Healthy-ish Millionaire's Shortbread: GBBO Bloggers Week 4 - Caramel

Over the years I've had so many disastrous bakes that it feels really nice to have had a run of good bakes in recent weeks. When I start to experiment in the kitchen I never know quite how it's going to turn out and it always surprises me when things go well!

This week on bake off it was Caramel week. I had no idea getting caramel right was so tricky! I've actually made it before and ignorance must be bliss because it turned out fine without any stress. Must have been beginners luck. And I didn't want to push by luck or expand my waistband too much so I haven't made a 'proper' caramel this week.

Instead I've made my favourite healthier alternative. I originally found a recipe for salted caramel on Livia's kitchen in her Salted Caramel Fondant recipe but I've tweaked it over time to make my own. The original has 50g coconut oil, 90g cashew butter and 100ml of maple syrup with a pinch of himalayan salt. Today I made it with 25g coconut oil, 35g cashew nut butter, 10g peanut butter and 30ml of date nectar with a pinch of himalayan salt. The ingredients are heated together and mixed until combined, then left to cool a little.

But first things first. The shortbread. Again I wanted a healthier twist so I went with 90g ground almonds, 20g coconut oil and 8g coconut sugar. Then for some random reason I threw in 10g of chia seeds. I'm glad I did as they added a lovely crunch.

I used two small cheesecake moulds to bake the shortbread in by just pressing the mixture into the mould on a baking tray. The quantity listed here actually would have made three of these but I ate the rest uncooked as all those ingredients are fine to eat raw too.

I baked the other two in the oven at 180C for 12 minutes. Then left them to cool.

I poured on the 'caramel' sauce and popped them in the fridge to set firm.

Then it's time to make the chocolate. This is Henrietta Inman's recipe for dark chocolate from her Clean Cakes book (you can also find it here) and I manage to make it all in one jug - so it's really simple.

I actually use only a fraction of the quantities so 50g cacao butter, 25g cacao powder (I used Aduna), 18g maple syrup and a pinch of vanilla powder (I used Ndali). I melt the cacao butter on a low heat in the microwave and then mix in the rest of the ingredients. So simple.

I left it to cool a little because I didn't want to risk it melting the caramel. Then poured into the cheesecake moulds. I tried one with a thinner layer and one with a thicker layer. I preferred the thick layer.

I decorated one with some Nim's pineapple crisps - because they look kind of autumnal to me, along with some toasted flaked almonds to give a hint about the almond base. I left the other one plain.

Nim's pineapple crisps made to look like a flower with a dot of peanut butter covered with chia seeds in the middle

It was only afterwards that it occured to me that it would have looked good flecked with edible gold. Oh well.

I'm really pleased with how they turned out - and relatively guilt-free too!

Linking up with Mummy Mishaps GBBO Bloggers 2017: