Terry’s Chocolate Orange Millionaires Shortbread
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Buttery orange flavoured shortbread, delicious homemade caramel, and Terry’s chocolate orange goodness on top. Perfect Christmas traybake!
Chocolate orange millionaires
So, yeah… chocolate orange themed millionaires shortbread anyone?! Honestly, I have wanted to post this recipe FOR SO LONG but I wanted to hold off till Christmas time. To me there’s something very christmassy about Terry’s Chocolate Orange maybe because I always got one in my Christmas stocking as a child, but now I have the perfect nostalgic Christmas bake.
I simply adore Terry’s chocolate orange and I simply adore millionaires shortbread, so this recipe was a bit of a given. I’ve made this several times, and I adore the extra Orange in the shortbread, rather than just the chocolate orange melted on top. If you love Terry’s Chocolate Orange as much as I do, you will also love my showstopper Terry’s Chocolate Orange Drip Cake or the decadent Mini Chocolate Orange Cheesecakes.
Similar recipe
This bake follows the same sort of structure as my salted caramel millionaires shortbread and millionaires shortbread – back to basics because those recipes just work. They’re reliable, they’re well loved, and they make the perfect foundation to build on. So making a festive version using Terry’s Chocolate Orange on top felt like the natural next step, a cosy, cheerful twist that looks gorgeous on a Christmas table.
I also couldn’t resist adding some orange-tinted chocolate drizzle for decoration. It’s simple, but it makes the traybake look extra special, especially when you’re planning to gift it or take it along to a gathering. It’s not hard to do but really does level up the bake, simply pour on the orange flavoured chocolate and drag a cocktail stick through to create the perfect swirls.
Shortbread
Adding orange flavour directly into the shortbread gives this bake the most delicious citrus kick. It’s subtle, zesty, and unbelievably moreish. Totally optional of course, but if you’re an orange lover, you don’t want to skip it. Whilst I used Terry’s Chocolate Orange… because… iconic… you can absolutely swap in any flavoured chocolate you fancy. Lindt, Cadbury, supermarket own… everything works.
When I handed these out to my usual group of taste testers (a very committed and very hungry bunch), the whole tray disappeared so fast I barely got a second piece. They’re brutally honest when something isn’t quite right, but these got full marks all round and they even ask when the next batch is coming.
Caramel
For the caramel, you REALLY have to work on it. You can’t use a tin of carnations caramel and stick it on top as it doesn’t set. You can’t really skip the steps, as it really is a caramel. I don’t often make my caramels from complete scratch as many of my readers prefer the easier versions, and I get that. However, if you want to see how I make my caramel you can watch my Millionaire Shortbread video on YouTube.
You have to make sure to stir the caramel a lot to prevent it from catching and burning. I use a medium level of heat, and a larger pan so it’s easier to stir. You have to be careful as it obviously does get VERY hot, but its worth it. Keep an eye on the mixture turning a slightly darker golden colour and holding the texture and consistency of soft fudge, any more than that and you can end up with hard toffee.
Chocolate orange topping
Once the caramel has cooled and set, finish it off with a generous layer of melted Terry’s Chocolate Orange. It’s smooth, soft, and it melts like a dream. A swirl of orange-coloured white chocolate across the top gives that classic marbled finish. I have seen white chocolate Terry’s Chocolate Oranges in the supermarkets before so if you don’t want to make your own you might get lucky and find one of them to melt down and swirl in.
The fabulous final touch, popping a little chocolate orange segment onto each slice makes them look like perfect mini portions. These cut into uniform squares and the segments fill the square perfectly. It’s festive, it’s fun, and it looks like you’ve made way more effort than you have – these have been a winner at Christmas and New Year parties but also who doesn’t love a Chocolate Orange all year round?!
Tips & tricks
- This will keep in an airtight container for at least 1 week – if they last that long.
- If you caramel is rock solid when you remove it from the fridge, you have slightly over done it. Not to worry though, when you pour the chocolate on, leave it to set at room temperature rather than in the fridge and it should soften the caramel slightly.
