December 4, 2017
Terry’s Chocolate Orange Millionaires Shortbread
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Buttery orange flavoured shortbread, delicious homemade caramel, and Terry’s chocolate orange goodness on top. Perfect Christmas traybake!
Chocolate orange millionaires!
So, yeah… chocolate orange themed millionaires shortbread anyone?! Honestly, I have wanted to post this recipe FOR SO LONG but I wanted to hold off till Christmas time.
I simply adore Terry’s chocolate orange and I simply adore millionaires shortbread, so this recipe was a bit of a given. I’ve made this several times, and I adore the extra Orange in the shortbread, rather than just the chocolate orange melted on top.
Similar recipe
I decided to go quite similarly along the lines of my salted caramel millionaires shortbread as the recipe is just so popular and works so well. It was quite simple to adapt to make it Christmas themed by using Terry’s chocolate orange on top, and drizzling over some orange coloured chocolate as well.
Shortbread
Also, using the orange flavouring in the shortbread gave it that extra kick I wanted. Of course, this is optional, but its OH SO YUMMY and moreish. When I gave these to my trusty taste testers, they devoured them. I realise I say this a lot, but I have a hungry bunch of taste testers, and if they don’t like something, they do say!
I obviously used Terry’s chocolate orange, but you can use whatever flavoured chocolate you like. Even the Lindt chocolates for example, or a flavoured Cadburys chocolate!
Caramel
For the caramel, you REALLY have to work on it. You can’t use a tin of carnations caramel and stick it on top as it doesn’t set. You can’t really skip the steps, as it really is a caramel. I don’t often make my caramels from complete scratch as many of my readers prefer the easier versions, and I get that.
You have to make sure to stir the caramel a lot to prevent it from catching and burning. I use a medium level of heat, and a larger pan so its easier to stir. You have to be careful as it obviously does get VERY hot, but its worth it. It is delicious and heavenly.
Terry's Chocolate Orange Millionaires Shortbread!
Ingredients
Shortbread Ingredients
- 200 g unsalted butter
- 100 g caster sugar
- 275 g plain flour
- Zest 2 oranges
Caramel Ingredients
- 200 g unsalted butter
- 3 tbsp caster sugar
- 4 tbsp golden syrup
- 397 g condensed milk (one tin)
Decoration
- 300 g Terry's chocolate orange
- 75 g white chocolate
- Orange food colouring
- Terry's chocolate orange segments
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180C/160C Fan, and line a 9" deep square tin with parchment paper.
- Cream together the sugar and butter in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment until smooth – mix in the flour and orange zest until a dough is formed. It will be crumbly but the ingredients will be evenly dispersed!
- Firmly press the mixture into the bottom of tin and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until pale golden on top!
- Once baked, remove from the oven and leave to the side. In a large saucepan pour the condensed milk, butter, sugar, and golden syrup and melt on a medium heat until the sugar has dissolved – stir frequently to stop anything from catching.
- Once the sugar has dissolved, turn the heat up high and let the mixture come to boiling point and boil for 5-7 minutes stiring constantly so that the mixture doesn’t catch. BE CAREFUL as the mixture is VERY hot and can burn you if it splashes back!
- The mixture will be ready when it has changed to a slightly darker golden colour, and has thickened to a soft fudge texture!
- Pour the caramel onto the shortbread base and leave to set for an hour in the fridge.
- Once set, melt the chocolate orange and pour over the caramel – melt the white chocolate and mix with a little orange food colouring and swirl it into the chocolate orange with the end of a cake skewer so it forms a pretty pattern or just drizzle it over.
- Put a chocolate orange slice on it for each piece when you eventually cut it. Chill the shortbread back in the fridge for another 1-2 hours until the chocolate has gone hard**!
- Chop your shortbread into the separate pieces and enjoy!
Notes
- This will keep in an airtight container for at least 1 week – if they last that long!
- If you caramel is rock solid when you remove it from the fridge, you have slightly over done it. Not to worry though, when you pour the chocolate on, leave it to set at room temperature rather than in the fridge and it should soften the caramel slightly.
- **If you struggle to cut your shortbread and tray bakes without the chocolate cracking on top, set it at room temperature rather than in the fridge and it’ll be softer so therefore won’t crack when you cut it!
