Finally made this. Still not mum's recipe, but wow. The shortbread is very, very close to Walker's Rectangular Finger Shortbread. Apparently, all the Walker's shortbreads are different depending on the ratios of butter to sugar and flour and the cooking time. I did not know that. Standard shortbread ratio is 3 flour, 2 butter, 1 sugar.
***Approx. cost for recipe:
Lyle's $3.50 /tin, used about 1/8, but purpose bought, so count entire tin
Sweetened Milk $2.50/tin
Butter $4.00/lb, used most of it
sugar and flour are practically free, but guess $1.00
chocolate (depends what you use, but say $2.50
so less than $1.00 per square, even counting oven cost
Ideally, I'd make 2 batches of the shortbread to one batch of caramel, but that's because I like a thick shortbread base and there's really too much caramel for one thick base.
Shortbread (start in the bowl of a food processor)
225 g sifted flour (I had whole wheat, so I sifted out the bran, but you should sift flour anyway...)
100 g caster sugar (only had granulated, so I ground it in the coffee grinder - caster is just superfine)
100 g semolina (didn't have semolina, so I ground rice in the coffee grinder - make sure you grind it fine, really)
mix above three ingredients together, then grate in:
225 g butter - very cold/frozen
Mix in food processor until ingredients pass from fine crumbs to ball of dough. Put dough in fridge for 20 minutes.
Press dough quickly and evenly into baking tray. Prick all over with a fork and put back in the fridge to wait while you heat the oven to 325. Size wise, I did an 8"x6" pan which gives a 1" shortbread base, but mum did much larger and her base was about 1/3 - 1/2 inch. You want a pan that's not too deep so it's easy to get out.
Cook for approx. 30 minutes. You want the shortbread slightly golden and cooking time will depend on how thick your shortbread is. Once cooked, let cool for at least an hour until it hardens. While it is still soft, you can cut it into rectangles to make it easier to cut it up later, but mum never did this.
When it's cool, make the caramel:
175 g butter
175 g sugar
1 can sweetened condensed milk (300 mL - 400 mL, whatever size you can find in this range, NOT evaporated milk)
4 tbsp Lyle's golden syrup (it's british, so it will be in the ethnic section, it's very thick and not corn syrup - I'll put imitation instructions at the bottom of the recipe if you absolutely can't find it)
Put all ingredients in a pot on med. low heat and start stirring once the butter melts. Once the gooeyness heats up enough to break a bubble, stir continuously for about 5 minutes until it's a rich golden colour and pulls away from the sides of the pot. Pour this all over the shortbread. Don't lick the spoon until it cools a little or you'll burn your tongue! Clean the pot while the syrup is still warm or it becomes a chore.
Let this cool until quite firm. Put it in the fridge once the pan cools a little to hurry along the process.
Chocolate layer:
200 g plain chocolate, preferably semi-sweet or even dark - Ikea has a nice dark chocolate, $1.00/100 g
Melt in double boiler of bowl over hot water and then pour over the caramel base. Let this cool and then cut into pieces.
You really shouldn't eat too much of this. Really. It's made with practically a pound of butter and more than a pound of sugar when you calculate the condensed milk and golden syrup. It should be a rare decadent treat. Or not, but don't kid yourself.
Just for fun
Syrup - 4 tbsp = 200 cal
Milk - 1 tin = 1400 cal
Butter 225+175g = 3000
Flour 225 g = 819 cal
sugar 275 g= 1031 cal
rice 100g - 370
chocolate 200 g =1020
So, just for fun, the entire pan without doubling the shortbread costs 7840. I cut mine into 16 squares, so each square is about 500 calories. Now that sheds a different light on things. Perhaps I will recut into 32 squares...
Substitute for Lyle's Golden Syrup
Put 1/4 cup sugar in a small heavy saucepan and shake pan so the sugar is in an even layer. Sprinkle it with 1/2 tsp vinegar and 1 tsp water. Cook over low heat, without stirring, for 5 minutes. Increase heat to medium and cook until syrup has taken on a light caramel colour, 5 to 6 minutes. Immediately remove from heat and pour in 1/3 cup light corn syrup. Do not stir, but let it bubble for 2 to 3 minutes. When the bubbling stops, stir well.
It can be stored at room temperature for several months.
OR
Combine 5 lbs sugar in a pan with 3 cups of water. Set to medium heat and stir continuously, but slowly to keep the sugar off the sides of the pot. When the sugar is almost completely dissolved add 10 ml of a low-flavoured acid, like Citric Acid or Tartaric Acid (cream of tartar) Lactic or Phosphoric acids can also be used. Continue heating and stirring till it starts to boil. You now have mostly inverted sugar.
Keep heating it over medium heat until it starts to turn straw yellow. Very pale. Nice light syrup. If you want darker syrup, keep cooking it but watch out as it can darken very quickly if you aren't paying attention. Before you are satisfied with the color, turn off the heat and carefully pour the syrup into 3 clean/sterilized jars and screw on the lids. The syrup will continue to darken as it cools. When the syrup has cooled for 15 minutes, turn the jars over and let the hot liquid cover the lids on the inside as an additional precaution. Once they are almost cool, turn them back over. The syrup is easy to measure out and keeps nearly forever.
