Millionaire’s Shortbread

By Samantha Seneviratne

Updated March 26, 2026

  • Craig Lee for The New York Times
Media 1 of 2
Total Time
1¾ hours
Rating
4(3,193)
Comments
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Plain shortbread, a combination of the most basic ingredients in the baker’s pantry, is an understated sweet, but millionaire’s shortbread is a spectacle. It’s a flashy cookie, topped with swoops of chocolate and chewy caramel made from condensed milk, butter and Lyle’s Golden Syrup. A British confection made from cane sugar, Lyle’s is found near the honey and maple syrup in any well-stocked supermarket, but if you can't find it, corn syrup makes a fine, if slightly less flavorful, substitute.

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Ingredients

Yield:32 bars

FOR THE SHORTBREAD LAYER

  • 12 tablespoons/170 grams unsalted butter (1 ½ sticks), at room temperature but not too soft

  • ½ cup/100 grams granulated sugar

  • 1 ½ cups/190 grams all-purpose flour

  • ½ teaspoon kosher salt

FOR THE CARAMEL LAYER

  • 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

  • 4 tablespoons/55 grams unsalted butter (½ stick)

  • 2 tablespoons Lyle’s Golden Syrup or light corn syrup

  • ½ teaspoon kosher salt

  • ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

FOR THE CHOCOLATE

  • 8 ounces/226 grams semisweet chocolate, chopped

Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving

20 grams carbs; 19 milligrams cholesterol; 162 calories; 3 grams monounsaturated fat; 6 grams saturated fat; 9 grams fat; 1 gram fiber; 77 milligrams sodium; 2 grams protein; 14 grams sugar

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Make the shortbread layer: Heat oven to 325 degrees. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang on two sides. In a large bowl, beat together butter and sugar with an electric mixer on medium until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add flour and salt, and beat on low just until the mixture is evenly combined and the texture of coarse sand.

  2. Step 2

    Tip mixture into prepared pan, and press down firmly into an even layer. Bake until top is dry and light golden brown, 30 to 35 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool.

  3. Step 3

    Make the caramel layer: In a medium saucepan, combine condensed milk, butter, Golden Syrup and salt. Cook mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly with a heatproof spatula, until it has thickened and changed from a milky yellow color to the color of butterscotch pudding, 10 to 20 minutes. It should read 220 degrees to 225 degrees on an instant-read thermometer. Adjust the heat as necessary to keep the bottom from scorching. Stir in vanilla extract. Immediately pour the caramel over the baked crust and spread it into an even layer.

  4. Step 4

    Prepare the chocolate: In the microwave or over a double boiler, melt the chocolate in short bursts, stirring often. Spread melted chocolate in an even layer over caramel. Chill until chocolate is set, about 30 minutes. To serve, cut the parchment-free sides away from the pan with a sharp knife, then transfer the shortbread to a cutting board using the parchment overhang. Cut into 32 small bars.

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Ratings

4 out of 5
3,193 user ratings
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Comments

Andrea

Paul Hollywood uses la different recipe that I like better. I use this shortbread recipe and his caramel. Makes a perfect cookie. ¾ cup packed light brown sugar ⅓ cup sweetened condensed milk 3 tbsp. golden cane syrup (such as Lyle’s Golden Syrup)

Margaux Laskey, Staff Editor

You can pop it into the fridge while you melt the chocolate, but it's not 100% necessary. It's more important that you allow the shortbread to cool before spreading the caramel on top.

Adrienne

Delicious and easier than I expected! Next time I may actually increase the amount of chocolate—maybe do 8oz semisweet plus 4-6oz bittersweet or unsweetened—because the chocolate layer was pretty thin and I am a fiend.

rhosa

having made this recipe and the america's test kitchen recipe multiple times, i recommend the latter, with all love to nyt cooking

Dha243

This one was a huge failure for me—twice. First time was my fault for forgetting to add the butter to the caramel; it never set (lesson learned: don’t try a new recipe when serving it to company. Thank goodness I had some cookie dough in the freezer.). Second time, I measured carefully, using both a kitchen scale and an instant read thermometer. Cooked the sweetened condensed milk mixture to 220 degrees (and it was even a bit hotter by the time I poured it out of the pan)—it never thickened much nor changed color, but I followed the recipe and stuck to the recommended temperature, hoping as it cooled, it would thicken. Nope. Soggy, drippy mess. I even tried scraping it back into a saucepan to cook longer, but by then, it had made the shortbread soggy and inedible. Nothing like wasting an entire pound of butter, two cans of sweetened condensed milk, etc. Third (and final) try: going to caramelize a can of sweetened condensed milk in a slow cooker overnight, per the NYT recipe for salted caramel ice cream. Not sure why everyone else here had good luck and I did not; talk about frustrating. Here’s hoping the crock pot method of caramelizing the milk works…

Chris

Drizzle chocolate on top after cutting into squares. If a chocolate layer on top, too hard to cut into squares and caramel oozes out.

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