- You can use normal milk chocolate if you wish, or even use orange extract to flavour it this traybake.
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Can these be put in the freezer? Thanks
Absolutely, for up to 3 months! Hope this helps! x
Hello Jane
I’d like to try this out, can I use milk chocolate and orange extract? How much extract would be needed? Also is the amount of milk chocolate the same as the amount of chocolate orange?
Hiya! Yes, this should be fine using the same amount of milk chocolate – the extract depends on the brand, but I usually recommend 1 tsp. Hope this helps! x
Would you be able to substitute the shortbread base for a cookie base and then add the caramel and chocolate on top?
Yes absolutely! Take a look at my Millionaires Cookie Bar recipe. Hope this helps! x
Hi Jane, I followed every step and it all came out perfect apart from the white chocolate part…. I used Terry’s white chocolate orange pieces and then once melted added liquid food colouring which turned out unusable.
So I gave up and just swirled white chocolate to the top and added a chocolate orange piece.
They taste delicious….. I’ve just ordered your book and cannot wait to try other recipes.
Hiya! As you used liquid colouring, it caused the chocolate to seize! You need to use a gel or oil colouring when colouring chocolate!
Hey! 🙂
Can I substitute the orange zest for orange extract and if so how much do you recommend please?
Hiya! Yes absolutely – i’d recommend using 1tsp per orange. Hope this helps! x
Hi Jane
I don’t have Terrys chocolate orange where I live so just wondered can I add orange extract to the milk chocolate for the top of the millionaires? If so how many spoonfuls please?
Thanks
Kathirna
I’ve made these a few times and they’ve turned out PERFECT! But the last time I made them the caramel was so gloopy that I couldn’t even cut them into slicesm. I set it in the fridge for 2 hours before putting on the melted choc. Any ideas on what I did wrong? Thanks
Did you accidentally use evaporated milk or light condensed milk? x
I love orange chocolate and was really excited to make this. I followed the recipe and my shortbread was undercooked. I cooked if for an extra 10 minutes thinking that would help but it turned out still undercooked. Still tasted great but I might put it on a higher temp next time.
Ah yes, it just sounds like the oven temp was too low!
Absolutely delicious and easy to make. Previously I made someone else’s millionaires shortbread and the caramel wasn’t good. I realise now that I hadn’t boiled it for long enough. Following your 5 – 7 (I did the full 7) minutes boil gave perfect results.
made these last week. they are absolutely beautiful cannot wait to make them again x
Hi Jane, I made this recipe last week and my caramel turned out great as I first thought then when pouring into the tin there was a lot of oil at the top and once set it was rock solid and I couldn’t cut it, any ideas where I went wrong? Did I over cooked the caramel although it wasn’t burnt. Thank you I’m advance!
That sounds very over done – it won’t necessarily burn if its over done. x
Hi Jane,
Love this recipe although I am struggling to find orange food colouring. I have tried rainbow dust progel orange and keeps coming out pink or if I add more colour it turns to a red. What one do you use?
Oh how strange! It may be worth trying a different brand such as colour splash! x
Mine came out red too, I added a bit of yellow progel and it went orange!
Just wondering is there a specific brand of white chocolate I should use?
Loving all the recipes I’ve tried so far, thank you!
No there isn’t – it’s more the food colouring that can cause a problem! Liquid ones should be avoided! x
Amazing recipe 😊
Hi if I was just buy a the caramel in a tin would it still work the same if I heated it and then added it
No – I really would recommend following the recipe. x
I love this recipe especially at Christmas time but I have an Osijek, everytime I add food colouring to the white chocolate it congealed and goes really funny, any tips on adding colouring to white chocolate?
You have to use the correct type of colouring – if it seizes, it’s not for chocolate. In the UK I use sugar flair, colour splash, pro-gel!
Set really well and look delicious! Biscuit base is slightly crumbly, how would I fix this?
When you add the shortbread you need to really push it down and make the ingredients firm and maybe bake for slightly less time? x
Hi Jane, what orange food colouring do you recommend?
I use progel, sugar flair, wilton, colour splash!
