The MacKenzies' Millionaire's Shortbread

Outlander Kitchen

These Millionaire's Shortbread squares are super buttery, sweet but not overly so, and very, very rich. I eventually cut the big pieces into quarters before sharing, and that made them the perfect one-bite weekday indulgence. While none of the three layers was difficult to make, it does take some time to put it all together because you have to let each layer cool before you can add the next one, and then before you cut it into squares.

I have been wanting to make these for a while, and it seemed like the perfect sweet treat for sharing at a picnic, so when we had one coming up, that was my plan. When the weather turned, like it did EVERY WEEKEND this spring, I decided not to change my plan and just shared the rest at work instead. That worked out just fine!

The author has graciously shared this recipe here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NDxe1cwNAFJKhBh_HOPakLZ2Y0n8Na0VTUVB4fT5R8w/edit?fbclid=IwAR3afs0B3LE4RW4FDGGiR7GdkMXmaETxDzAl78iifQVnFRHwwYutTBDmSig

Captions

[00:00]: foreign
[00:06]: hello and welcome to cooking the books
[00:08]: with Heather today we're going to be
[00:10]: working out of Outlander kitchen because
[00:13]: I've really really wanted to make this
[00:14]: recipe for a while
[00:16]: um
[00:17]: we've had
[00:19]: we were supposed to go to a potluck
[00:21]: tomorrow but the weather is awful so
[00:23]: it's it's been postponed but I decided I
[00:26]: would go ahead and make it anyway
[00:28]: um we are going to be making the
[00:30]: McKenzie's millionaire shortbread
[00:32]: millionaires shortbread sorry
[00:36]: and so shortbread is very Scottish
[00:39]: um although apparently the caramel and
[00:41]: chocolate so billionaire shortbread is a
[00:44]: layer of shortbread with a layer of
[00:46]: caramel and then a layer of chocolate
[00:48]: probably not Scottish originally
[00:51]: most likely from the Australian Ladies
[00:54]: Home Journal but may have been created
[00:56]: by a Scottish person who lived there who
[00:59]: knows
[01:00]: um
[01:01]: first thing we're going to do is prepare
[01:03]: our pans so this is supposed to be a
[01:05]: nine inch square pan this is a little a
[01:08]: little above eight but definitely below
[01:10]: nine whatever we're going to line it
[01:12]: with parchment
[01:14]: but first we're going to put some butter
[01:17]: on the inside to kind of keep the
[01:20]: parchment
[01:21]: make it stick to the pan
[01:25]: so it won't move
[01:27]: what I am going to do she says just just
[01:30]: dot it I'm just kind of rubbing it on
[01:33]: there
[01:34]: I have I keep flat pieces of parchment
[01:38]: and I have cut this in half because it
[01:41]: is almost exactly right for
[01:47]: um two pieces
[01:49]: two line
[01:50]: this one going each way so
[01:54]: kinda
[01:55]: get it in there
[01:58]: it just means I don't have to kind of
[02:00]: cut the edges
[02:02]: so I'm going to put a little bit of the
[02:04]: butter on that piece so that this piece
[02:06]: will fit
[02:10]: and
[02:13]: as you can see I now have
[02:17]: are really pretty perfectly lined
[02:21]: um
[02:22]: bottom and sides
[02:25]: of this dish now I'm gonna go wash my
[02:27]: hands
[02:28]: so the first layer we need to make is
[02:30]: shortbread
[02:32]: and for that we have some all-purpose
[02:35]: flour
[02:38]: some sugar this is just plain white
[02:40]: granulated sugar
[02:42]: and a little bit of salt
[02:46]: and I forgot to get my whisk
[02:49]: so we're going to kind of whisk this up
[02:51]: just to
[02:52]: mix it up
[02:55]: there we go
[02:57]: and the last ingredient
[02:59]: is butter so this is unsalted butter it
[03:01]: is cold from the refrigerator and we're