- **If you struggle to cut your shortbread and tray bakes without the chocolate cracking on top, set it at room temperature rather than in the fridge and it’ll be softer so therefore won’t crack when you cut it.
- You can use normal milk chocolate if you wish, or even use orange extract to flavour it this traybake.
Terry's Chocolate Orange Millionaires Shortbread!
Ingredients
Shortbread Ingredients
- 200 g unsalted butter
- 100 g caster sugar
- 275 g plain flour
- Zest 2 oranges
Caramel Ingredients
- 200 g unsalted butter
- 3 tbsp caster sugar
- 4 tbsp golden syrup
- 397 g condensed milk (one tin)
Decoration
- 300 g Terry's chocolate orange
- 75 g white chocolate
- orange food colouring
- Terry's chocolate orange segments
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180ºc/160ºc Fan, and line a 9" deep square tin with parchment paper.
- Cream together the sugar and butter in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment until smooth – mix in the flour and orange zest until a dough is formed. It will be crumbly but the ingredients will be evenly dispersed!
- Firmly press the mixture into the bottom of tin and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until pale golden on top!
- Once baked, remove from the oven and leave to the side. In a large saucepan pour the condensed milk, butter, sugar, and golden syrup and melt on a medium heat until the sugar has dissolved – stir frequently to stop anything from catching.
- Once the sugar has dissolved, turn the heat up high and let the mixture come to boiling point and boil for 5-7 minutes stiring constantly so that the mixture doesn’t catch. BE CAREFUL as the mixture is VERY hot and can burn you if it splashes back!
- The mixture will be ready when it has changed to a slightly darker golden colour, and has thickened to a soft fudge texture!
- Pour the caramel onto the shortbread base and leave to set for an hour in the fridge.
- Once set, melt the chocolate orange and pour over the caramel – melt the white chocolate and mix with a little orange food colouring and swirl it into the chocolate orange with the end of a cake skewer so it forms a pretty pattern or just drizzle it over.
- Put a chocolate orange slice on it for each piece when you eventually cut it. Chill the shortbread back in the fridge for another 1-2 hours until the chocolate has gone hard**!
- Chop your shortbread into the separate pieces and enjoy!
Notes
- This will keep in an airtight container for at least 1 week – if they last that long!
- If you caramel is rock solid when you remove it from the fridge, you have slightly over done it. Not to worry though, when you pour the chocolate on, leave it to set at room temperature rather than in the fridge and it should soften the caramel slightly.
- **If you struggle to cut your shortbread and tray bakes without the chocolate cracking on top, set it at room temperature rather than in the fridge and it’ll be softer so therefore won’t crack when you cut it!
- You can use normal milk chocolate if you wish, or even use orange extract to flavour it this traybake.
Just made this, looks great and can’t wait to eat it! Thanks for the great recipe!
Ahh yay! Thank you!
I have just made this recipe, looks great but I have failed with the simple melting of white choc and adding orange food colour, as soon as the food colour is added it goes too thick ,help
What colouring did you use?
I had the same problem! Once I started adding the orange food colouring to the melted white chocolate, it turned really thick. To solve the problem, I just mixed in some sunflower oil, but any neutral oil would work!
What white chocolate did you use..? A lot of colourings will never work with chocolate.
Hi Jane,
As it happens I’m an absolute newbie to caramel cooking. Your recipe seems too delicious not to try it out though 🙂
Just checking because I’m very unsure and easily confused. Caramel always appears to be very liquid in all kinds of media and seems to remain liquid even in a fridge. (Correct me if I’m wrong)
Also most “caramel tutorials” have the sugar cooked first and and then when it’s melted/turned brown have butter/cream/milk etc added. Then again it seems you use less sugar, but more milk/butter than most caramel recipes do.
I am considering doing my caramel the “traditional” way for it seems a bit easier, adding butter/milk/syrup only afterwards. Could I also do that? Would it also have the same desired “fudgey” consistency?