Alternate recipe for the shortbread:
4 oz butter
4 oz plain flour2 oz caster sugar
2 oz semolina
pinch of salt
Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl, then work the butter in with your hands, until it has melted together from the warmth of your hands to form a dough. Press into a sponge tin (too crumbly to roll out), marking the edges with a fork (very important) and bake in a medium oven (325). Leave to cool before taking out of the tin.
And of course, no list is complete until Cook's Illustrated has spoken:
Buttery Shortbread 2001 425 oven 9' cake pan lined with parchment
1 3/4 cups (8.75 oz) unbleached flour
1/4 cup (1.3 oz) rice flour (you can make your own - soak rice 2 hours, drain and air dry then pan/heat dry, then grind in coffee grinder until very fine-though truthfully, I just grind without soaking, just pick through for impurities first)
2/3 cup superfine sugar (grind granulated if you don't have this)
1/4 tsp table salt
2 sticks (225g or 16 tbsp) unsalted butter (I use salted and skip the salt, but CI does things properly)
Try to keep things as cool as possible. Mix dry together (reserve 1 tbsp sugar for sprinkling). Cut butter into 1" squares, dust with some of the flour mixture to prevent sticking, then add to mixing bowl and mix on low speed with paddle until pale yellow and damp crumbs.
Break up mixture quickly and gently with fingers, pat into pan then tamp with spoon. Unmold onto a flat baking sheet, cut out centre with small cookie cutter, set centre aside and put cookie cutter back in centre hole.
Put shortbread in oven and immediately reduce heat to 300. Bake for 20 minutes, take out can score in triangles and pierce the shortbread pattern with a skewer then return to oven for approx 40 min. (until golden). Let cool to room temperature approx. 3 hours, then store.
Alternately, from CI,
"Best" Shortbread November 2009Buttery Shortbread 2001 425 oven 9' cake pan lined with parchment
1 3/4 cups (8.75 oz) unbleached flour
1/4 cup (1.3 oz) rice flour (you can make your own - soak rice 2 hours, drain and air dry then pan/heat dry, then grind in coffee grinder until very fine-though truthfully, I just grind without soaking, just pick through for impurities first)
2/3 cup superfine sugar (grind granulated if you don't have this)
1/4 tsp table salt
2 sticks (225g or 16 tbsp) unsalted butter (I use salted and skip the salt, but CI does things properly)
Try to keep things as cool as possible. Mix dry together (reserve 1 tbsp sugar for sprinkling). Cut butter into 1" squares, dust with some of the flour mixture to prevent sticking, then add to mixing bowl and mix on low speed with paddle until pale yellow and damp crumbs.
Break up mixture quickly and gently with fingers, pat into pan then tamp with spoon. Unmold onto a flat baking sheet, cut out centre with small cookie cutter, set centre aside and put cookie cutter back in centre hole.
Put shortbread in oven and immediately reduce heat to 300. Bake for 20 minutes, take out can score in triangles and pierce the shortbread pattern with a skewer then return to oven for approx 40 min. (until golden). Let cool to room temperature approx. 3 hours, then store.
Alternately, from CI,
1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
2/3 cup confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
14 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/8-inch thick slices
Preheat oven to 450 F. Place the collar of a 9-inch springform pan upside down on a parchment-lined baking sheet. (The groove of the collar should be at the top.)
Pulse the oats in a mini prep or food processor until reduced to fine powder, about ten 5-second pulses. In bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix ground oats, all-purpose flour, cornstarch, sugar, and salt on low speed until combined, about 5 seconds. Add the butter to the mixer and continue to mix on low speed until dough just forms and pulls away from sides of bowl, 5 to 10 minutes.
Press the dough into the springform collar in an even 1/2-inch-thick layer, smoothing top of dough with back of spoon. Using a 2-inch biscuit cutter, cut a hole in the center of the dough. Place the round alongside springform collar on baking sheet and place the biscuit cutter back into the hole in the center of the dough. Open the springform collar all the way, but leave it in place around the dough.
Bake the shortbread 5 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 250 F. Continue to bake the shortbread until the edges turn pale golden, 10 to 15 minutes longer. Remove baking sheet from oven and turn off oven. Remove the biscuit cutter and springform pan collar; use a chef’s knife to score surface of shortbread into 16 even wedges, cutting halfway through shortbread. Using a wooden skewer, poke 8 to 10 holes in each wedge. Return the shortbread to the oven and prop door open with handle of wooden spoon. Allow the shortbread to dry in turned-off oven until pale golden in center, about 1 hour.
Transfer the baking sheet to a wire rack and cool the shortbread to room temperature, at least 2 hours. Cut shortbread at scored marks to separate.
