Michelle Evans-Fecci's pecan millionaire's shortbread | Recipes

Ingredients

Shortbread

• 225g plain flour
• 200g unsalted butter
• 60g pecans (blitzed)
• 100g light brown soft sugar
• 1/2tsp vanilla bean paste.

Caramel

• 90g unsalted butter
• 397g tin condensed milk
• 2tbsp light brown soft sugar
• 2tbsp golden syrup
• 50g dates (chopped).

Chocolate topping

• 200g milk chocolate
• 35g unsalted butter.

To decorate

• edible flowers (optional).

Required equipment

• Medium pan or pot
• Cocktail shaker
• Milk frother
• 2 glasses, to serve.

How to make

1. Preheat oven to 160° fan and grease and line a 9“ square tin.
2. To make the shortbread, rub flour and butter together to resemble fine breadcrumbs, add blitzed nuts, sugar and vanilla and mix well.
3. Tip biscuit mixture into the bottom of the prepared tin and press down firmly and evenly with the back of a spoon. Bake for 20-25 minutes until light golden brown.
4. For the caramel, put butter, condensed milk, sugar and golden syrup into a heavy-based pan. Heat gently to melt the butter and dissolve the sugar. Turn up the heat, stirring frequently to make sure the mixture doesn’t catch and burn for around 5 minutes until thickened, or until it reaches 105° on a thermometer. Add chopped dates and mix well.
5. Pour the caramel on top of the shortbread and use a spatula to level out the mixture evenly. Leave to cool and pop into the fridge to set.
6. For the topping, heat the chocolate and butter together in a bowl set over a pan of warm water until dissolved. Pour chocolate over set caramel and pop in the fridge to harden before cutting into slices.

Note: if you want to decorate your millionaire's shortbread with edible flowers, add these while the chocolate is still wet.