ON THIS WEEK’S episode of Dinner SOS, senior test kitchen editors Shilpa Uskokovic and Jesse Szewczyk are back to introduce us to the next BA Bake Club recipe: Jesse’s decadent Millionaire's Shortbread Recipe.
For this month’s Bake Club recipe, the duo is trying something a little different. Typically, Shilpa and Jesse home in on one specific technique to help Bake Clubbers level up a certain skill—whether that’s making take-out-worthy pizza at home or baking the perfect Bundt cake. But this month the club is tackling three techniques at once—and all in one recipe! Enter Jesse’s Millionaire's Shortbread Recipe. Part of the magic of these bars isn’t just that they are delicious (and pantry-friendly!), it’s that they feature three different and distinct layers. What are those layers you ask? We get a buttery shortbread base, a chewy caramel center, and a glossy dark chocolate topping. Jesse and Shilpa walk us through each layer, breaking down everything you need to know to create the perfect combination of textures and flavors. Think of this episode as three lessons in one. (It might sound like a lot, but it’s totally doable!)
Jesse and Shilpa talk about the key differences that make this shortbread extra-toasty and tender. Jesse also gives us an insight into his caramel-studded past and obsession with the perfect, aesthetic slice. Additionally, they take questions from Bake Clubbers, like how do you actually store them?
Listen now to hear all the tips and tricks from this month’s BA Bake Club recipe!
Jesse Szewczyk: I am Jesse Szewczyk.
Shilpa Uskokovic: And I'm Shilpa Uskokovic.
JS: We are both senior test kitchen editors at Bon Appétit.
SU: And this is BA Bake Club.
JS: Bake Club is Bon Appétit's book club, but for baking.
SU: We are creating the nerdiest and most wholesome corner of the baking internet.
JS: Every month, we publish a recipe on Bonappetit.com that introduces a baking concept that we think you should know.
SU: Then you'll bake, send us any questions you have or pictures of your final creations.
JS: And then we will get together here on the podcast to talk about the recipe.
SU: So May's recipe for coffee cake cones is out now on Bonappetit.com. We'll talk a bit about what you need for that at the end of this episode, but meanwhile, Jesse, I'm so excited to talk about April's Bake Club recipe, which are your millionaire shortbread bars.
JS: I am too. Millionaire Shortbread is a thing I feel like I'm really excited to talk about, and we weirdly didn't have just a super classic iteration of it on Bon Appétit, so I thought this was the perfect time to remedy that.
SU: Okay, so here's the part where I'd normally ask you to walk us through the whole recipe, but we're doing things a little differently this month.
JS: We are. Millionaire shortbread features three different distinct layers. So it's a buttery shortbread base, a chewy caramel center, and then a chocolate topping, and each layer of this recipe has a different technique that we want you to try out.
SU: We are going to tackle them one by one, starting with the shortbread. Jesse, can you talk us through the first layer of this recipe?
JS: Yes. This shortbread is a little bit different. It starts with toasting a portion of your flour, so it's already off to a strange start, but hear me out. So you're going to take a fourth cup of your flour, that's just AP flour, and you're going to put it in a skillet, and you're going to put it over medium heat and just stir it, drying. And at first, it's going to look like nothing, and then over time, it darkens in color to a tan, light nut shade. And you can really smell it, and it smells almost like roasting coffee or like caramel. And once you reach that point, put it aside, and you're going to just in a bowl whip up just a handmade shortbread with powdered sugar, softened butter, vanilla, salt, baking powder, and then you're going to mix that with more flour and then you're going to transfer that into a pan, spread it out. I use an offset spatula, and then bake it. And when you bake it, you take it quite far. You want it to be a click past, say, golden brown.
SU: Okay. So before we dive into what makes this shortbread special, let's level set a little bit. What does short as in shortbread mean in pastry?
JS: In my mind, short is a textural description. It refers to a cookie or a dough that is snappy, very, very tender, and has a certain small crumb, a crumbly nature to it.
SU: Yeah.
JS: How would you describe it? It's hard to describe.
SU: No, I agree. I think short is something that is tender and crisp, but it's not flaky. It snaps quickly.
JS: Yeah, it yields easily.
