Millionaire Bars: Dairy-Free Bougie on a Budget
I want to be a millionaire, so freaking bad…
In this economy, even being a millionaire doesn’t feel like it would cut it! While the internet is already full of people more qualified than me to give financial advice (and let’s be honest, plenty of people even less qualified than me), I wanted to know if I could recommend the decadent, luxurious dessert of millionaire bars while making it dairy free.
A millionaire bar, or millionaire’s shortbread, involves 3 layers. The bottom layer is typically a shortbread crust, followed by a caramel layer, and then chocolate on top. In a traditional recipe, each layer is a challenge to the dairy-free baker and eater. The shortbread crust typically has butter, the caramel layer typically has sweetened condensed milk and/or butter, and the chocolate ganache layer may have dairy chocolate, butter, and/or cream as well.
Fortunately, I found a recipe that reduced some of these barriers to entry. Enter Half-Baked Harvest’s Peanut Butter Millionaire Bars recipe, which upon initial reading seemed to require fewer substitutions to make the recipe fully dairy free. But would it be delicious and decadent? I hypothesized:
1) Half Baked Harvest’s peanut butter millionaire bars could be made without any dairy, and
2) They would be deliciously luxurious and decadent, momentarily helping me forget about anything other than pure enjoyment, at least for a few moments (hmmm, mindfulness? Read on).
Method
Recipe Source:
Chocolate Peanut Millionaire Bars from Half-Baked Harvest
Dairy-Free Modifications:
Instead of salted butter, I used my standard Imperial brand margarine sticks (another favorite is Country Crock). These are unsalted, so I increased the salt in this recipe elsewhere.
FYI, I also skipped the step of browning half of the butter first.
I made sure to use dairy-free chocolate, namely Trader Joe’s semi-sweet chocolate chips. Another favorite is Enjoy Life brand.
Procedures
Though these sound like a lot, it came together quite quickly!
First, we make the shortbread base. As mentioned above, I skipped browning the butter. The margarine lacks the milk solids that brown as butter does. You can take the step of adding pecans to melting margarine to emulate a similar flavor. However, skipping this step definitely made it easier! All we need to do then is beat together the margarine, brown sugar, and vanilla (Figure 1), then add in the flour (Figure 2). We press the mixture into a dish and bake it (Figure 3).
Figure 1. Shortbread base pre-flour.
Figure 2. Shortbread base with flour.
Figure 3. Shortbread base pre-baking.
2. Next, we mix up the filling ingredients over heat (Figures 4-5), before pouring it over the shortbread base (Figure 6).
Figure 4. Filling before being heated together.
Figure 5. Silky and warm!
Figure 6. Filling poured over the shortbread base.
3. Finally, we freeze until firm, then make (Figures 7-8) and pour over the chocolate ganache on top. The recipe suggests cutting the pieces, then covering each individual piece in chocolate. Instead, I covered the full pan in chocolate (Figure 9), froze (Figure 10), then cut each piece individually (Figure 11-12).
Figure 7. Ganache ingredients.
Figure 8. Melted ganache.
Figure 9. Poured chocolate, with sea salt on top.
Figure 10. Frozen block of millionaire bar. Frozen assets?
Results
The recipe indeed came together, even without dairy. Just look at these layers! And they were, indeed delicious.
Figure 11. One millionaire bar.
Figure 13. Another million!
Discussion
Our hypotheses were strongly supported. Thanks to a lovely recipe without much dairy, it was relatively easy to adapt to make this version dairy free. I took the time to savor each one, creating a sense of luxury and peacefulness in each moment. The crispness of the shortbread, combined with the gooey peanut butter caramel filling, and the decadent chocolate topping create wonderful balance and a sensational treat.
Many of us are searching for financial security and comfort so that we can enjoy our lives. While millionaire bars might not fix that, taking the time to personally make and mindfully savor each bite can teach us that we can create these experiences as well, no matter what the stock market is doing today. And, we can do all that while being safe and free from dairy. But you don’t have to take my word for it!
We’re off for a brief hiatus, see you in a few months!