Orange Cinnamon Millionaire Bars
Orange Cinnamon Millionaire Bars
If you’re following along with my Great British Baking Show Bake-Along you’ll know this week is Caramel Week. The bake for this week was Millionaire Bars, which I thought I’d never made. For this bake, you had to have one dozen Millionaire Bars, with three distinct layers. I spent most of the week wondering what I would make for my recipe when I remembered my old favorite recipe for Twix Bars. I knew I could tweak it a bit and make it unique; Orange Cinnamon Millionaire Bars were the result. A perfect mix of orange shortbread, cinnamon caramel, and a thin layer of chocolate, a new Christmas Cookie for us I think.
What are Millionaire Bars?
Millionaire Bars are a cookie bar with three distinct layers. The base is crunchy shortbread and can be flavored as desired or left plain. Then on top of that, you have a caramel layer, again you can make this flavored or plain. The third distinct layer is a thin layer of chocolate. Traditional chocolate is simple, but you can make it dark or light or swirled. There are a lot of ways to make Millionaire Bars unique; you can even add a fourth layer!
Orange Cinnamon Millionaire Bars
Once I realized my old Twix Bar recipe was practically a Millionaire Bar this bake became so much easier. I was able to relax knowing that I’d already made a caramel layer that stayed in place while being cut. Yes, it calls for sweetened condensed milk but it works, and that’s a win for me.
I knew I wanted something fall spiced for my bars, so I settled on orange and cinnamon, kind of a spiced tea flavor. I added the zest from half an orange to my shortbread recipe and patted into a 9X13 baking tray. Then while it was baking, I set to work making a cinnamon flavored caramel. Because the caramel layer cooks so long I left the cinnamon out until the very end, I was afraid it might scorch or otherwise taste funny if I added it too early on. Waiting to the very end of the cook time worked perfectly, the flavor is light and heady, not overbearing or heavily flavored.
Orange Cinnamon Millionaire Bars
Ingredients
Orange Shortbread
- 2 cups flour
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp salt if using unsalted butter
- zest of half an orange
- 1 cup butter
Cinnamon Caramel
- 3/4 cup butter
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 can sweetened condensed milk
- 1 tsp cinnamon
Chocolate Topping
- 1 1/2 cups semi sweet chocolate do not use nestle chocolate chips, they don't melt well for spreading
- 1 tsp cocnut oil or cooking oil do not use butter the water content will cause your chocolate layer seize
Instructions
Orange Shortbread Base
- preheat oven to 350˚
- in the bowl of a food processor pulse the flour, brown sugar, salt and orange zest together
- cut butter in pieces and add to the mix, pulse to chop and combine
- when the mix resembles coarse crumbs press into the bottom of a 9X13 pan
- bake 20-25 minutes
Cinnamon Caramel
- meanwhile melt the butter for caramel in a heavy sauce pan
- once melted add the sugar and stir to combine
- add the sweetened condensed milk and keep stirring
- bring mixture to a boil always stirring to keep it from scorching
- reduce heat once it reaches a boil and simmer 10 minutes, stirring constantly
- in the last minute of simmering sprinkle in the cinnamon and stir to combine
- remove from heat when done
- once the shortbread base is finished baking pour the hot caramel over the top
- cool in the refrigerator until the caramel is cool and set
Chocolate Layer
- melt the chocolate with the oil over a double boiler
- once it's melted, spread over the caramel layer
- chill until set
- cut in bars and serve
These sound so good!!
These look decadent. Thank you for sharing. Found you at Friday Frenzy Link Party.