Salted peanut-butter millionaire shortbreads, Signature

Liam Charles’s Salted Peanut-Butter Millionaire Shortbreads

The handshake card

• Baker: Liam Charles
• UK series: Series 8 (2017)
• Week/theme: Week 4, Caramel
• Challenge: Signature
• Handshake fact: Liam received a Hollywood handshake for his salted peanut-butter millionaire shortbreads.
• Yield: 9 bars
• Difficulty: Easy
• Official timing: 30 minutes hands-on; 10–12 minutes baking
• Source: Liam Charles’s Peanut Millionaire’s Shortbread, The Great British Bake Off
• Evidence: Master index entry #14; research sources [S1], [S2], [S3].

Why it earned the handshake

Liam’s official recipe makes the millionaire shortbread into a compact peanut confection: buttery shortbread, peanut-butter caramel with dry-roasted nuts, milk chocolate, and a white-chocolate drizzle. The bar mould is optional, but the temperature control is not—the caramel must reach 120°C so it sets with a pliable, chewy bite rather than remaining loose.

Ingredients

Shortbread

• 30g cold butter, diced
• 30g golden caster sugar
• 60g plain flour
• 30g cornflour
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste

Peanut-butter caramel

• 30ml double cream
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 60g caster sugar
• 1 tbsp liquid glucose
• 2 tsp smooth peanut butter
• 50g salted butter
• 20g dry-roasted peanuts, roughly chopped

Topping

• 100g milk chocolate
• 15g dry-roasted peanuts, finely chopped
• 50g white chocolate

You will also need nine bar-shaped silicone moulds, or another silicone mould of your choice, and a sugar thermometer if available.

Method

1. Heat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/400°F/Gas 6. Blitz the shortbread ingredients until they just come together, or rub the flour, cornflour, salt, butter, and sugar together before adding the vanilla and lightly kneading.
2. Divide the dough into nine balls and press them into the mould bases. Bake on a tray for 10–12 minutes, until the edges are just beginning to colour.
3. For the caramel, heat the cream and vanilla until just boiling, then remove from the heat. In another pan heat the caster sugar and glucose without stirring, brushing down any crystals at the sides if needed. Once dissolved, raise the heat until golden.
4. Carefully add the hot cream to the caramel, stir, then gradually incorporate the salted butter and peanut butter. Return to the heat and cook to 120°C/248°F. Without a thermometer, a drop in cold water should form a pliable, sticky ball.
5. Pour the caramel into a shallow tray, fold through the roughly chopped nuts, and let it cool slightly without hardening. Spread it over the shortbread bases while they remain in the moulds.
6. Melt the milk chocolate over simmering water and spread it over the cooled caramel. Sprinkle with the finely chopped nuts and cool completely.
7. Melt the white chocolate, pipe it into a small bag, and drizzle over the bars. Leave fully set before turning them out.

Baker’s tips

• Do not stir the dry sugar and glucose as they heat; agitation encourages crystallisation.
• Add the cream carefully because the caramel will spit when the temperatures meet.
• Work while the caramel is spreadable, but wait until the bars are cool before adding chocolate.

Make-ahead

The bars can be made a day ahead and kept airtight in a cool place. Refrigerate only if the room is warm, then allow them to lose the chill before serving.