Vegan Millionaires Shortbread Hearts

This post is a paid partnership with Natures Charm.

Happy Valentines all! I wanted to share the love with you today and the most delicious millionaire’s chocolate hearts recipe. Yes, I did say hearts! Show that special someone how much they mean to you by making them these incredibly mouth-watering millionaire’s shortbread hearts. They’ll fall in love with you all over again.

Easy to make, fully vegan and scrumptious!

The geode heart trend is still with us and im here for it!

Ever since creating my Pink Valentines Hot Chocolate Bomb I had an idea to incorporate crumbly shortbread and silky caramel together and DING lightbulb moment, chocolate salted caramel hearts. Make shortbread by using a heart cookie cutter and pipe in some thick caramel sauce, paint over chocolate to seal it in and voila! The taste is sublime!

Speaking of the caramel sauce, this recipe is in collaboration with Natures Charm a company who supply amazing vegan food products.

For more information about product placement and partnerships, check out my Disclosure Policy).

They make my all-time favourite coconut-based products, in particular, the sweetened condensed coconut milk.

Honestly, this milk is like liquid gold. Its silky smooth, sweet and perfect for baking! You can add condensed milk to many recipes, for example, tarts, flans, pies and fudge. Natures Charm condensed milk is my favourite when creating my own caramel sauce. It never fails!

It’s sweet, gooey, rich and creamy. I also LOVE the flavour of the milk. I’d happily dunk strawberries in it – haha!

In addition to Natures Charm sweetened condensed coconut milk is their evaporated coconut milk, natural coconut milk and coconut whipping cream and a selection of sauces and coconut water.

Buy the Condensed Milk here. Chocolate here.

Buy the Evaporated Coconut Milk here.

Check out their whole range of products here.

In order to make these millionaires hearts, you’ll need a few things:

A silicone heart mould
Heart-shaped cookie cutter
Food grade brushes
Dairy-free dark chocolate (I use Callebaut Dark chocolate drops)
Dairy-free white chocolate (I used Sainsbury’s own Free From white chocolate)

Looking for more chocolate recipes? Look no further:

Salted Caramel Brownie Cups Raspberry Chocolate Brownie Hearts Easy Hidden Heart Chocolate Loaf THE BEST Vegan Brownie Cookies

Notes*

If you’re unable to get hold of the evaporated coconut milk, Natures Charm have one of my favourite coconut creams which works perfectly in caramel sauces. Check it out here.

Baking time: 30 minutes

Chilling time:
Serves: 6-8
Level: Easy

____________________________________________________________

Ingredients for the shortbread

75g of plain flour
25g of caster sugar
55g of dairy-free butter/margerine

Ingredients for the caramel sauce

65g of dairy-free butter/margarine
65g of caster sugar
1 tablespoon of dark brown sugar
180g of Natures Charm Coconut Condensed Milk
1 tablespoon of Natures Charm Evaporated Coconut Milk ( see notes*)
2 tablespoons of cornflour
1/4 teaspoon of sea salt

Ingredients for the chocolate

200g of dairy-free dark chocolate
20g of dairy-free white chocolate

Sea salt (optional)

____________________________________________________________

Method (shortbread)
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees c fan, and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.

2. In a medium mixing bowl, sift in the flour and sugar. Add in the butter and using your fingertips, rub the butter into the dry mixture until a dough forms. Form into a ball.

3. Generously flour a clean work surface with flour and roll out the dough until 1/4 inch thick. Use a 2-inch heart-shaped cookie cutter (just smaller than the silicone mould) to cut out hearts and place all biscuits into the lined tray.
These biscuits do not spread.

4. Pop the cookies into the oven and bake for 30 minutes or until golden in colour. Once golden, remove from the oven and place onto a cooling rack.
If you over bake these shortbreads, they will become too crispy, so keep an eye on them.

Allow to cool fully before assembling.

Method (chocolate heart)

1. Fill a small saucepan 3/4 full with water, creating a bain marie, place onto the hob over low/ medium heat.

Finely chop the dark chocolate and place 3/4 of it into a heatproof bowl. Place the bowl on top of the saucepan and allow to melt. You’ll need the other 1/4 of the chocolate to temper it.
You’ll want to temper this chocolate. Check out this amazing tutorial on how to temper chocolate.

Tip: Only use half of the chocolate as you want the other half for the base for the hearts.

2. Using a food-grade brush, brush a thin layer of tempered chocolate into silicone moulds then place into the freezer for 5 minutes.
Paint a second coat of chocolate over the first, making sure it’s thick and covers any gaps or holes. Pop into the freezer for 5 minutes.

3. Remove the hearts from the moulds and place onto a clean work surface.

Method (caramel sauce)

1. Place the dairy-free butter/margarine, sugars and Natures Charm condensed milk in a medium-sized non-stick saucepan. Put the cornflour in a small bowl and add the coconut milk / cream, whisking until you have a thick paste. Add the paste into the pan and mix well to combine.

Heat the caramel on low / medium, stirring all the time until it hits a rapid boil. Allow the caramel to come up to 116°C or firm ball stage on a sugar thermometer (if you drop a little mixture into ice-cold water it should form a firm nonsticky ball in your fingers). Leave to cool for a few minutes to thicken.

2. Transfer the caramel sauce into a heatproof piping bag and equally pipe the caramel into the hearts.

Using a spoon works great too!

TIP: You want to work fast with the caramel as when it cools, it will go very thick and gooey. The heat from the caramel might melt the chocolate so work as fast as you can and get them back into the freezer for 10 minutes to set.

3. Place a shortbread heart on top of the caramel layer. If the shortbread heat is too big, use a knife and carefully cut it to fit.

4. If the chocolate has set, pop it back onto the heat, melt and spread a thin layer over the shortbread.

Place back into the freezer for 5 minutes to set the chocolate.

5. Once set, remove them from the mould and serve.

6. Melt the dairy-free white chocolate (same method as the dark chocolate, step 1), add it into a piping bag or drizzle using a spoon over one-half of the chocolate hearts.

Decorate with a sprinkling of sea salt (optional).

To store:

Best stored in the fridge. If the chocolate is tempered they’ll last longer at room temperature and will be more stable.

Best enjoyed within 3 days of making.