SU: And I think it's because of how much fat is in that recipe and how that fat is incorporated. Yeah.
JS: Yeah.
SU: So crunchy.
JS: Crumbly.
SU: Yeah.
JS: Sandy in a good way. Tender.
SU: Sandy. That's a good word to describe it.
JS: Well, sandy is the cookies, our shortbread cookie.
SU: Yeah. Okay. I have a question here from Meg who writes, "What is the texture of shortbread supposed to be? Mine is delicious and crumbly, but definitely easy to bite, not crisp."
JS: I think that checks out. I think, yeah, shortbread range really like walkers are crisp. Crisp, crisp. I think in this instance, I wanted something that was, if there's a spectrum of tender to crisp, maybe slightly more to the tender side, just so when you eat the bar, it's cohesive and the layers aren't so crazy distinct that they slide off one another or something.
SU: Yeah.
JS: So this sounds right. Crumbly is good. A proper shortbread will crumble, yeah.
SU: And do you think the height of the shortbread affects the texture? Would this same recipe, if you made it really thin, if you rolled that shortbread out or spread it out really thin, would it then be much more crisp?
JS: I think yes.
SU: Yeah.
JS: Yeah. So this is maybe, I don't know, maybe it's half an inch when it's baked.
SU: Yeah.
JS: Yeah. So it's pretty thick, but also it should be slightly crisp. So if there's not a slight crispness, it could go back to that baking where you just maybe need to push a little bit farther in the oven. The longer you bake it, the crisper it will set. Yeah.
SU: Okay. I want to talk about the differences between your shortbread and some other shortbread that our baked clubbers might have made in the past, because there are a few important factors, mainly powdered sugar. You prefer to use powdered sugar rather than granulated.
JS: Always.
SU: And I know you're very passionate about.
JS: I am, yes.
SU: So tell everyone a little bit more.
JS: I guess this was a stance I took a firm stance on after I did the cookie book, because there was a lot of shortbread iterations in there. And I would use granulated sugar often, because I think that's the go-to standard, and it would be difficult to get it crazy tender, and I really wanted it to be so tender. And I switched to powdered sugar and powdered sugar has some starch in it, and starch also prohibits gluten formation in a way. It's like taking the place of it, and it makes it a softer texture. Sometimes people add starch to flour to make a cake flour substitute, to make it even more delicate, so the starch is doing something nice there. And then also when the sugar is that fine, you can whip up a shortbread by hand so easily, and then also it just dissolves so easily. I feel like it makes such a delicate tender shortbread. I truly will never make a shortbread with granulated sugar.
SU: You don't? Yeah.
JS: I don't. I refuse. Yeah.
SU: You said when you were testing, what was the texture of the shortbread that's made with granulated sugar?
JS: Okay. The axis is crisp to tender. It skews quite far crisp.
SU: Oh, got it. Even if it's thick?
JS: Yeah, even if it's thick. You can of course achieve a tender shortbread using granulated sugar, but I just find that it's so much easier and more foolproof to use powdered, and I feel like my preference on this axis is to go more towards tender, so it's a personal choice here. Yeah.
SU: Also, this shortbread has baking powder in it, which is quite unusual for shortbread. Traditionally, it's just made with butter, flour, sugar. So why did you add baking powder?
JS: Yeah, usually shortbread has no leavener except for a mechanical, so sometimes you whip the butter, but basically, I just think of it as a little bit of extra insurance, because you do want a certain level of lift, a little bit of openness. You want it to be tender, so you want some air in there, so this is just a way to ensure that happens. Why not add a little extra insurance?
SU: That's smart. Next, we have a question from Kiana about the other difference that you mentioned and what I think makes your shortbread so unique, the toasted flour. And Kiana writes, "So why am I only toasting some of the flour and not all of it?"
JS: Two reasons. First is that the flavor is surprisingly strong. One fourth cup here adds a lot of flavor, and I think if you did all of it or more, it would be pretty overwhelming. The flavor is quite toasty, it's quite brown, it's deep, and a little goes a long way. And then second of all, something happens to the flour when you toast it. It doesn't act the same way. I feel like the power of it lessens. It seems like it doesn't want to produce as much gluten, which is probably contributing to the tenderness of these cookies. However, it does need some gluten to create a cookie, to stay together, to hold its shape, and so if you toast all the flour, I don't think that it would hold together at all.
