Publised on 15/08/2019 by Richard. Last Updated on 12/10/2022 by Richard.
Vegan millionaire shortbread like no other! Crumbly shortbread biscuit topped with smooth caramel enrobed in dark chocolate.
Every day I've spent not eating vegan millionaire shortbread has been a day wasted! It's such a nostalgic treat for me and yet, now that I'm eating it, it's also a pretty grown-up dessert!
When I was growing up, my brother would ALWAYS ask for millionaire shortbread at the bakery. He doesn’t have much of a sweet tooth, and I honestly don’t think he even liked millionaire shortbread very much - he just liked the notion that eating like a millionaire might make him a millionaire.
I, on the other hand, LOVE millionaire shortbread and couldn’t care less about being a millionaire (give me an oven and a well stocked pantry and I’m happy!).
What even is a millionaire shortbread?!
Put simply, it's a slab of shortbread - but EXTRA! You know that friend who's actually pretty boring, but they wear the EXCITING CLOTHES and always have GREAT HAIR... thats what a millionaire shortbread is like!
The variety I ate as a kid was always from Sayers bakery (a northern UK chain bakery) and weirdly it was actually super delicious. So this recipe for vegan millionaire shortbread is designed to taste just like those guys!
The dark chocolate balances the sweetness of the caramel which is followed by the richness of the shortbread. Add some flaky sea salt in there and you’ve got yourself a masterpiece! This recipe makes a pretty big tray of MS so pace yourself, ok? Don’t eat it all in one hour (like I did).
Any tips?
If you want these guys to work - WITHOUT FAIL, you'll need a candy thermometer or a probe thermometer. It's super important you bring your sugar mixture to exactly 115 degrees celcius, otherwise your caramel won't set! Grab one from amazon!
I'd also suggest not handling your shortbread dough too much. You don't want to overwork the flour and activate the gluten, for one thing. You also don't want melt the butter, so unless you have ice cold hands, don't go using it like modelling clay!
What's the process?
The process for this vegan millionaire shortbread is really quite simple. Follow these steps and you'll have the most delightful bars of heaven in no time!
- Make the shortbread. This is mega easy and because you're using a baking tray, there's no need to roll out the dough - you just press it into the tray and hey presto! Be sure to prick it with a fork before baking to stop it from puffing up!
- You'll need to whip up some caramel. This takes a little longer and is a little more complicated than the shortbread, but just follow the recipe to the letter and you'll nail it!
- Top with vegan chocolate! The super easy bit! my only advice here is to make sure the caramel AND the shortbread are completely cool before moving onto this stage. You don't want a melty mess!
Want more snacks?
Why not try my best ever vegan chocolate chip cookies or my soft batch pecan and chocolate cookies!
Please keep in mind...
I love sharing my food with you - it seriously gives me so much joy! As a result, I put a huge amount of time and energy into creating these recipes. This recipe right here is my lil baby and I wouldn't change a single thing about it. As such, I won't give advice on any ingredient swaps, substitutions, omissions or changes to the method described above (how dare you talk about my baby like that!)
But seriously, if this recipe doesn't do it for you and you want to customise it - that's cool - no probs. Put that finely honed chef's intuition to good use and tailor the recipe to suit you! Regardless of whether you make any changes or not, let us know how you get on in the comments below.
Vegan Salted Caramel Millionaire's Shortbread
Ingredients
For the Shortbread
- 250 g plain white flour
- 75 g icing sugar
- pinch fine sea salt
- 175 g vegan butter ((I use “baking block”))
For the Caramel
- 170 g vegan butter or margarine
- 200 g golden syrup ((corn syrup also work great))
- 170 g dark brown soft sugar
- 100 g caster sugar
- 150 ml oat milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
- pinch sea salt
For the Chocolate
- 200 g vegan dark chocolate ((minimum 60% cacao))
Instructions
To Make the Shortbread
- Preheat the oven to 160c.
- In a medium bowl, combine the flour, sugar and salt. Chop the vegan butter into cubes and add to the bowl with the flour. Work the butter into the flour by pinching everything together and rubbing the ingredients between your finger tips. Do this until you have a bowl of sandy textured flour with no large lumps of butter. The mixture will feel quite dry. Turn the mixture out onto a surface and knead it together to form a large ball of dough.
