Gingerbread Millionaires Shortbread!

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A homemade gingerbread shortbread, topped with homemade caramel, ginger chocolate and gingerbread men! Perfect gingerbread millionaires shortbread!

I LOVE GINGERBREAD!

Gingerbread millionaires shortbread – yum! So, I do think the theme of the year is gingerbread, and that was entirely accidental. Honestly, I don’t know how it happened, but I’ve just gone a little gingerbread crazy! I can’t actually keep up with my love for gingerbread this year, but it is happening still. My gingerbread drip cake, my gingerbread cheesecake and now this beauty of a traybake is here.

Oh, how I have wished for a traybake like this for oh so long… My Biscoff millionaires traybakewas the main inspiration, as that is already quite spicy, from the Lotus biscuit flavour, but this is on a whole new level. Using the ground spices of ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice inside the shortbread brings it to an entirely new level. It’s INCREDIBLE.

Spices

The rest of the spices are optional, but the ground ginger is obviously the most important. To be honest, though, most gingerbread biscuits are made up of more than one spice. My gingerbread biscuit recipe is one of those exact recipes, even my gingerbread cheesecake! I just adore the different flavours, and it makes it such a warming treat, especially during Winter!

Gingerbread is for life of course, not just for Christmas, but it’s definitely more of a festive thing. Gingerbread hot chocolates when you go out, all the gingerbread biscuits that are on offer to buy… so much gingerbread. Gingerbread isn’t even really looking like a word any more as I have typed it so many times, and I still have so long to go.

Caramel

The caramel is homemade, and a personal favourite recipe of mine. Yes, you MUST MAKE YOUR OWN CARAMEL, using a caramel from a tin will NOT work, because yuck. It will honestly be such a sticky mess, and the taste of the caramel is completely different. The tinned caramel works for recipes where you need sauce, such as my caramel Rolo cheesecake, but not for recipes where you need it to set on its own. Like this.

Trust in the recipe, it’s important. Some people struggle, and it’s down to the heat level. It’s near impossible to describe the exact temperature to have the hob on, as all cookers are different. Even induction and electric hobs are different, and I use gas because I much prefer it. If you find it burns, or doesn’t set, or anything like that… the timing or temperature were incorrect. Even using a different pan can make a difference! Give it another go though, you’ll find your caramel rythm!

Chocolate

I decided to not put any gingerbread themed goodies into the caramel, as I didn’t want to mess with it, but the chocolate on top? That was open for goodness. I did think about adding in more spices to the chocolate, but as I wanted the chocolate to stay quite sweet, I thought I would just add in some ground ginger. I literally just melted the chocolate and then stirred the spices in. That simple!

Decoration

Yes the gingerbread men I am using in this are shop bought… oh wait, it doesn’t matter. To be honest, I had such a long list of things to bake one week, I just didn’t want to add gingerbread men into the mix so I bought some mini ones and I think they look cute! It also means you don’t have to wait on another thing for this traybake, which is always good when the setting times are a while.

A homemade gingerbread shortbread, topped with homemade caramel, ginger chocolate and gingerbread men! Perfect gingerbread millionaires shortbread!

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Category: Traybakes

Type: Millionaires Shortbread

Keyword: Christmas, Gingerbread

Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 35 minutes minutes

Decorating Time: 10 minutes minutes

Total Time: 55 minutes minutes

Ingredients

Gingerbread Shortbread

190 g unsalted butter
85 g caster sugar
250 g plain flour
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp allspice

Caramel

200 g unsalted butter
3 tbsp caster sugar
4 tbsp golden syrup
397 g condensed milk

Topping

300 g milk chocolate
2 tsp ground ginger
Gingerbread biscuits

Grams - Ounces

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 180C/160C Fan, and line a 9x9inch 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, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice until a dough is formed. It will be crumbly but the ingredients will be evenly dispersed!
Firmly press the mixture into the bottom of the 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, stir in the ginger, and pour over the caramel.
Put some crushed and whole gingerbread men on top of the chocolate, along with some of your favourite sprinkles, and leave to set in the fridge until solid. About 1-2 hours!
Cut your shortbread up, 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 other flavour chocolate on the top if you wish!

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©Jane’s Patisserie. All images & content are copyright protected. Do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words and credit me, or link back to this post for the recipe.