Banana Millionaire’s Shortbread

This is where banoffee meets shortbread with chocolate on top. In other words, very rich, very tasty and just a little bit messy, but definitely worth it.

(NB If you’re short of time, ignore my comments in green, where I waffle on quite a bit.)

Makes: 16 squares

Time: 60 minutes + cooling + plenty of chilling time

Level: Moderately easy

Equipment: 20cm/8” square baking tin. A loose bottom would he helpful. (Please read that in context.)

Ingredients

Shortbread

200g/7oz plain flour
150g/5½oz butter
60g/2oz caster sugar

Caramel Filling

100g/3½oz butter
397g/14oz tin of condensed milk
100g/3½oz soft light brown sugar
2 large ripe bananas, mashed

Chocolate Topping

125g/4½oz chocolate (dark, milk or a mixture)
25g/1oz butter
Approx. 30g/1oz dried banana flakes, whizzed to a fine breadcrumb texture

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C / Fan 160C / 350F / Gas 3. Grease and line the bottom and sides of the tin with baking parchment.

2. To make the shortbread base, place flour in a large bowl then rub in the butter. Stir in the sugar and bring it all together to form a dough.

3. Put blobs of the mixture into the lined tin and spread them gently and evenly over the surface. Press down firmly and stab with a fork a few times. Bake for 25 minutes, or until light golden. Set aside to cool. If necessary, put it in the fridge for 5 – 10 minutes.)

4. To make the caramel filling, place butter, condensed milk and sugar in a saucepan over a gentle heat. Melt everything together, stirring continuously then boil for 10 – 20 minutes*, stirring all the time, otherwise it could burn.

(*I’m still experimenting with timing caramel, aiming to achieve a firm end product. I’ve heard several very differing ideas ranging from a mere 2 or 3 minutes up to 20+. Currently, I’m sticking with 15. NB No pun intended)

5. Take the caramel off the heat and stir or whisk in the mashed bananas. Put it back on a medium heat for another five minutes and allow it to cool a little, then pour it over the shortbread base. Leave in the fridge for 20 – 30 minutes until firm.

6. Blitz the banana flakes in a food processor until crumbled.

7. Melt the chocolate and butter together over a bain marie, stirring regularly. Pour the mixture over the caramel layer and tilt the tin to spread it evenly. Sprinkle over the blitzed banana flakes.

8. Allow it to cool then cut into squares*.

* I found cutting the cooled slab to be quite difficult. In my first attempt it was because I’d made the caramel much too runny. The latest version was a lot better with firmer caramel, but the chocolate was very thick and hard, so even though the caramel was firmer, it still squashed. I actually found it easier to turn the slab upside down and cut through from the base, then the caramel and then the chocolate last. I lost a few of the banana crumbs, but otherwise it worked. I have a couple of other ideas to try next time:

1. Wait until the chocolate has firmed up, but not fully hardened and cut or mark lines ready to fully cut later.

2. Reduce the amount of chocolate so that there is only a thin layer on top. (What a sacrifice though!)

Gallery 1

Gallery 2

I hope you make and enjoy this bake. Click this link for more traybake recipes, or have a look at the rest of my site for lots of other great sweet and savoury recipes. If you’d like to make a comment or ask a question please do, via the contact page.