[03:04]: going to grate it in not all of this is
[03:08]: for the shortbread
[03:11]: but I'm just going to
[03:13]: grate as much as I need
[03:16]: because we're going to use the rest for
[03:17]: another part
[03:20]: so I'm gonna kind of use this to hold
[03:24]: and Grate this in
[03:36]: the last time I needed to grate a lot of
[03:39]: butter I was making frozen biscuits
[03:41]: again I used
[03:44]: um so that was frozen butter but you
[03:46]: could do that with this I used my
[03:50]: food processor
[03:52]: and that worked out really really well
[03:55]: so I only need some of this stick so
[03:59]: let's
[04:00]: do my best
[04:04]: get that
[04:12]: that's about right
[04:15]: um I think that would work out really
[04:17]: well for this
[04:19]: as well
[04:20]: but you probably would want it to
[04:25]: come up to room temperature a little bit
[04:27]: after you mix it in
[04:29]: because there are no other ingredients
[04:32]: here it's just
[04:35]: um
[04:36]: the sugar the flour and this butter
[04:41]: so now we're just gonna mix this up
[04:45]: blending it with your fingertips until
[04:47]: it resembles the texture of cornmeal
[04:51]: we're not putting any egg
[04:54]: no milk it's nothing in this
[04:59]: sugar flour butter
[05:03]: and we need to be able to press this
[05:06]: into our pan
[05:08]: when I start to grab it now it's it kind
[05:11]: of comes together a little bit
[05:14]: so
[05:16]: hopefully
[05:17]: that will be good enough
[05:22]: kind of looks like cornmeal to me
[05:26]: sounds
[05:30]: all right
[05:32]: so now I'm going to get my pan that I
[05:34]: prepared
[05:39]: and I'm just going to dump all of this
[05:42]: in
[05:45]: oops I'm trying not to get it out of the
[05:48]: pan
[05:49]: I'm gonna
[05:51]: press it in
[05:54]: to our prepared pan
[06:02]: feels very
[06:04]: flowery at this point but
[06:08]: it does kind of hold together as you
[06:11]: press
[06:12]: so hopefully that will be good it's been
[06:14]: so long since I've made
[06:17]: um
[06:20]: shortbread but it is one of my favorites
[06:22]: usually I buy a big tin at Christmas
[06:25]: but
[06:26]: it's really easy to make
[06:32]: all right
[06:34]: so now we're going to call that good I'm
[06:38]: going to wash my hands because there's
[06:39]: one other step we need to do before we
[06:41]: put it in the oven
[06:43]: so now I've got a fork and we're just
[06:46]: going to
[06:47]: prick it lightly
[06:50]: um
[06:51]: kind of falls apart as we prick it that
[06:53]: is not great
[06:58]: hmm
[07:03]: well I guess we're not doing that part
[07:07]: hopefully
[07:09]: uh this is
[07:11]: okay
[07:13]: we'll see as it bakes
[07:15]: we're supposed to bake it until it's
[07:17]: firm and light golden for 30 to 35
[07:20]: minutes so I'm Gonna Bake it up and keep
[07:23]: my fingers crossed so I ended up cooking
[07:26]: on an extra five minutes or so so this
[07:29]: was in for about 40 minutes if it was a
[07:31]: little bit
[07:33]: um thicker because it's slightly smaller
[07:36]: pan it's not super firm but the edges
[07:39]: are certainly Brown and it's sort of got
[07:42]: a light golden
[07:45]: color all around so we're gonna
[07:47]: hope this is good we'll be we're gonna
[07:50]: cool this it doesn't have to be
[07:51]: completely cool but
[07:54]: um we're gonna cool this before
[07:56]: we continue with the rest the recipe
[08:01]: shortbread came out of the oven I don't
[08:03]: know five minutes ago or so I've got it
[08:05]: on my countertop so it's cooling off
[08:07]: pretty quickly still a little warm but
[08:09]: it'll be fine we're gonna make the
[08:10]: caramel layer now
[08:12]: so I've got the rest of that unsalted
[08:15]: butter melting here at medium Heat