- Line a 23x33cm rectangular cake tin with a sheet of baking parchment. Press the dough into the bottom of the tin, forming a smooth, even layer of dough. Prick the dough lightly with a fork all over and place in the preheated oven to bake for 20 minutes or until very lightly golden on top. Remove from the oven and place on a wire cooling rack. Allow to cool fully in the tin before transferring to the fridge.
- Meanwhile, make the caramel. In a large saucepan add all the caramel ingredients except for the vanilla and the salt. Place over a medium/low heat and stir with a heat-proof spatula until all the butter is melted and the sugars dissolved completely. Using a probe thermometer, bring the caramel to 115c (you may have to increase the heat to get it there, but trust me, it will get there!). Remove from the heat, add the vanilla and salt and stir continuously (off the heat!) for around 10 minutes while the caramel cools. It will thicken dramatically!
- Once thick, set aside and allow to cool for a further 5-10 minutes (it should still be runny enough to pour or spoon over the shortbread, so keep checking the texture regularly). Pour or spoon over the shortbread in the tin, even out with your spoon and then return to the fridge for at least 15 minutes.
For the Chocolate
- Chop the chocolate roughly into small pieces. Place in a medium heat-proof bowl and sit over a small pan of boiling water. Allow the steam from the water to heat the bowl and melt the chocolate, stirring constantly with a spatula. Pour the chocolate over the chilled caramel and then set aside on the counter to set fully. Once set, slice with a hot knife (otherwise the chocolate will crack) into squares or bars and serve!
Peter
The BEST
Faye
So disappointed that the shortbread took an extra 15 minutes to bake and the caramel never set... I made the caramel twice and tried to reheat twice, froze it, added cornflour. Nothing worked x
Richard
So sorry to hear that. Did you use a thermometer for the caramel and did you make sure it hit the right temperature? This is the only thing I can think of that might cause this. Unless you used any ingredient swaps?
Emma
Is this really 750 calories per shortbread and all of your daily sat fats!! I know I shouldn’t care cause it delicious yummy delights but just wanted to double check cause that’s..... loads! Love your work x
Richard Makin
Hey, I think there may have been an error there- It was calculating on the assumption that you get 8 shortbreads from each batch but it's more like 16 minimum! It should make more sense now.
Sarah
OMGEEEEE. This is quite possibly the best thing I've ever put in my mouth. That caramel is like golden heavenly nectar and exactly the flavour I've been missing since embracing the plant love. Totally winged it without a thermometer and used the soft ball test instead (love a little science experiment and a bit of mess) and after about 20-25 mins of patient bubbling it turned out perfect! Slight but attractive ooze when stored at warm, summer room temp or more solid and chewy straight from the fridge. The carnation vegan condensed milk recipe isn't a PATCH on this one. Will be happily risking diabetes and adding these delights to my regular baking list. Even got a massive thumbs up from dedicated non-vegans. Thankingyou!
Griselda
Thanks for the recipe, came out really well! Caramel took a while like you said but it got there! Can't stop eating it now 😀
Richard Makin
Yeah that caramel is a real patience tester - but so worth it! Thanks for trying the recipe!
Griselda
Thanks for the recipe, came out really well! Caramel took a while like you said but it got there! Can't stop eating it now 😀
Jules
Hi would this work with other plant based milk as I’m not keen on oat milk?
Kelly
I used coconut milk and it worked great!
Also made it gluten free! Just chilled the shortbread dough before baking and baked it a bit longer!
These are incredible, thanks so much!
Elizabeth Sam
This is the most incredible recipe! My caramel didn’t set but it doesn’t matter as the taste was so good. Everyone who tried said it was better than anything they’d had before and it was the best millionaires shortbread they’d eaten. I’m so pleased. I think the caramel went wrong because I didn’t use a vegan block, I use the simple plant based flora margarine butter as vegan block is a lot more costly. I will try it again with the vegan block and I think it should solve the caramel setting. I hope the taste doesn’t change as they came out ridiculously delicious!! Thanks so much Richard x
Elizabeth Sam
This is the most incredible recipe! My caramel didn’t set but it doesn’t matter as the taste was so good. Everyone who tried said it was better than anything they’d had before and it was the best millionaires shortbread they’d eaten. I’m so pleased. I think the caramel went wrong because I didn’t use a vegan block, I use the simple plant based flora margarine butter as vegan block is a lot more costly. I will try it again with the vegan block and I think it should solve the caramel setting. I hope the taste doesn’t change as they came out ridiculously delicious!! Thanks so much Richard x
MandyH
Absolutely delicious. Notes:
- The caramel takes a long time to reach 115c, don't give up...
