Sarah Flower
Oct 2, 2017
Who said we have to go without when sugar free and low carb? These little beauties are as sweet and yummy as the carb-loaded original, yet a fraction of the carbs and obviously zero sugar.
My mum used to make this for us when we were children. A shortbread base with a thick layer of caramel, topped with chocolate. I wasn’t sure how this would turn out, but it is surprisingly good and avoids the cloying sickliness of the original version.
These do take a while to prepare but really worth it. It can be sped up by using your freezer in between each process. When I first made these, I asked a few non-sugar free friends to try them. They couldn't believe they were sugar free as they are super sweet (almost too sweet if you are, like me, several years into this way of eating). As predicted my son adores them!
To get a nice golden caramel, opt for Sukrin Gold (Natural brown sugar alternative). White Erythritol or xylitol works well and will give a creamy colour caramel. I used 100% dark chocolate, but feel free to use at least 85% to avoid too much sugar.
These are very filling and can be very sweet if you are not used to sweet things, I therefore cut these into small squares. I cook these in a brownie tin, which normally cuts into 9 brownies size cakes, but I cut into 18 for the millionaires shortbread.
Makes 18 small squares
Nutritional information Per Serving
416 Kcals
41g fat
3.6g net carbohydrates (of which sugars are 2.5g and fibre 3.7g)
5.2g Protein
Base
100g / 1 Cup hazelnut flour (ground hazelnuts)
100g / 1 Cup walnut flour (ground walnuts)
100g / 1 Cup unsweetened desiccated coconut
100g / 1 Cup Almond flour or ground almonds
1 tsp baking powder
120g / ½ Cup butter
50g / ¼ cup erythritol or xylitol (stevia to taste)
1 large egg, beaten
Filling
120g / 1 Cup butter
50g / ½ cup erythritol or xylitol (stevia to taste)
350ml / 1 ½ Cups double cream
Topping
150g / 1 ¼ Cups very dark chocolate (at least 85%)
20g coconut oil
I use a 9inch square brownie tin.
Preheat the oven to 180c, 350f, Gas Mark 5
To make the hazelnut flour, simply grind the hazelnuts in a nutribullet or food processor until they resemble flour. Don’t over process or they will start to turn into a nut butter! Do the same with the coconut.
Place all the dry ingredients together into a bowl, combine with the baking powder.
Melt the butter in a saucepan on a low heat. Add the sweetener, combining until dissolved.
Pour the melted butter onto the dry ingredients, add the beaten egg and combine well to form a wet dough.
Place this into your lined baking tin and smooth out to form a level base.
Place in the oven and cook for 20-25 minutes until golden.
Remove from the oven and cool. Keep in the baking tin.
Place the butter and sweetener into a saucepan on a low/medium heat. Melt completely before adding the cream.
You will now need to continue to stir this as it starts to build to a very gentle simmer. Don’t have it too high as it can splutter and bubble and could burn you. Keep stirring and after about 10 minutes it will thicken and start to get a nice glossy look to it.
Once nice and thick, remove from heat and pour onto the base. Place this in the freezer for a quick chill to help set, this will take about 30 minutes.
When set and firm, you can melt the chocolate and coconut oil. You can do this in a microwave (takes about 30-40 seconds) or use a bain marie. Combine the coconut oil and chocolate and pour this on the chilled base.
Pop back into the freezer for another 30 minutes.
Remove from the tin and slice into squares. I keep this in the fridge as it benefits from remaining cool.