Vegan Millionaires Shortbread!
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Vegan millionaires shortbread with vegan shortbread base, vegan caramel filling and vegan chocolate on top!
Vegan bakes
I think I have lost count of how many millionaires shortbread themed recipes are on my blog… even if they’re the cake form, or the cupcake form, I have SO MANY. I just adore it. However, none of them are vegan so far!
This is partly because I am not vegan myself, so I have never needed to bake any.. but it’s also because for these, using vegan alternatives makes it harder as they can be harder to come by. Regular condensed milk is available in all shops – and so easy to find. Vegan condensed milk? Very few shops sell it in comparison!
Vegan millionaires shortbread
I have seen many vegan millionaires shortbread recipes now that use medjool dates, cashew nuts, maple syrup etc… and whilst I have literally no issue with this whatsoever, they’re just not ingredients that I commonly buy for my baking.
I wanted to make my vegan millionaires shortbread as similar to my regular millionaires shortbread recipes as I could, so that they fit my style better, and so that they’re easier for me! The good thing is as well, is you only have to alternate three ingredients.. the condensed milk, the butter, and the chocolate!
Base
My shortbread base for this recipe is the exact same as my other millionaires recipes, apart from the butter I use. I used the Stork block for these as it’s a very good dairy free & vegan butter that’s firm, and found in most supermarkets! You may think “STORK ISN’T DAIRY FREE?!” but the foil kind is! It’s amazing.
The only difference in how you make the shortbread, is that I found it’s better if you bake it for a smidge longer than the usual shortbread recipe! It may be because the butter is softer than normal butter is, but who knows… a couple more minutes doesn’t hurt!
Caramel
For the caramel, it’s similar to my other recipe on my millionaires flapjacks, but actually quite different. I tried this caramel several different ways, but finally cracked it! For the butter, I used the Stork block again, and then also this amazing vegan condensed milk.
Honestly, it’s a little life changing.. and it works wonderfully. I had to change the quantities of the other ingredients that I’ve used ever so slightly as the tin size of the vegan condensed milk are different (smaller), but otherwise the ethos is the same!
Vegan condensed milk
I tried using my other caramel from most of my other millionaires recipes such as my Mini Egg millionaires, but I just didn’t like it as much. It didn’t set as well for me, and the colour was too light. Doing it this way, with the light brown sugar means you get a much better caramel with the amazing vegan condensed milk.
You have to be careful when making this caramel, as always! You want the temperature of the caramel to be about a medium heat, and definitely not really high. You must keep stirring, ensuring nothing is being left on the bottom of the pan so you don’t get any burnt bits in your caramel!
Vegan chocolate
For the chocolate side of it, I used dark chocolate that is naturally dairy free and vegan. You need to make sure to check the labels of the brand you choose to buy, as some can still contain dairy in some way, but often the supermarket own cheap bars are naturally dairy free!
I liked to keep my vegan millionaires simple as the caramel and dark chocolate with the buttery shortbread compliment each other so well, they don’t need any other additions. You can add anything you wish as extra to make the bake look lovely and pretty! I hope you love this recipe as much as I do! Enjoy! x
Vegan Millionaires Shortbread!
Ingredients
Shortbread Base
- 200 g vegan butter (I used Stork block)
- 100 g caster sugar
- 275 g plain flour
Caramel Filling
- 200 g vegan butter
- 3 tbsp caster sugar
- 4 tbsp golden syrup
- 370 g vegan condensed milk (one tin - I used Carnations)
Decoration
- 300 g vegan dark chocolate
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180ºC/160ºC Fan, and line a 9x9" square tin with parchment paper.
- Cream together your vegan butter and caster sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add in the flour and beat again until a dough is formed!
- Press the dough into the bottom of the tin, and bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes, or until golden on top.
- One baked, leave to cool on the side, but still in the tin!
- In a large heavy based saucepan, add your vegan butter, caster sugar, golden and vegan condensed milk.
- Melt on a low-medium heat until everything is melted and the sugar is dissolved.
- Once melted, turn the heat up slightly to a medium heat and boil the mixture for 4-5 minutes, or until the mixture has started to turn more golden and thickened. Stir it constantly with a spatula so the bottom of the pan is scraped properly.
- Pour the caramel onto the shortbread and leave it to set in the fridge for two hours or so!
- Once set, melt your vegan chocolate carefully and pour over!
- Leave the bake to set in the fridge until solid, and then portion and enjoy!
Notes
- I used a tin of Carnations vegan condensed milk but you can use any vegan condensed milk in this recipe!
- If you wanted to add some white chocolate swirls for your decoration, I recommend this vegan white chocolate!
- I use this 9" square tin for all my brownies/millionaires recipes as it's so good!
- Make sure that all of your other ingredients are vegan (does depend on brand), especially if you have allergies.
- I used a supermarket own dark chocolate as it's naturally vegan - but again can depend on the brand.
- This will last in the fridge or room temperature on a cooler day, for up to a week!
- You can use any vegan chocolate you like on the top - 300g is just the ideal amount to cover the traybake and have a decent thickness!
- If you caramel is very hard to cut after being in the fridge, leave it at room temperature for a bit.
- If you caramel is very soft even after being in the fridge, you didn't boil it for long enough or at a hot enough temperature!
- Original recipe
- Base: 200g vegan butter, 100g caster sugar, 275g plain flour
- Caramel: 100g vegan butter, 100g light brown sugar, 600g vegan condensed milk
- Topping: 200g vegan dark chocolate, 100g vegan white chocolate
ENJOY!
