For those of you who haven't come across it before, millionaires shortbread is a piece of Scottish shortbread with a layer of caramel on top, and then another layer of chocolate on top of that.
When done well it'll literally melt in your mouth. First the shortbread, which -if well made- dissolves into buttery, sugary goodness. Then the caramel. The millionaire slices I've had have all used fairly soft caramel, so not too sticky and also dissolves on your tongue in a lovely manner.
And last, of course, the chocolate. I mean, who doesn't like chocolate? (To be fair, I know a few people who don't and a few people who dislike caramel too. In which case, I'd advise you to steer clear of this biscuit/cookie) Milk chocolate seems to be The One for millionaire slices, and it does compliment the caramel quite well, so hey, why not?
Anyway. Fast forward and I'm back in Scotland, living here, for at least a year.
Back in the land of millionaires shortbread.
The one thing I hadn't really taken into consideration was the fact that my tastes had changed over the last few years, and suddenly I was picky about it. Too sweet was no longer something to shrug and go "eh, still good" about, it meant I was wrinkling my nose and leaving it on the plate.
For example. Cobbs, the bakery that provides sweets and cakes to quite a lot of cafes in the highlands, makes a solidly good shortbread and the chocolate is a fair quality. It's a bit sweet though, and when you add the caramel to it (and the amount of caramel on the Cobbs millionaire slices is not small) it starts making your teeth ache with the sugar and sweet levels.
On the other side, I was told about a little local bakery in Aberfoyle. Maggie's Aberfoyle Kitchen. Go check it out.
Holy flipping bus. Best. Shortbread. They had little samples out and I just about melted when I tired it. Lightly crumbly, and lovely and buttery, and just. Shortbread. Don't know if it's the best I've ever had, but it was certainly up there.
Now, they had some millionaires shortbread, and it had a smaller amount of caramel on it than I had yet seen. So I though what the heck? Twist my rubber arm.
Still not quite right. The shortbread part was fantastic, and the chocolate quality is the best I've had so far. Caramel? (this part I thought was oddly funny) Not enough. It's there, you can see it, and it doesn't make it too sweet to eat, but. You can also hardly taste it.
Which is quite sad really, because the flavour mesh of caramel, milk chocolate, and shortbread is actually really really good when balanced properly. There's hints of vanilla running through everything (which is divine), the caramel actually gives it a hint of sharpness (which is interesting), and somehow the way the milk chocolate marries with the butter of the shortbread comes through as creamy.
The textures are interesting too. Soft and smooth from the caramel, a little hard turning to liquid quite quickly with the chocolate, and hard and crumbly for the short bread, which absorbs and binds together everything else.
It's one of those things that's kinda perfect when done just right, and the rest of the time you end up with vague (but tasty) feelings of disappointment.
In short, my hunt for the perfect millionaires shortbread is still ongoing. How terrible. Woe is me.
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