Easy Chocolate Orange Millionaires Bars

Buttery orange flavoured shortbread, an orange caramel, topped with a thick layer of rich, dark chocolate and some freshly zested orange.

There’s nothing quite like chocolate orange. The combination fo chocolate and orange go together beautifully. They belong together!
Millionaires shortbread maybe one of my ALL TIME favourite desserts as it’s easy to make, FUN to make and tastes scrumptious! I love the different textures also, chewy caramel, crumbly biscuit base along with glossy chocolate. Who’s drooling? – Haha!

These bars have 3 layers:

Base- A buttery shortbread base with fresh orange zest and orange flavouring to make these bars really POP with orange flavour.

Caramel- A thick and ultra chewy Vegan caramel is centred in these scrumptious bars. The caramel has a splash of orange flavouring which is absolutely delicious!

Chocolate- I prefer to use a 70% dark chocolate and above for these bars to make them really flavourful and rich, but if you wanted, a dairy-free milk or white chocolate would work perfectly too! I also added on some white chocolate (dyed orange) for decoration. It looks really effective!

I decided to go along the lines of my Vegan Twix Bar recipe as that recipe has become such a hit. It’s ever so simple to adapt into different flavours. Check out my Biscoff Twix and Biscoff Millionaires Shortbread bars here.

Check out my Vegan Twix Bars here:

Vegan ‘Classic’ Twix Bars

Vegan Biscoff Twix Bars

This recipe has been on my mind for ages. I love making and adapting different ‘candy bars’ / bars and chocolate orange has been a flavour I’ve wanted to work with for a long time (since Febuary- haha).

I couldn’t be happier with how they turned out and I know you’re going to love them as much as I do!

Notes*

Where can I buy vegan condensed milk?

You can pick up vegan condensed milk in most UK supermarkets. Look out for Carnation Vegan Condensed Milk. Natures Charm also make my favourite coconut condensed milk and also a oat based version. Check it out here.

What food gel should I use?

When colouring dairy-free white chocolate, always use a very pigmented food gel as you want to use as little colouring as possible. Liquid food colouring can effect the chocolate and make it split and seize. My favourite food gels are Rainbow Dust Pro Food gels. Great for vegan baking. Check them out here.

Preparation: 20 minutes

Baking time: 30 minutes

Chilling time: Overnight

Level: Easy

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Ingredients for the shortbread

150g of plain flour
50g of caster sugar
100g of dairy-free butter/margarine
1/2 teaspoon of orange extract
Zest of 1 large orange

Ingredients for the caramel

95g of dairy-free butter/margarine
105g of light brown sugar
225g of vegan condensed milk (see notes*)
2 teaspoon of orange flavouring
3 tablespoons of cornflour

Ingredients for the chocolate

150g of dairy-free chocolate
1 teaspoon of sunflower oil
50g of dairy-free white chocolate
Orange food gel

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Method (biscuit base)

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees c fan, and line a 6 x 8 inch rectangular baking tin with greaseproof paper. Allow the paper to hang either sides of the tin as this makes it easier for removing the bars when set.

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

3. Press the dough into the lined tin, making sure it’s even. Prick the base with a fork.

4. Pop into the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden in colour. Once golden, remove from the oven and place the tin onto a cooling rack.

Leave the shortbread in the tin as we’ll be pouring over the orange caramel.

Method (caramel)

1. Add all of the caramel ingredients into a medium-sized saucepan. Place on the hob, 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. If you don’t cook it long enough, it will ooze out of the bars, so make sure it comes up to temperature.

2. Carefully pour the orange caramel onto the biscuit base, levelling off with a spoon. Be very quick as this caramel sets quite quickly.

3. Refrigerate or freeze for a few hours (or place into the fridge overnight) before coating. Make sure the caramel has fully set, if not, it will be very gooey and a little bit of a nightmare to coat in chocolate.

Tip: I like to place it into the fridge overnight to set, then place into the freezer for 30 minutes – 2 hour before coating in chocolate so its set really firm.

Method (chocolate)

1. Fill a small saucepan 3/4 full with water, creating a bain-marie, place onto the hob over low/ medium heat. Add the dark chocolate and sunflower oil into the bowl and allow to melt. Once melted, remove the bowl from the heat and repeat for the white chocolate (but add in a drop of orange food gel instead of the oil) to create the orange chocolate for the decoration.

2. Pour the melted dark chocolate over the set caramel, and tilt the pan to evenly coat. Try to get it as smooth as possible. Tap the tin on the work top a few times to flatted the chocolate and to remove any unwanted air bubbles.

3. Add the orange coloured chocolate into a piping bag, snip off the tip and pipe dots in a line across the surface, then feather using a skewer by dragging it up and down the surface of the chocolate, perpendicular to the dots that you just piped. This creates the heart effect.

4. Place into the fridge for half an hour / 1 hour to set the chocolate. You can place it into the freezer to speed up time.

Remove from the pan by using the parchment paper slings. Cut into slices / bars using a sharp knife, wiping between each.

Tip: Heat a knife in warm water, dry, then use to cut the bars.

Serve with an extra sprinkling of freshly zested orange (optional).

To store:

Keep these millionaires bars in a sealed container in the fridge.

Best enjoyed within 3-5 of making.