SU: As you were talking about it, I was thinking of it in terms of an egg. It's like when the egg is raw, you can manipulate it, you can whisk it or do whatever, but then if you cook the egg, there's only a limited number of applications for it. So maybe it's like that. Think of it in that way, that you told some of it.
JS: That's good.
SU: For flavor, but you leave most of it intact so it can still act like a flower.
JS: Totally. That was a great visual. It was very teacher.
SU: No, I love the... You're right. I remember when you did it in the test kitchen the very first time, and we were all like, is there coffee in it?
JS: Yeah. Everyone's like, what's that smell?
SU: Yes. When you toast that flour, and it's only a quarter cup as you say, but it was so intense.
JS: It's crazy. It's so intense.
SU: And it wasn't like the flour was super dark or burned.
JS: No.
SU: It was just golden brown.
JS: Tan.
SU: And it was still such a powerful flavor. I love the shortbread. Okay. Another toasted flour question from Tim. That's a pretty cool trick to get that flavor. Is that a general alternative to using brown butter in baking?
JS: I think flavor wise, it's maybe slightly similar in that it's brown and toasted. I think it's way more intense than brown butter, but I would say no, it's not an alternative really, for the reasons we specified here and that you have to be strategic in how you bake with it. I would not use this maybe for cakes, or if you do, you've got to be very careful. Things that are more finicky, you have to really dial in the texture in your gluten, and I wouldn't probably use this in. I guess the answer's no.
SU: Yeah. I remember in my chocolate chipless cookies, I did-
JS: You toasted butter.
SU: Yeah.
JS: I mean, you toasted flour in butter.
SU: Yeah. I made brown butter and I added flour and toasted it in there, so it was like a double whammy. But I agree with you. I don't think it's an equal thing. It's like apples and oranges in some way.
JS: Yeah, similar vibe.
SU: Yeah, similar final notes, but different application.
JS: Yeah. Those cookies were good. I remember.
SU: Okay. Next, a question from Lillian. Any thoughts about incorporating a small amount of alt flour like rye or buckwheat?
JS: I would say probably, but tread lightly. Again, they are already such a tender shortbread that we need this gluten that's going on there to hold them together. So I'm nervous if you use too much of an alt flour. You would be losing structure. And then additionally, I think with the toasted flour, if you double whammy it with another strong tasting element like buckwheat or something, it might be pretty intense.
SU: Yeah.
JS: Yeah.
SU: I think that's great.
JS: Yeah. I would say maybe not for this one.
SU: Yeah.
JS: Yeah.
SU: I agree.
JS: Yeah.
SU: Okay. Anything else you want to mention about this first layer of our millionaire shortbread?
JS: This is particular, but I would say a metal pan's great here. I know a lot of people have glass square baking pans. Metal's great, A, because it conducts heat really well and intensely and evenly, so it's going to toast this shortbread base all across the bottom and sides. But also, metal pans are straight sided, so yeah, with a candy bar like this, but then when you go to cut them, it's nice. Your edges are so clean, they're not rounded. Also, you can line it with parchment so easily. So I love an eight by eight metal baking pan, and I feel like if you can get one, I think it's a good investment.
SU: I support this message.
We are going to take a quick break.
JS: When we get back the next layer of the Millionaire shortbread, caramel.
Welcome back to BA Bake Club.
SU: Jesse, I've heard that you have some secret caramel experience. Do you want to tell us about it?
JS: Okay. I don't know about experience, but I love caramel, I guess because when I was a kid, my mom ran a caramel business out of her home, a legit one. She had licensing and everything and it was called Caramelot.
SU: Oh, that's so fun.
JS: Yeah. I think when my sister and I were young, it was a way for her to stay home but also still make money. She's a very talented baker and she just made really great caramels, and I grew up in a small town in Illinois and they became quite known, especially during the holidays, people placed orders or I feel like she'd barter them for haircuts. "Here's them. Cut my son's hair." And I would just watch her make them and I'd help her wrap them and I'd stir the hot sugar sometimes, and they were really good.
