Millionaire’s shortbread seems to be a very popular choice from the staff canteen amongst my colleagues at work.  Not being a huge biscuit fan myself (it’s about cake for me!) it had never made it on to my list of ‘must do’ baking at home.  However, with the launch of Chez
Shamwari, I thought this might be a good idea to be on the menu for afternoon tea at some point.  So I set about having a go.  The first attempt was using a recipe from I source I thought I couldn’t go wrong with, Leith’s Baking Bible.  I followed the instructions in
the recipe to a T, boiling the caramel for 5 minutes but the caramel didn’t set.  It certainly tasted OK but was all a bit gooey, oozing out from under the dark chocolate topping.  I wasn’t sure in the end if I had boiled it too long or not long enough.  I am not easily defeated and ever the perfectionist searched for other recipes to have another go and chanced upon trusty Nigella. Her recipe said to bubble the mixture for 5-8 minutes, stirring all the time, until a thick, fudgy consistency. I decided my previous attempt had been victim to not boiling it long enough so went for the full 8 minutes and the end result was perfect.