Thank you very much 🙂
I would advise following the recipe – as you can see in the photos it sets and is not a liquid after… and that’s because of the recipe.
Hi jane, when i did the caramel its burnt the bottom of my sause pan and left burnt bits init how do i resolve this
Hiya – do you mean to get the caramel off the pan? Add some water and boil the water to warm the pan through and then clean. If you mean to stop it happening during making the caramel, turn the heat down a smidge and make sure to use a spatula that scrapes the bottom so nothing is left there too long to burn.
Hi Jane!
I just wondered if you have any tips on how to cut this nicely? I’ve made the millionaires on many occasion but the struggle I find is the chocolate cracks on top when I remove from the fridge to portion. I’ve tried leaving it a while as well but always seem to crack it! I just wanted to check if there was a method of keeping the presentation of these a little neater.Thanks in advance 🙂 xx
I use a really large (26cm) chefs knife to cut mine, as they’re so sharp they are much easier to cut! The best thing to do is to just set it at room temperature rather then in the fridge at all so it should be easier! xx
Let it set so far then score the cut marks into the chocolate then let set fully, this normally helps with cutting the chocolate when done.
Hi!
My caramel came out a bit grainy, do you know why this might be?
Sometimes grainy caramel can be a number of things – often electric/induction hobs cause this in comparison to gas (no idea why but its a thing apparently!), or the sugar didn’t dissolve correctly before the mixture boiled x
Hi,
I have done it three batches, two of them turned grainy. I know why, now. I left my melting butter split, then it stayed on top of condensed milk, looked horrible. So I washed my saucepan and again washed it in very cold water to bring its temperature completely down. Start again, butter, milk, sugar, syrup. Lower heat. Stirring constantly from start to end to make sure butter won’t split. Bring it to boil still stirring but very steadily as mixture is extremely hot. 3minutes after… Ta daa. Nice and smooth caramel done. Only thing is, it’s never that dark brown as on video 🙁
Sometimes it just will be differently coloured – also, you have to remember lighting can affect a photo/video, so as long as its sets and is tasty the colour doesn’t matter so much! Also, I boil mine for 5-7 minutes, so 3 minutes would be a lighter caramel colour.
Hi Jane how much Terry’s chocolate orange do you melt
300g as mentioned in the recipe x
Can you use willow butter spread instead of butter for the shortbread.?
I personally do recommend using actual butter, or a spread like stork – but I haven’t used the willow brand before!
dans la recette en quoi consiste le sirop doré? merci d’avance pour votre reponse
Golden Syrup is a syrup available in the UK, you will need to google your alternative.
What temperature on a sugar thermometer should the caramel be when ready. I feel it would be much more helpful if you wrote that as part of the recipe.
As you can see from the recipe, and every single other Millionaires recipe on my blog, and when googled any recipe I have seen of Millionaires Shortbread, they don’t state a temperature. There isn’t a temperature to boil it too, its the timing. I feel it would be much more helpful if you gave it a go first.
Hilarious🤣🤣
I’m not sure if Lorraine though that was hilarious….. Poor Lorraine.
Hello 🙂 These look amazing, can I use tinned caramel?
Thank you! And I would recommend making your own as tinned caramel won’t set properly and will be a splodgy mess x
My caramel set and was rock hard Wat I do wrong
You over did it – try a couple less minutes next time.
if substituting the orange zest for orange extract, how much would you add?
1-2 tsps!
Is there a way of making the caramel slightly orange flavoured? Would it even be possible to make a seasonal alcoholic version with cointreau in it?
You can add orange zest to the caramel, but the alcohol might affect the consistency of the caramel.
they look amazing….
Hi Jane
Just reading through the ingredients/recipe, I notice your title for the caramel is salted caramel but you use unsalted butter and no other salt addition so wondered how the caramel becomes salted – or have I missed something!
No its just meant to be Caramel – writing multiple recipes at once I wrote the wrong thing haha sorry!