Millionaire's Shortbread Bars
By: dad1337
Published: Monday, January 20, 2014 - 9:00am

Ingredients




For Shortbread:
1 cup sugar
1 pound butter softened
1 egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla
4 cups all purpose flour
For the caramel
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbs corn syrup
1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla
For the chocolate topping
4 oz semisweet chocolate
1/4 butter
1 tsp corn syrup

Preparation

1 Take a 8 X8 inch baking pan and line it with aluminum foil. 2 Preheat oven to 325°. 3 In a mixer place the butter and sugar for the shortbread and cream.  Once breamed add the egg yolk and continue to mix until completely combined.  Add the vanilla, the with the mixer on low add the flour and mix until a ball begins to form.  Take the dough out of the bowl and form into a round, and cut into 3 equal parts. 4 On a silpat or a lightly floured surface take 1/3 of the recipe and roll out to about a 7 1/2 inch square, it should be 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick.  Place the square of dough into the foil lined pan and press into the corners and edges.  Place into the center of the preheated oven and bake for about 50 minutes until the top is lightly browned.  Remove pan to a wire rack and let the shortbread cool completely. 5 Once the shortbread has cooled go to step 2 the caramel. 6 Put the butter, sugar and corn syrup and the condensed milk in a sauce pan and on medium heat melt the butter stirring as it melts.  Once the butter is melted bring the heat up and while continually stirring bring the mixture up to a boil.  Constantly stir until the mixture turns a light caramel color (be careful not to over cook or it will taste burnt).  Once it reaches the proper color take it off the heat and very carefully add the vanilla and stir in ,watching out as the cool vanilla can cause the mixture to bubble up. 7 Pour on top of the shortbread and rotate the pan to get the mixture to cover the shortbread completely.  Put into refrigerator for at least 2 hours, over night better. 8 Once cooled and firm go to step three. 9 In a small saucepan put the chocolate, the butter and corn syrup and on low heat melt and stir to combine.  Once fully melted and combined pour over the caramel and rotate the pan to completely cover.  Refrigerate for a few hours until chocolate is firm. 10 Once the recipe is firm carefully pull out of the pan and loosen from the aluminum foil.  Place on a cutting board and cut into 2 inch squares, will yield 16 squares.

About

I suppose that given the rate of inflation, a millionaire not being what it used to be, that maybe we should rename this truly decadent dessert "Billionaires Shortbread".  In any case it is a recipe that takes a bit of work and a lot of time but the results are really worth it!
I tried a number of different recipes for the caramel and topping and these I found on instuctabels.com were the best, no need to come up with another: http://www.instructables.com/id/Millionaires-Shortbread-Bars
For the shortbread I used my family favorite recipe:   http://www.rantsravesandrecipes.com/worlds-best-shortbread-cookie-recipe , which can make three  batches or one and a lot of cookies or use part to make another type of shortbread bar recipe.