Date caramel and choc layered shortbread

Featuring The Sour Cherries

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This week's recipe is free for everyone. I hope you love it.

It’s an update of a recipe I wrote (with the help of my friend Rosie Ramsden) a few years ago. It’s a layered chocolate and caramel shortbread (Millionaire’s if you will). I use dates to make an insanely good caramel that is now living permanently my head. I'm craving it. I hadn’t made it for a few years and I’d forgotten how good it was.

Millionaire's shortbread gets its name from being the more decadent cousin of plain old shortbread. It's several rungs up the ladder from a shortbread biscuit which traditionally (as I’m sure most if you know) has a layer of caramel and then chocolate top. While I’m not keen on the idea of a really great sweet being named after millionaires, I get where they were going. Taking suggestions for what else we could call it…

The star of the show here is the date caramel. The dates I used were from Palestine. That was intentional. This date season I’ve been seeking out Palestinian dates. It's not always easy to spot where they come from on the packaging, but if you look closely you should find the country of origin somewhere on the packet. I like to buy from Zaytoun but most supermarkets sell Palestinian dates, helping support Palestinian farmers and their land.

Food is political, no supplies of food have reached Gaza for two months now. I appreciate that sharing a recipe whilst talking about famine is a very mixed message, but it’s something I think about every single time my family sits down to eat. So, as well as the recipe, I am adding some links to ways you can help the people of Gaza below. If you can, please give generously and share widely. This is a human rights crisis.

Back to the caramel. It’s a revelation. If you (like me) are naturally suspicious of baked goods which have no actual sugar then allow these to change your mind. What the coconut oil and dates do in the pan is a food marvel.

While the caramel blew my mind, there was one part of the original recipe I was not totally happy with, the biscuit base. The biscuit was crumblier than I wanted. So I’ve reworked it to a thick but crisp slab of biscuit with chunks of date which stay pleasingly chewy.

The chocolate top is studded with sour cherries (one of my current ingredient fixations and also sounds like the kind of band I’d like to be in if I was in any way musical) and nuts for texture and looks. Both the pistachios and sour cherries are crops that grow in Palestine, I’ve found them harder to get my hands on but it’s worth looking.

Once made, I keep these in the fridge which means they last longer and the caramel has a pleasing chew. You can, of course, keep them at room temp but the date caramel will be softer.

The recipe uses a gluten free flour as I like the crunch it gives the biscuit but plain flour works too. They are also vegan (if you use a vegan chocolate) and thanks to the dates they don’t need refined sugar. It is all of those things as well as the most delicious version of “millionaire’s” shortbread I have ever eaten.

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How we can help right now:

• Write to your MP / representative and demand an end to the blockade.

• Donate to Ele Elna Elak who are working to get food into Gaza.

• Get your dates from Zaytoun.

Thanks to brilliant Max La Manna for sharing these useful links.

Date caramel, chocolate and sour cherry shortbread

A few key things to note about this recipe. The date caramel and the shortbread biscuit need to be completely cool before layering them up. It’s really important to leave the assembled shortbread in the fridge for at least 30 - 60 minutes before slicing and to make sure the chocolate doesn’t crack and squash your caramel, use a serrated knife to slice it. I store these in the fridge.

Makes 16 generous squares

For the base
50g gluten-free porridge oats
50g of nuts, I used almonds
100g gluten-free flour
100g soft Palestinian dates, pitted
80g of coconut oil

For the caramel
350g soft Palestinian dates, pitted
125ml milk of your choice (I used oat)
150g coconut oil
1 pinch salt

For the topping
150g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon coconut oil
30g dried sour cherries or dried cranberries
50g toasted nuts (almonds, pistachios, hazelnuts, pecans)
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
Flaky sea salt

Make & bake the biscuit base

Heat the oven to 180C (160C fan)/gas 4 and grease and line a 20cm x 20cm square baking tin with greaseproof paper. Blitz 50g oats in a food processor until you have a fine, scruffy powder. Add the remaining base ingredients, and blitz in stages until the dough just comes together into a ball. Press the dough into the tin in an even layer, then bake for 15-20 minutes, until pale golden. Leave to cool in the tin.

Make the date caramel

Put the 350g dates, 125ml milk and 150g coconut oil in a saucepan and bring to a simmer for a few minutes, until the dates start to soften, then cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Once cooled, add to the same food processor with a pinch of salt and blitz to a thick caramel.

Make the chocolate topping

Put the 150g chocolate and 1 tablespoon coconut oil in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water, making sure the base of the bowl does not touch the water. Stir occasionally and take off the heat just before it melts – the chocolate will finish melting in the residual heat.

Roughly chop the 30g sour cherries and 50g of toasted nuts and mix with the toasted sesame seeds and keep them to one side.

Layer the millionaires shortbread

While the chocolate is still warm and melted, spoon the date caramel on to the cooled shortbread. Using a knife, spread into an even layer, then pour over the chocolate, smoothing with the back of a spoon. Sprinkle the top with the cherry and nuts, 2 tablespoons sesame seeds and some flaky sea salt, then put in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to set. Use a serrated knife to cut them into squares or smaller fingers for kids.

Make ahead, storage

These will keep for up to 2 weeks in an airtight container in the fridge or for up to 3 months in the freezer.

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