- It also takes a long time to cool, next time I'd transfer it to a heatproof bowl (out of the pan) to speed this up
- My caramel was still fairly runny but refrigerating the bars once they're made helps
- And you can freeze it too!
MandyH
Absolutely delicious. Notes:
- The caramel takes a long time to reach 115c, don't give up...
- It also takes a long time to cool, next time I'd transfer it to a heatproof bowl (out of the pan) to speed this up
- My caramel was still fairly runny but refrigerating the bars once they're made helps
- And you can freeze it too!
kelly
My shortbread took longer to bake and my caramel came out a lighter color but still great! I dont have a candy thermometer so I just eyeballed it, maybe thats why it came out lighter in color but it still set up!
kelly
My shortbread took longer to bake and my caramel came out a lighter color but still great! I dont have a candy thermometer so I just eyeballed it, maybe thats why it came out lighter in color but it still set up!
Gemma
Thank you so much for this recipe- milluonaire's has been the one sweet treat that I've not been able to successfully veganise.
I followed your recipe (almost) exactly (used soya instead of oat milk) and they turned out amazingly. Lovely crumbly shortbread and thick, perfectly set caramel. Yum!!
My only challenge now will be to not make a batch every day!!
Excellent recipe- super simple and super delicious 🙂
Mythili
What exactly is "baking block" when you refer to vegan butter? I have sticks (earth balance) and spread (again, earth balance) and then something that comes in a block (miyoko's). Tend to use the sticks for things vegan baking-y...but googling isn't being helpful re baking block as a term.
Anneliese
vegan block is just vegan butter by the brand naturli. i'd guess using whatever you usually do for baking would be fine in this recipe.
Mythili
Ages later I am replying to say I got around to making these and it turned out great. I wish I’d halved the recipe though, it’s very rich and I’m the only one who’ll be eating it!
As I’m US based I used normal sugar in lieu of caster sugar (which we don’t get), a 9x13in pan in lieu of 22x33cm, and the very dark light brown vegan sugar I had on hand. Used Earth Balance sticks (68% fat) for the butter and some new product called “Not Milk” (the whole fat version) in lieu of oat milk, which I also don’t have.
So! Sounds like a bunch of substitutions but honestly they mostly indicate that the recipe is quite excellent! Indeed it took forEVER for the caramel to reach 115C but I kept at it, and the shortbread needed a bit more time in the oven (I think my oven was struggling to maintain the lower temperature, had to adjust it a bit higher midway when I noticed it dropping). I was exceedingly lazy with kneading the shortbread because I didn’t want to get flour everywhere, and it came out fine. Since the caramel came out so beautifully I tried to also temper chocolate for on top. That also took forever and did not work so I’m one for two.
Lastly I cut these into ~2-3 bite size cookies instead of the larger squares because they are very rich. Also makes it easier to Tetris into various containers for storage!
Christina
Wow! So, I had loads of crushed digestives mixed with baking block left over from a cheese cake I had made, so I decided I would make millionaires shortbread using that as the base. Came across this recipe, didn't have enough soft dark brown sugar so I added a mix of coconut sugar, extra caster sugar and some molasses to make up the difference. I used Stork backing block for the vegan butter and I don't own a food thermometer so I just used the soft ball test that you use when making fudge. Was fully expecting it to be a complete flop considering I didn't follow the recipe to the T and thought the caramel would seep all over the place due to not having a thermometer but the soft ball test worked a charm and I would recommend it to anyone who can't afford a food thermometer or doesn't have one to hand! The end result was awesome! I was in shock at how well the caramel stayed put! Thanks for the awesome recipe! 🙂
Christina
Wow! So, I had loads of crushed digestives mixed with baking block left over from a cheese cake I had made, so I decided I would make millionaires shortbread using that as the base. Came across this recipe, didn't have enough soft dark brown sugar so I added a mix of coconut sugar, extra caster sugar and some molasses to make up the difference. I used Stork backing block for the vegan butter and I don't own a food thermometer so I just used the soft ball test that you use when making fudge. Was fully expecting it to be a complete flop considering I didn't follow the recipe to the T and thought the caramel would seep all over the place due to not having a thermometer but the soft ball test worked a charm and I would recommend it to anyone who can't afford a food thermometer or doesn't have one to hand! The end result was awesome! I was in shock at how well the caramel stayed put! Thanks for the awesome recipe! 🙂
Mythili
Ages later I am replying to say I got around to making these and it turned out great. I wish I’d halved the recipe though, it’s very rich and I’m the only one who’ll be eating it!