[08:18]: so that's pretty much melted and now I'm
[08:22]: going to add some brown sugar
[08:25]: that I have already
[08:27]: measured just light brown sugar
[08:30]: and
[08:35]: the only other ingredient here is
[08:37]: sweetened condensed milk so I've got a
[08:42]: spatula I don't much care about to try
[08:45]: to
[08:46]: scrape the inside because
[08:51]: the little sharp lip on the inside tends
[08:55]: to
[08:57]: um
[08:59]: scar up the edges of this and so I just
[09:01]: don't want to
[09:03]: scar up all of them and create little
[09:05]: Cuts in all of them
[09:07]: but I like to scrape the inside
[09:09]: especially because it takes so long to
[09:11]: get all of this out
[09:29]: all right
[09:31]: that's not bad at all
[09:33]: so
[09:35]: we are going to leave this on medium
[09:38]: Heat
[09:39]: and bring it up to a slow boil and
[09:44]: gentle boil so
[09:46]: I'm gonna go take care of getting this
[09:49]: out of my way and then we'll start
[09:51]: so for this
[09:53]: we're just going to
[09:56]: keep stirring this so that it doesn't
[09:59]: Scorch while we bring it up to a boil
[10:02]: get it all mixed together
[10:05]: we'll see how long it takes to come up
[10:07]: to a boil on
[10:09]: this medium Heat
[10:11]: try not to keep touching it because it
[10:14]: will definitely boil faster
[10:16]: we are supposed to stir this pretty
[10:18]: frequently so it doesn't scorch
[10:26]: right uh light I can see that it wants
[10:30]: to boil in here
[10:32]: I'm not going to call that a gentle boil
[10:34]: just yet but it's really close
[10:38]: I'm going to call that
[10:40]: a gentle boil so there's there's some
[10:42]: boiling
[10:45]: across the whole surface but it's not
[10:47]: super super
[10:50]: um
[10:51]: card but there we go that little gentle
[10:53]: boil now we're going to turn it down to
[10:55]: medium low
[10:58]: keep it on a three on my stove and we're
[11:01]: going to Stir It occasionally and we're
[11:04]: going to cook it for about 10 minutes so
[11:06]: it took about seven minutes for it to
[11:08]: come up to a boil
[11:10]: so um
[11:13]: we're supposed to cook this until it is
[11:15]: slightly thickened
[11:17]: for about 10 minutes so
[11:21]: I'm going to go ahead and set a timer
[11:22]: just to see what it looks whoops
[11:25]: what it looks like after 10 minutes
[11:29]: so we'll know so it's not just me trying
[11:31]: to remember because I don't always do
[11:33]: that very well
[11:36]: it doesn't say we need to uh
[11:39]: stir this constantly so I'm
[11:42]: gonna not but
[11:46]: also don't want it to burn so I will be
[11:50]: stirring it occasionally for sure
[11:52]: so my 10 minute timer just went off
[11:55]: and it is definitely a lot thicker than
[11:59]: it was before it is maybe not quite as
[12:02]: brown as I was expecting from the
[12:05]: picture
[12:06]: but
[12:07]: I'm gonna call this done
[12:10]: um
[12:11]: turn this off
[12:13]: and
[12:15]: we're going to pour this over
[12:22]: shortbread
[12:23]: while it is still warm the shortbread is
[12:28]: kind of warm but
[12:31]: really
[12:32]: um almost room temperature
[12:34]: which is fine for this layer
[12:39]: all right and we're going to spread it
[12:42]: out
[12:44]: into
[12:47]: a pretty even layer
[12:50]: here
[12:53]: edge to edge there we go
[12:57]: looks good if you're really
[12:59]: um
[13:02]: picky about it you could get an offset
[13:04]: spatula
[13:08]: don't worry about that but
[13:10]: by the way I had a little taste
[13:12]: but we have to let this cool completely
[13:15]: before we add the chocolate layer so
[13:19]: we'll be back probably later tonight to
[13:21]: finish that up
[13:23]: so our caramel is at room temperature
