Billionaire Bars

What's your favorite dessert?  Definitely a loaded question.  If I'm asked the magic question,  I mentally scramble between New York Cheesecake, dark fudgey brownies, tart key lime pie, Krispy Kreme donuts, caramel anything...should I continue?  However, asking my husband yields a much simpler response.  Apple Crisp, Key Lime Pie, or Twix Bars.  Yup, that's it.  Sometime I think I need a surrogate husband to enjoy my baking.  Luckily, Mike will try anything (once) and almost always appreciates one serving of dessert.  Sometimes I like to really spice things up in our marriage and ask him to pick something new for me to make off of Pinterest (find me-Kacey Shoupe) or my growing recipe file.  Imagine my surprise when he picked the very trendy Millionaire Shortbread (aka home-made Twix bars)-he's nothing if not consistent.  I followed a few different recipes, and planned on cutting them long and thin and then dipping them in chocolate.  Unfortunately I'm a messy chocolate dipper and I was too lazy for the extra work, so a simple layer bar is whatcha get.  Now, you may be asking what makes my bars billionaire bars?  In this economy, isn't a million enough?  To that I say, when it comes to money and chocolate, there is no such thing as too much.  I call my bars billionaire bars because I dipped them in melted Dove milk chocolate.  

I encourage you to use what ever chocolate makes you swoon.  These are a pretty simple dessert, the hardest part is making the caramel out of the sweetened condensed milk and there are a few ways to go about it.  One is to put the unopened can sumberged in water in a slow cooker for 8 hours.  You can also cook on the stove top on low until it turns a nice dark caramel.  I used the microwave method (which I'll detail in the recipe).  Enjoy!

 Billionaire Shortbread

Crust:

1/4 Cup sugar

1-1/4 sticks salted butter, at room temperature1-1/4 Cups all-purpose flour1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten

Caramel Layer:

1 can sweetened condensed (14oz)

1/4 tsp kosher salt

Chocolate Layer:

8oz milk chocolate (I recommend Dove)

1/2 tsp canola oil

Preheat the oven to 350°.  Line a 8x8 pan with parchment paper (make sure all four sides are covered to save you a lot of scrubbing).  Grease or spray the paper.  With an electric mixer, blend the butter and sugar until smooth.  On low, add in the egg yolk.  Coat your hands in flour and gentle knead dough until it comes together (I don't use the counter to knead to save mess).  Press into the bottom of the pan and dock generously.  Bake for 20-25 until lightly browned.  Cool to room temperature.  

For the caramel, empty the can into a medium or large microwave safe bowl.  Cook on medium power in microwave for 4 minutes.  Stir.  Cook another 15-25 minutes at 20%, stirring every 2 minutes until it turns a nice rich caramel color (you won't notice a change until the end).  Spread over the cooled crust.  

Refrigerate until the the caramel sets.  Melt the chocolate and the oil in the microwave or over a double boiler.  Spread over the caramel layer.  Refrigerate until set.  Cut and serve.  Store in the refrigerator covered.