As I’m US based I used normal sugar in lieu of caster sugar (which we don’t get), a 9x13in pan in lieu of 22x33cm, and the very dark light brown vegan sugar I had on hand. Used Earth Balance sticks (68% fat) for the butter and some new product called “Not Milk” (the whole fat version) in lieu of oat milk, which I also don’t have.
So! Sounds like a bunch of substitutions but honestly they mostly indicate that the recipe is quite excellent! Indeed it took forEVER for the caramel to reach 115C but I kept at it, and the shortbread needed a bit more time in the oven (I think my oven was struggling to maintain the lower temperature, had to adjust it a bit higher midway when I noticed it dropping). I was exceedingly lazy with kneading the shortbread because I didn’t want to get flour everywhere, and it came out fine. Since the caramel came out so beautifully I tried to also temper chocolate for on top. That also took forever and did not work so I’m one for two.
Lastly I cut these into ~2-3 bite size cookies instead of the larger squares because they are very rich. Also makes it easier to Tetris into various containers for storage!
Tina
These are great, super tasty, but unfortunately the caramel doesn't set properly, ends up running out of the cake once cut into squares and no longer held in place by the baking tin. A bit sad about that because I want those perfect squares without the caramel glooping out around the edges. I've followed the recipe to a T. I have a thermometer and make sure it gets to 115C, and I also make sure to let it cool properly and set in the fridge. But once cut into squares the caramel will seep out even if stored in the fridge. The only way to prevent it is to freeze the squares but then you have to take them out and serve them frozen instead, and wait a while for them to defrost enough to be soft enough to bite through.
Tina
These are great, super tasty, but unfortunately the caramel doesn't set properly, ends up running out of the cake once cut into squares and no longer held in place by the baking tin. A bit sad about that because I want those perfect squares without the caramel glooping out around the edges. I've followed the recipe to a T. I have a thermometer and make sure it gets to 115C, and I also make sure to let it cool properly and set in the fridge. But once cut into squares the caramel will seep out even if stored in the fridge. The only way to prevent it is to freeze the squares but then you have to take them out and serve them frozen instead, and wait a while for them to defrost enough to be soft enough to bite through.
Sarah
OMGEEEEE. This is quite possibly the best thing I've ever put in my mouth. That caramel is like golden heavenly nectar and exactly the flavour I've been missing since embracing the plant love. Totally winged it without a thermometer and used the soft ball test instead (love a little science experiment and a bit of mess) and after about 20-25 mins of patient bubbling it turned out perfect! Slight but attractive ooze when stored at warm, summer room temp or more solid and chewy straight from the fridge. The carnation vegan condensed milk recipe isn't a PATCH on this one. Will be happily risking diabetes and adding these delights to my regular baking list. Even got a massive thumbs up from dedicated non-vegans. Thankingyou!
Megan
Made these today and they were so so good! I can’t wait for my family to try them xD Totally worth it!
Megan
Made these today and they were so so good! I can’t wait for my family to try them xD Totally worth it!
Cheryl W
Oh wow this came out perfectly. I made a ganache for the top to make it softer than just choc. My pan was a bit small so all my layers are thick and it’s a sugar overload (yum) but oh my the caramel came out perfectly if you follow it to the guide like they say!
Cheryl W
Oh wow this came out perfectly. I made a ganache for the top to make it softer than just choc. My pan was a bit small so all my layers are thick and it’s a sugar overload (yum) but oh my the caramel came out perfectly if you follow it to the guide like they say!
Martha
I’ve made this twice and watched the caramel like a fiend with two different thermometers but have had no luck with it setting anything close to the photo…it just comes out all runny, with no ingredient substitutions t all :/ tastes good though!
Magdalena
Just made this for the first time for my vegan partner. The recipe was very clear and easy to follow (thanks for supplying metric weight measures). I had to substitute coconut milk for the oat milk, but that was fine. My caramel was done in 20 minutes and thickened beautifully as I stirred it. The end result was perfect (if very, very sweet), and my partner loved it. Thank you for an excellent recipe!