SU: Does she still make them sometimes?
JS: She hasn't made them in a while, but that is her recipe.
SU: Wow.
JS: It's a guarded recipe in our family.
SU: Has she shared the recipe with you?
JS: Yeah, I have the recipe. I've never shared it and I don't think I dare would, but it's like the one thing I'm like, "I can't, I can't," but they're really good.
SU: Would you ever make your own caramel's and start a caramel company?
JS: I've never thought about that, but that would be quite cool.
SU: It's a great story.
JS: I love making caramel. I feel like I love making caramel. I weird things too, so it's definitely seeped its way into me.
SU: You have made a lot of caramel. The caramel from the monkey bread, which was our inaugural recipe, and now this.
JS: I made a butterscotch caramel for the last issue.
SU: Oh yeah.
JS: A balsamic. Yeah, balsamic caramel.
SU: Yeah.
JS: Yeah.
SU: Okay. The legacy lives on.
JS: The legacy lives on.
SU: Okay. Do you want to talk us through how you make the caramel for this recipe?
JS: Yeah, I can. So this is a wet caramel, which means... So when you make caramel, legit caramel, you can put sugar in a pot and then melt it and burn it, or you can put water and sugar in a pot and do the same thing. But when you add water, it really eliminates a lot of the issues and it's just like a bit of extra insurance. The only downside is that it takes maybe, I don't know, five minutes longer to make. So you start with that, you got water and sugar. I went the safe route. So you cook that and you'll notice it starts to change color. I say 16 to 20 minutes, but really, here's the thing that's important. You just have to use sensory cues here. You want to melt this, and don't stir it much. Just swirl it around until truly, it is deep, it's almost like a mahogany color.
And it's scary because you can see small wafts of smoke forming, but you have to take it there. The sugar is not only flavor but it's also going to give you a bit of structure, so this is important to push past your comfort level. The bubbles will start to quiet down, and at that point, you're ready. You'll remove it from the heat and then you'll stir in butter and sweetened condensed milk and salt, and this is the caramel. So it's a combination of legit caramel, and then you're bolstering it with that cheat code of sweetened condensed milk, which ensures you have a really pullable, nice toothsome texture, which is actually the technique you used in the pie, and I thought was so smart. So I borrowed that, but then I just increased the amount of sugar so it's set a little bit firmer here, and you get the best of both worlds.
SU: Yeah, I remember when we spoke about this recipe and then I was like, "Wait, I tried this. Do you want to try this?" And then we tried it, and I think it was smart in this case, but as you said, you increased the sugar, and by doing so, it allowed you to make a sliceable caramel.
JS: Yeah, just a little firmer.
SU: Where the one that I did for the banoffee pie, it was slightly looser because I wanted it to be a bit more thin. I didn't use as much sugar, but one clever way, I think, for both of us to have got... Look at me, self-congratulating ourselves.
JS: Like, "What a great recipe."
SU: No, truly. We're so smart.
JS: No, it is cool because a lot of millionaire shortbreads online, they're like, this is going to be shady, but the, quote, "caramel" is just brown sugar melted with sweetened condensed milk, and I wanted to make a legit caramel and push people past their comfort and then teach them, because it's cool to make it. It's cool when the sugar starts burning and you smell it and then it's super bitter, and then you add that sweetness and it just all comes together really nicely.
SU: I want to take it back to a point that you made when you said the amount you cook this caramel or the color that you cook this caramel to is important not just for flavor, but also for the texture.
JS: Yes.
SU: And I think that is important for people to know and understand what happens when you cook sugar, and what are the stages that sugar goes through. Do you want to tell everyone about that?
JS: It's fascinating and complicated. So caramel is the final stage of cooking sugar. You've gone so far, but if we back up, as you melt sugar, it changes texture and it begins to harden as the temperature goes up. So the first stage, and this is mostly for confectionary things say like suckers or, I don't know, brittle.
SU: Never heard of suckers.
JS: Lollipops. I don't know. You've never heard sucker?
SU: No.
JS: Okay.
SU: That's so funny.