[13:27]: now everything's
[13:29]: pretty well set here I yeah pretty set
[13:37]: so now it's time to make the chocolate
[13:39]: layer so for this
[13:42]: uh we're going for chocolate that is
[13:45]: mostly chocolate but also is something
[13:48]: you can cut
[13:50]: um so it's not like a chocolate sauce we
[13:52]: want it to be pretty solid at room
[13:54]: temperature
[13:57]: so we're going to melt chocolate in a
[13:59]: double boiler I don't have a double
[14:00]: boiler but it's really easy to uh do
[14:04]: that in a pot and a heat proof Bowl so
[14:08]: if you have glass or stainless steel
[14:10]: that's great what you want is
[14:13]: um
[14:16]: boiling water not fully boiling I'm you
[14:20]: don't want it like super super boiling
[14:22]: when you're going but I'm bringing it up
[14:24]: to temperature right now uh
[14:27]: and you want to have boiling water only
[14:30]: a couple inches definitely do not want
[14:33]: it to touch the bottom of your bolt so a
[14:36]: wider Bowl rather than a deeper bowl is
[14:39]: better and you definitely want a deeper
[14:42]: pot so that your the bottom of your bowl
[14:44]: doesn't touch the water so now that my
[14:47]: water is boiling
[14:49]: I'm going to turn it to about medium
[14:52]: heat because that will definitely keep
[14:55]: it boiling
[14:57]: measured out the chocolate and we have a
[14:59]: little bit of butter not very much just
[15:02]: a little bit this is
[15:05]: uh dark chocolate chips you can for this
[15:09]: recipe that we're
[15:11]: doing you can use milk chocolate or dark
[15:13]: chocolate whichever one you want but uh
[15:17]: we're just going to keep
[15:18]: stirring it and you
[15:22]: one of the
[15:24]: potential pitfalls here is if the steam
[15:27]: gets into your chocolate your chocolate
[15:29]: can seize up and then it is done for so
[15:33]: you don't want that
[15:35]: but we're just going to keep stirring it
[15:37]: until it all melts together
[15:40]: and that shouldn't take too long
[15:44]: um
[15:46]: you could do this in the microwave as
[15:50]: well the recipe we're doing
[15:52]: asks for double boiler so that's why
[15:55]: we're doing it this way but in the
[15:57]: microwave you have to be very very
[15:58]: careful to stop and stir and stop and
[16:02]: stir otherwise you will very easily
[16:05]: Scorch chocolate in the microwave so
[16:10]: tempering chocolate is bringing your
[16:13]: chocolate up to a very specific
[16:14]: temperature and then cooling it down we
[16:18]: don't care about it about
[16:20]: tempering so much here tempering
[16:23]: chocolate will give you a nice snack on
[16:27]: your chocolate after it cools to the uh
[16:30]: to the to you know room temperature it
[16:32]: will break and it won't have a a bloom
[16:35]: on it it won't look kind of ashy
[16:38]: those things are not
[16:41]: uh don't
[16:42]: make a difference in the flavor of your
[16:45]: chocolate but it does make a big
[16:47]: difference in the texture or the
[16:50]: presentation we're not worried so much
[16:53]: about that right now though
[16:55]: the only thing that really ruins the
[16:57]: chocolate in my experience is when it
[16:60]: seizes
[17:02]: and then it gets
[17:04]: looks kind of curdled
[17:06]: you get uh
[17:08]: sort of crunchy bits that will never
[17:10]: melt but for this recipe you can use
[17:13]: basically any chocolate that you like
[17:17]: I just used what was
[17:20]: convenient
[17:22]: you want to use a chocolate that you
[17:23]: like to eat for this
[17:26]: and if you use
[17:29]: a bar
[17:31]: chocolate or chocolate that you that you
[17:33]: can buy in a bar you'll want to chop
[17:35]: that up because
[17:38]: the smaller the pieces are the easier
