What's The Difference Between Millionaire's Shortbread And The Classic Variety?
The story of shortbread is one of constant elevation to increasingly elaborate versions of what started out as "biscuit bread" — cookies made from leftover bread dough. The original shortbread has Scottish roots and was seemingly popularized by Queen Mary of Scots in the 16th Century because of her fondness for buttery French cookies. At the time, it was a decadent treat reserved for special occasions and the wealthy.
Ironically, because of its simplicity, shortbread is now on the modest end of the spectrum, with millionaire's shortbread on the decadent end. The difference between the two is simple yet significant. Classic Scottish shortbread is essentially a crumbly cookie made from flour, butter, and sugar, and the millionaire's version is the same cookie with layers of caramel and chocolate.
The trend of adding layers to shortbread to make it "richer" has resulted in newer versions like billionaire's shortbread and even trillionaire's shortbread, and these varieties usually contain further layers of nuts, candied fruits, or other complementary ingredients. While classic shortbread is sometimes dipped in tea because of its dry texture, the millionaire's variety is more of a special snack or dessert than a teatime biscuit. A good millionaire's shortbread is an explosion of contrasting flavors and textures — crispy, buttery biscuit, rich chocolate ganache, and sweet and salty caramel. Because of the added layers, portioning millionaire's shortbread is more complicated and you'll generally see it as squares, while classic shortbread can be rectangular, triangular, or even molded with decorative stamps.
Millionaire's shortbread
While it's unclear how the name originated, millionaire's shortbread started with recipes suggesting shortbread be topped with caramel and chocolate. The first mention in print of caramel shortbread bars can be traced back to an issue of Australian Women's Weekly from the early 1970s, but the idea of pairing caramel and shortbread is almost certainly much older. Chocolate as the third layer was then the natural progression; earlier versions had milk chocolate, but dark chocolate is now equally if not more popular since it balances the sweetness of the layers better.
Although the classic version of millionaire's shortbread has plenty going for it in terms of flavor and texture, each layer can be tweaked, making the confection endlessly customizable. The shortbread can be made flakier or more textured by mixing rice flour, semolina, or cornmeal into the dough. The middle caramel layer adds the all-important gooey texture, although one version uses flavored peanut butter to achieve the effect.
The chocolate top can be made from either bitter, milk, or white chocolate depending on how sweet one wants the confection to be. It can be a firm slab of chocolate, or for an even richer texture that truly feels worthy of a millionaire, a thick layer of chocolate ganache. The flaky sea salt is one option as a topper, but you could vary it with nuts, cookie crumbs, or pretzels instead.
Classic shortbread
Despite such a variety of decadent versions out there, classic shortbread has not lost its popularity and continues to be a much-loved treat. The dense crumbly cookies are still often eaten as a snack throughout the day. The comforting simplicity of the recipe makes it forever perfect to accompany a cup of tea or a glass of sherry. However, the classic three-ingredient shortbread recipe of flour-butter-sugar is easily tweaked or bolstered to upgrade the biscuit.
To add flavor, anything from chocolate chips, spices, or orange zest can be added to shortbread dough. Interestingly, Walker's, one of the best store-bought shortbread brands around, still uses the original recipe with only the addition of salt to the list of three ingredients.
Given how popular the brand is, the charm of simple shortbread cookies clearly persists. Ultimately, the layers added to millionaire's shortbread make it such a different type of confection that it can be thought of as a completely separate treat from classic shortbread. If the former is too decadent for you and the latter too simple, the good news is there are lots of intermediate versions on the shortbread spectrum, so you'll inevitably find one that matches your taste.