Hey jane! I love this recipe, tried so many of yours and I always compliment your recipes to everyone I make for, when doing this one, can I make a smaller batch?? How would I work this out sorry? Thanks again! X
Hey! So I usually say half is about a 7″ square tin – and then I would just halve everything! x
Hi Jane,
Which orange extract do you find the best?
I love any Valencian supermarket ones or Nielsen Massey!
Made these the other day and absolutely loved them and couldn’t stop myself from tucking into just 1 more every time! I also used the recipe for the Mini Egg Millionaire Shortbread’s around Easter time and those were delicious as well (my wife’s favourite out of the 2 recipes)! By far the best layer of caramel I have ever tasted and nice & easy recipes to follow, thank you so much Jane, looking forward to trying out more of your recipes in the future 🙂
Hey really want to try and nail this recipe! I was just wondering what the best way is to melt the Terry’s chocolate? I tried to do it in the pot (was a mistake) but it burned before it was all smooth? Thanks!
So you either melt chocolate in a microwave (some need it on half heat), or you melt it in a double boiler (a bowl above a pan of simmering water) – chocolate can’t often be melted straight in a pan on the hob! X
Personally, I don’t think the calories count, because if you are counting them, you really shouldn’t be eating millionaires shortcake! 🤣
Hi Jane. When setting the caramel… Do I have to wait for it to cool. To out it in the fridge or does it go in hot? Thankyou x
I put it in the fridge whilst still hot personally!
Hey 🙂 I love all your recipes! But when I was doing the caramel, I left it bubble until the sugar was dissolved and then upped the temp to make it bubble and to turn colour, but I don’t know if I done it to long as soon as this their seemed to be like oil over costing the caramel? Can you tell me what I done wrong please? I can never seem to get the caramel right 🙁
So when you are dissolving the sugar, it shouldn’t be boiling – it just needs to melt down slowly! Then, you start the boiling – and if you over do it or have the heat too high it can split a bit! You can sometimes bring it off the heat and whisk it till it comes back together! I’d recommend watching my Millionaires Shortbread video on YouTube as I show exactly how I make the caramel!
Hi Jane! I made these and they were delicious apart from the fact my shortbread tasted a bit sour from the zest of the orange! Do you know why this could be? Is it too much zest, or perhaps the oranges I was using?
It could be the oranges you were using – for me it just makes it orangey! You can use orange extract instead!
Loved making these!
Easy to follow your recipe 😊
they look amazing and taste beautiful (very sweet!)
I think I over cooked my caramel though as it is more chewy than I expected 🙈 do you think this will be the case?
Thank you
Beci 😊
Hey! Ahh thank you! And yes if they’re chewy that means they’re slightly overdone is all!
I made these. Absoloutley delicious and easy to follow too, thankyou. Quick question though on your nutritional values it’s states how many calories per portion. How many portions did you make from it? I cut mine into 20 as I used the smaller segments of Terry’s. Just wondered if yours would be cut into less pieces with it being larger segments?
Mine is 16 portions as stated on the recipe! The nutritional values are only estimated however as it depends entirely on what exact ingredients you use and so on!
When making the shortbread base, it was more like a dough than crumbly, but i used the correct ingredients and volumes, do you know a reason for this
Do you mean after it’s finished baking? If so it just needed a little more baking! If you mean before baking, its perfect and will bake very well!
Hi Jane,
Do you think this could be frozen at all?
Thanks
Lucy
Yes it can!
Just made this, looks great and can’t wait to eat it! Thanks for the great recipe!
Ahh yay! Thank you!
I have just made this recipe, looks great but I have failed with the simple melting of white choc and adding orange food colour, as soon as the food colour is added it goes too thick ,help
What colouring did you use?
I had the same problem! Once I started adding the orange food colouring to the melted white chocolate, it turned really thick. To solve the problem, I just mixed in some sunflower oil, but any neutral oil would work!
What white chocolate did you use..? A lot of colourings will never work with chocolate.
Hi Jane,
As it happens I’m an absolute newbie to caramel cooking. Your recipe seems too delicious not to try it out though 🙂
Just checking because I’m very unsure and easily confused. Caramel always appears to be very liquid in all kinds of media and seems to remain liquid even in a fridge. (Correct me if I’m wrong)
Also most “caramel tutorials” have the sugar cooked first and and then when it’s melted/turned brown have butter/cream/milk etc added. Then again it seems you use less sugar, but more milk/butter than most caramel recipes do.