[17:41]: this will melt together
[17:47]: but I didn't want to chop it so I chose
[17:49]: chips
[17:50]: whatever
[17:55]: and I'm going to turn this down some
[17:57]: because I'm starting to get some
[17:60]: steam coming out of the side and we do
[18:02]: not want this to seize it's melted but
[18:06]: it's not super smooth
[18:08]: but I think I might be
[18:11]: gonna have to call it done
[18:17]: because I don't want it to burn and I
[18:20]: don't want it to seize which I feel like
[18:22]: it might do if I
[18:26]: continue going here so I'm going to turn
[18:28]: this off
[18:33]: hour
[18:35]: purposes here
[18:41]: and
[18:42]: I'm going to spread this over the top
[18:47]: think
[18:49]: we were really close to seizing
[18:52]: which some of it is nicely melted and
[18:54]: some of it is getting a little
[18:57]: ah
[19:01]: not
[19:03]: I think we we saved it
[19:06]: I'm gonna keep my fingers crossed this
[19:08]: has to go in well it has to be
[19:11]: completely cool before we cut it I'm
[19:13]: just going to put it in the refrigerator
[19:14]: overnight and then I'm going to pull it
[19:17]: out and we'll cut it and I'll show you
[19:18]: how I do that tomorrow we're just going
[19:21]: to cut
[19:22]: our
[19:24]: millionaire shortbread
[19:27]: um I've had this in the refrigerator
[19:28]: overnight but I left I took it out
[19:32]: to let it warm up a little bit so
[19:35]: hopefully my chocolate won't just crack
[19:37]: and we can cut it and we're supposed to
[19:39]: cut it
[19:40]: um in 16 pieces so four and four
[19:44]: so I've got
[19:45]: a
[19:47]: knife that has been in warm water and
[19:51]: I'm just going to try to cut it here we
[19:53]: go that's not too bad it's not cracking
[20:03]: okay
[20:05]: okay
[20:06]: [Applause]
[20:09]: um that is not super even but that's all
[20:11]: right
[20:14]: dunk the knife warm it up again
[20:22]: just to
[20:24]: see what our layers look like
[20:27]: here we go
[20:28]: now I've got to cut
[20:31]: more times but that's basically the gist
[20:33]: of the cutting
[20:35]: [Music]
[20:42]: thank you
[20:45]: on this episode of cooking the books
[20:46]: with Heather you watched me make the
[20:48]: MacKenzie's millionaire shortbread from
[20:52]: Outlander kitchen the first one
[20:55]: and
[20:57]: I really enjoyed this I thought it was
[20:60]: delicious it was buttery the caramel was
[21:02]: really easy to make
[21:05]: um
[21:06]: and it cut well I feel like the
[21:10]: shortbread was a little crumbly and I
[21:13]: don't know if that was
[21:16]: my butter not quite enough butter a
[21:19]: little bit too much flour I did
[21:23]: um
[21:25]: I think I measured it by weight I don't
[21:27]: remember actually at the moment but it
[21:31]: doesn't have a weight measurement here
[21:34]: um
[21:35]: so I probably didn't so maybe I got a
[21:37]: little bit too much flour anyway it's
[21:39]: still held together it still worked out
[21:41]: really well and it was delicious it was
[21:44]: very very very rich so
[21:47]: um I ended up taking the two by two
[21:51]: squares and cutting them into basically
[21:54]: single bite one by one squares and that
[21:56]: worked out very well for sharing
[21:59]: um
[22:01]: but yeah we really enjoyed it I thought
[22:03]: it was pretty easy I don't love grading
[22:07]: the butter but I think it probably helps
[22:10]: you not work the dough as much
[22:13]: um
[22:15]: I've never done that for shortbread
[22:17]: before
[22:19]: but whatever and the chocolate melted
[22:22]: pretty well everything worked out really
[22:25]: well
[22:26]: and we all enjoyed it so everybody in
[22:29]: the family liked it so if you enjoyed
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[22:54]: [Music]