Coconut Caramel Shortbread with White Chocolate

Today there is another teenager in my house.

A male one this time.

That means funny smells, pimples, posters of scantily clad women on the walls, grunting where words would suffice, trousers half way down the butt and worse of all GIRLFRIENDS!

What will I do when he says “Mom, X and I are going to my room to hang out”?

Okay, I am slightly getting ahead of things. After all he’s only just 13. At the moment he’s still fresh-faced, clean and baby-boy smelling.

He even puts up with his parents, letting his Dad “chaperone” his friends and him to the new Twilight movie for his “party”. I knew he wanted to go solo but when Dad asked if he could come along, D didn’t have the heart to say no.

This morning he made his way into our bedroom, snuggled up between us, took our kisses and cuddles.

How long do we have? Until he’s just like “GET AWAY.” I want to believe it’s forever but I know better.

Anyway, he says he wants to be a professional football player when he’s older, be rich, marry a WAG. That’s not so bad. Don’t they always buy their parents a very big house with their first paycheck? I could live with that.

In the meantime I made him these.

Billionaire’s Shortbread. That’s millionaire’s shortbread but with white chocolate.

A little coconut added at his request. They were super sweet but oh so delicious! He’s got excellent taste my boy.

Coconut Caramel Shortbread with White Chocolate (or Billionaire’s Shortbread)

I found it hard to find an exact recipe for these. Some had white chocolate and some had coconut but with plain chocolate. So I had to use a few different recipes and improvise a bit here and there. Anyway, the result was delicious! Very sweet though, hence the small squares. They freeze well too should you want to save some for later.

Ingredients:
Shortbread
250g plain flour
75g caster sugar
175g butter, cold and cut into small squares

Topping
400g condensed milk
115g butter
115g caster sugar
toasted coconut
1 tablespoon golden syrup
100g shredded coconut, toasted
200-300g of white chocolate (depending on how thick you like it)

Preheat oven to 180c / 350f. Grease and line a baking tin approximately 20-23cm square.

Biscuit base: Combine the flour, sugar and butter in a food processor and blend until it resembles breadcrumbs (you can also do this part with your hands). Press the mixture in the bottom of your tin and bake it for 20-25 minutes until golden (but not brown!). Set aside to cool.

Caramel: melt the butter, milk, sugar and golden syrup in a saucepan. Simmer for 10 minutes stirring continuously. The stirring bit is important as it can burn very easily. When it is thick and brown take off the heat and add the toasted coconut. Pour it over the shortbread. Even it out with a spatula.

Chill for about an hour in the fridge until the caramel is set.

Chocolate topping: When the caramel is set, melt the white chocolate in the microwave. Do it in short blasts of about 40 seconds. When it is melted, stir it to ensure there are no lumps. Pour it over the caramel.

Chill again until the chocolate is firm.

A tip for cutting. When the chocolate is firm, lift it out of the tin. Place on a chopping board. Place a sharp knife in some boiling water. Cut straight down. You don’t need big squares because it’s so sweet!