. Anyway, first mistake I made was thinking that evaporated milk is kind of the same as condensed milk and would work. So yes, this can happen even to a seasoned baker. In my defense, I am not using this stuff a lot so I really didn’t know there is a significant difference. Evaporated milk is literally just richer, evaporated milk and is totally liquid. Condensed milk is very thick. It’s milk that has been cooked down with lots of sugar. So everyone but me probably knows this but if you didn’t, here you go.

Second mistake I made was that I immediately poured it over the shortbread and it made the shortbread very soggy (and since the caramel was liquid it actually made the shortbread float on top which is almost to embarrassing to even tell you).

Anyway, be sure to use condensed milk (even though you CAN in fact use evaporated milk to make caramel but just not in this case), and let it sit and cool and thicken for just a couple of minutes, so it won’t soak your shortbread. Putting it in the fridge right away also helps it set quicker.