PALEO LOW CARB MILLIONAIRE'S SHORTBREAD

KIB'S GREAT BRITISH (PALEO LOW CARB) BAKE-OFF CHALLENGE - PART 4

Welcome to my Great British Paleo Low Carb Bake-off Challenge where I take 1 bake from each episode of the season and make my own gluten free, dairy free, low carb sugar free versions using alternative flours, coconut oil instead of butter, and stevia as a sweetener.  It's been an interesting challenge as the use of these alternative ingredients changes texture and volume, so has required a lot of experimenting to bake anything that can match up to the Great British Bake Off standards.  

It's week 4 and the challenge is CARAMEL.  Read on to find out how I made millionaire's shortbread without gluten, dairy or sugar!​

CARAMEL WEEK
I have to admit that I’ve never been the biggest fan of caramel.  Even before my sugar free days I found it far too sweet to eat very much of it.  And watching Paul Hollywood devour the contestants caramel by the spoonful just made my teeth hurt!  But the right amount of caramel gooeyiness combined with biscuit and chocolate, like a Twix or millionaire’s shortbread, yeh that I could definitely eat.  So I was super excited to make this week’s bake.  I’ve never made caramel before and so was really curious as to how I would make it without any sugar whatsoever!  

So into my research I went and found lots of recipes that used coconut sugar or agave and maple syrups. Not helpful for this project.  Then I stumbled across one recipe that had an interesting ingredient – Sukrin Gold - a syrup made from fibre.  Boom! A low carb syrup.  That would make this so easy…..except that at £10 a bottle it’s super super expensive!  There had to be another way… Caramel is just butter, cream, and a ton of sugar.  Surely I could just use coconut oil, coconut cream and simply swap out the sugar for stevia?  One could only experiment….

And so I did and oh my goody goody yum yums I think this week has to be my favourite bake so far.  Albeit it’s a little more coconutty than normal caramel but it has the same texture that, combined with the chocolate and shortbread biscuit, is just a pleasure for the tastebuds.  I can’t remember the last time I actually ate a normal millionaire’s shortbread so can’t even compare the tastes, but one of my friends who got to have a taster of these bad boys described them as Bounty shortbread.  Coconutty or no, these are just delicious and so very more-ish.

​The caramel is white in appearance so doesn’t make them look like your typical millionaires shortbread.  I had contemplated making the caramel with goat’s butter instead of coconut oil which would give it that darker colour, less coconutty, and add a little saltiness too to make a salted caramel (oooh).  But I really wanted to make it dairy free.

So here you go, my zero sugar gluten and dairy free millionaire’s shortbread – another successful bake (unlike last week’s teacake disaster).  Of all of my recipes that you might want to try and make yourselves, this is definitely the one.  Really quite easy to make and so very very worth it.  

Makes:  10-15 slices    Prep/Chill Time: 40 mins     Cook Time:  20 mins    Total Time: 60 mins

INGREDIENTS:
FOR THE SHORTBREAD

• 1½ cup Almond Flour

• 1 tbps. Stevia

• ¼ cup Coconut Oil

• ½ cup Water

• 1 tsp. Baking Powder 

FOR THE CARAMEL

• ½ cup Coconut Oil 

• 1 cup Coconut Cream 

• 2 tbps. Stevia 

• 2 tsp. Vanilla Extract 

FOR THE TOPPING

• 80g Dairy and Sugar Free Chocolate (I use Plamil's)

• 1 tbps. Coconut Oil

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 180°C

THE SHORTBREAD

1. In a large mixing bowl combine all the dry ingredients together. 

2. Mix in the wet ingredients until well combined.

3. Pour the mixture into a lined and greased baking tin.  I used a 10” x 8” brownie tin so they came out thin.  Use a smaller tin if you prefer your shortbread a little bit thicker. 

4. Bake for 15-20 mins until golden.

5. Remove from the oven and let it cool in the tin.

THE CARAMEL

1. Combine all the ingredients and cook in a saucepan on a medium heat.

2. Cook for 10-15 minutes stirring continuously until the caramel has thickened to a syrup.

3. Pour the caramel over the shortbread and allow to set in the fridge for 15 minutes.

THE TOPPING    

1. Melt the chocolate and oil in a bowl over a saucepan over boiling water. 

2. Pour the chocolate over the caramel and allow to set in the fridge for 30 minutes.

3. Use a plastic knife to cut into squares, remove from the tin and serve. 

Making the caramel - I was surprised at how quickly the coconut cream cooked down to a syrupy texture.

Voila!!! - my delicious and so very more-ish version of millionaires shortbread - Definitely one of my favourite bakes in this challenge so far.