I am considering doing my caramel the “traditional” way for it seems a bit easier, adding butter/milk/syrup only afterwards. Could I also do that? Would it also have the same desired “fudgey” consistency?
Thank you very much 🙂
I would advise following the recipe – as you can see in the photos it sets and is not a liquid after… and that’s because of the recipe.
Hi jane, when i did the caramel its burnt the bottom of my sause pan and left burnt bits init how do i resolve this
Hiya – do you mean to get the caramel off the pan? Add some water and boil the water to warm the pan through and then clean. If you mean to stop it happening during making the caramel, turn the heat down a smidge and make sure to use a spatula that scrapes the bottom so nothing is left there too long to burn.
Hi Jane!
I just wondered if you have any tips on how to cut this nicely? I’ve made the millionaires on many occasion but the struggle I find is the chocolate cracks on top when I remove from the fridge to portion. I’ve tried leaving it a while as well but always seem to crack it! I just wanted to check if there was a method of keeping the presentation of these a little neater.Thanks in advance 🙂 xx
I use a really large (26cm) chefs knife to cut mine, as they’re so sharp they are much easier to cut! The best thing to do is to just set it at room temperature rather then in the fridge at all so it should be easier! xx
Let it set so far then score the cut marks into the chocolate then let set fully, this normally helps with cutting the chocolate when done.
Hi!
My caramel came out a bit grainy, do you know why this might be?
Sometimes grainy caramel can be a number of things – often electric/induction hobs cause this in comparison to gas (no idea why but its a thing apparently!), or the sugar didn’t dissolve correctly before the mixture boiled x
Hi,
I have done it three batches, two of them turned grainy. I know why, now. I left my melting butter split, then it stayed on top of condensed milk, looked horrible. So I washed my saucepan and again washed it in very cold water to bring its temperature completely down. Start again, butter, milk, sugar, syrup. Lower heat. Stirring constantly from start to end to make sure butter won’t split. Bring it to boil still stirring but very steadily as mixture is extremely hot. 3minutes after… Ta daa. Nice and smooth caramel done. Only thing is, it’s never that dark brown as on video 🙁
Sometimes it just will be differently coloured – also, you have to remember lighting can affect a photo/video, so as long as its sets and is tasty the colour doesn’t matter so much! Also, I boil mine for 5-7 minutes, so 3 minutes would be a lighter caramel colour.
Hi Jane how much Terry’s chocolate orange do you melt
300g as mentioned in the recipe x
Can you use willow butter spread instead of butter for the shortbread.?
I personally do recommend using actual butter, or a spread like stork – but I haven’t used the willow brand before!
dans la recette en quoi consiste le sirop doré? merci d’avance pour votre reponse
Golden Syrup is a syrup available in the UK, you will need to google your alternative.
What temperature on a sugar thermometer should the caramel be when ready. I feel it would be much more helpful if you wrote that as part of the recipe.
As you can see from the recipe, and every single other Millionaires recipe on my blog, and when googled any recipe I have seen of Millionaires Shortbread, they don’t state a temperature. There isn’t a temperature to boil it too, its the timing. I feel it would be much more helpful if you gave it a go first.
Hilarious🤣🤣
I’m not sure if Lorraine though that was hilarious….. Poor Lorraine.
Hello 🙂 These look amazing, can I use tinned caramel?
Thank you! And I would recommend making your own as tinned caramel won’t set properly and will be a splodgy mess x
My caramel set and was rock hard Wat I do wrong
You over did it – try a couple less minutes next time.
if substituting the orange zest for orange extract, how much would you add?
1-2 tsps!
Is there a way of making the caramel slightly orange flavoured? Would it even be possible to make a seasonal alcoholic version with cointreau in it?
You can add orange zest to the caramel, but the alcohol might affect the consistency of the caramel.
they look amazing….
Hi Jane
Just reading through the ingredients/recipe, I notice your title for the caramel is salted caramel but you use unsalted butter and no other salt addition so wondered how the caramel becomes salted – or have I missed something!
No its just meant to be Caramel – writing multiple recipes at once I wrote the wrong thing haha sorry!