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J x
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Made these with my daughter, so delicious they didn’t last long! Used Flora instead of stork (just because we had lots in the house) and carnation condensed milk. It all turned out perfectly! Thank you Jane. I’m just wondering is it possible to sub plain flour with almond flour to make it grain free? Has anyone tried this?
I made these but also made them gluten free and I altered the topping and mixed the chocolate with the biscoff with crushed biscoff biscuits on top. The caramel took much longer than 7-8 minutes I used Nestle Vegan Condensed Milk and it took about 20-25 minutes to form as imagine it has a much lower boiling point than full fat dairy, however looking at the recipe again I did forget to add the butter to the Condensed Milk so maybe that could explain why it took so long to thicken but at the same time glad I didn’t as it means less fat and it still works without it.
As the kitchen was hot and I had used dairy free margarine and not the dairy free stork block and it had melted which meant mixture was cake consistency. I managed to rectify by adding more flour which meant the Shortbread was slightly crumbly. Next time I will ensure that the vegan butter is cold or I will chill the mixture . Overall it came out really well all the staff enjoyed it and couldn’t believe it was vegan and gluten Free. It was my first time making them, next time I will make a thicker layer of caramel as I had used more chocolate so visually the caramel layer wasn’t as defined as I would of liked.
Can I ask where you got gluten free biscoff biscuits and spreads from? I didn’t know that was possible so excited to source it
I made these but doubled the recipe, made them gluten free and I altered the topping and mixed the chocolate with the biscoff with crushed biscoff biscuits on top. The caramel took much longer than 7-8 minutes I used Nestle Vegan Condensed Milk and it took about 20-25 minutes to form as imagine it has a much lower boiling point than full fat dairy. As the kitchen was hot and I had used dairy free margarine and not the dairy free stork block and it had melted which meant mixture was cake consistency. I managed to rectify by adding more flour which meant the Shortbread was slightly crumbly. Next time I will ensure that the vegan butter is cold or I will chill the mixture . Overall it came out well all the staff enjoyed it and couldn’t believe it was vegan and gluten Free. Next time I will make a thicker layer of caramel as I had used more chocolate so visually the caramel layer wasn’t as defined as I would of liked.
Hi Jane
I made these vegan millionaire shortbreads and they came out the fridge perfect and they looked lovely but after they were cut and out back In the fridge the caramel seemed to melt and ooze everywhere. Please can you help why these may have happened, as I would like to try and make again
Hey, it may mean it wasn’t boiled for long enough xx
I’ve made this tonight and it’s setting in the fridge. The caramel has set and can’t wait to try it in the morning. I have 2 questions:
1. If I wanted to make a bigger version I.e traybake size, should I just double the recipe?
2. How am I going to cut it into perfect squares without cracking the chocolate?? Help!
Hey! How much ingredients you need depends on the size of the tin. There is many different methods, such as heating the knife, scoring the unset room temp chocolate but i just use a sharp knife xx
I baked this last night and the caramel turned out great. Really easy recipe to follow. I only had the one tin of vegan carnations condensed milk so halved the sugar and butter and its really nice, will get two tins next time though as its a thin layer.
Only issue I found was the chocolate keeps snapping off the top. Would you suggest adding anything to it to make it stay in place? Ie abit of stork butter?
Hello! I am glad you enjoy the recipe. There are many ways to prevent this such as warming the knife, scoring the chocolate at room temp but i just ensure to use a sharp knife xx
This was my first attempt at baking anything vegan and my first attempt at making caramel and it turned out amazingly!
The recipe is so easy to follow and the additional post and notes about the caramel was very helpful to a newbie like me!
Thank you so much Jane, following your blog has made me a much better baker!
These look amazing! Very well written instructions too 🙂 only question I have is will the carnation vegan condensed milk work in this recipe?
Hii! Thank you so much! Yes it should do x
I also had some trouble with the caramel, it didn’t set even overnight and is still very soft (wouldn’t hold for long if I cut it) but I followed your recipe.. the caramel didn’t thicken even after 20 minutes on medium heat (it was bubbling if I stopped stirring for a second). What could be the reason for this? I was worried after reading other comments about overcooking the caramel but it seems even after so long it was undercooked! Please help! Xx
Absolutely love this recipe! I’ve done it a couple of times now, but each time the caramel turns into a fudge overnight which isn’t nearly as nice; do you have any idea what I’m doing wrong?
The butter split from the caramel this time, but I managed to sort that whilst it was cooking (no idea why; there were no fast temperature changes).
That sounds over done! Vegan caramel does work slightly different but it sounds over done! x
Worked amazingly well! I halved the recipe so to only use one tin of condensed milk and 55g sugar and 55g vegan butter. The caramel is a little sticky but set really well and holds its shape.
Easy recipe to follow, I made my own vegan condensed milk and it worked well for this recipe
How do you make the vegan condensed milk please ?
Hi Jane,
These look amazing and I’m wanting to make them, but I’m gluten free as well as dairy and egg free! Do you think the shortbread would work ok with gluten free flour? Would it just be a straight swap? Love your recipes x
The shortbread should work well with gluten free flour! X
I’d love to try this but also trying to cut down on his much cake I eat. Do you think it would freeze will?
Yes it freezes well!!
I was so scared of ruining the caramel, but it turned out perfect! I will definitely make the caramel again. The shortbread was little crumbly for my liking, so I would probably swap that layer out with a different shortbread crust recipe. Just a few tips for American bakers: I used Miyokos vegan cultured butter and it gave a weird plastic flavor to the crust, so I would recommend trying a different brand of vegan butter. Also, the conversion of 100gm light brown sugar to 3tbsp is incorrect, 100gm is about 8 tbsp.
Did you use the natures charm evaporated coconut milk ? Thanks