JS: We'll pretend like we're making suckers here. Okay, so the sugar melts, either dry or white caramel, whatever. And the first stage I guess would be called thread, and it's called the thread because when you drop the sugar into cold water or from a spatula, it turns into an actual thread. It looks like a piece of floss almost. Next, there's going to be a softball, firmball, hardball, and these are referring to the same thing. If you take that cooked sugar and you drop it into cold water, it refers to the texture that that bead of sugar is making. So softball, it makes a softball.
SU: It collapses with some pressure.
JS: Yeah.
SU: It loses its shape fast.
JS: A firmball is somewhere in between, and the last is hardball when it makes a legit hard, almost like a marble, and these are different increments of temperature, by 10 degrees or so. And then at click past that, we get into the cracks, and these are the final stages before caramel. You have soft crack and hard crack, and these are when the sugar sets and you can shatter it. So this is when we're talking about suckers or something. You have to cook it to a certain extent, because say you make a sucker with a soft ball, firm ball, that's going to be really weird in your teeth.
SU: Yeah, it's going to be very sticky.
JS: Yeah, and in a way that's like, this is going to rip my tooth out. And then when you cook it past that, it's the point of no return, and that's when you make a caramel, and that's what we want here. And once you're in the caramel realm, see, as you progress, these each get firmer, so that's why it's important for these bars, because we need the firmest stage of cooking sugar because the butter and the sweetened condensed milk are not going to give you structure. It is the actual caramelized sugars that's going to give structure.
SU: All of these different stages are simply a function of how much water we're driving away from this syrup.
JS: Yes. As the temperature goes up in the sugar, the water evaporates, which is crazy to think that that's what's happening, but yeah, it's how much residual water is left in this product.
SU: Yeah.
JS: Yeah. So caramel, we want none basically. Yeah.
SU: Okay. You mentioned temperature for these different stages of cooked sugar, and we have a supporting question from Zach who asks, would it make sense to use a candy thermometer or is that not necessary in this case?
JS: For everything that I just mentioned, yes, 100%, for sure, except caramel. Caramel is the only one that there's actual clear visual and sensory indicators that you know when you've reached it, even if you're not a professional candy maker or have experience with this, so you don't really need one. You can't be like, "Oh, I can tell that's softball and not hardball." I can't do that, but I can tell when something's reached caramel because it smells burnt, it looks like amber. So no, in this one, you don't.
SU: Next question from the comments section on Bonappetite.com is, "The caramel never set for me, so it was basically a huge mess. Did I take it off the heat too early?"
JS: I have seen a couple of these, and to be completely honest, after the first one, I actually went in and edited the language of the recipe, so thanks, everyone. I think, yes. I think caramel, for all the reasons I talked about, you really have to be fearless. You have to be fine with burning the sugar. You have to be fine with seeing a waft of smoke coming off of it. Really, you got to just take it far. It almost takes on a red color.
SU: Yeah, like a penny.
JS: Yes, like a penny. It really needs to be taken that far, so I think it really is just about pushing past your comfort level and being fine with burning it, because once you add those additional ingredients, it's really going to tame it, and it's fine. It'll sort itself out.
SU: I think that's an important note, that you're enriching this caramel so much afterwards with a lot of heavy, sweet ingredients, like condensed milk, the butter.
JS: Yeah, white blonde flavors.
SU: Yes.
JS: Yeah.
SU: It's really going to mellow out this caramel, so don't worry about it being bitter in any way.
JS: Yeah, it's like bitter is the aim for the first step.
SU: Yeah. Is it important to have the rest of the ingredients close by? So once that sugar reaches the stage that we're looking for, I can just go in, dump my butter, condensed milk, so I can stop the cooking.
JS: Yes. I always have the butter and condensed milk right on the side, because then you can act fast. I feel like once caramel turns into caramel, it evolves quickly. It'll be gold, and then it would be deep gold and it'll be mahogany, and then it would be like, oh, it's really dark mahogany. So yeah, it's important to have them on hand quick, because once you add them also, it stops that process immediately.
SU: Yeah. And we just mentioned the condensed milk, and Kai has a question. What's the proper way to store condensed milk? Do I leave it in the can and cover it and put it in the fridge, or can I just leave it at room temperature?
JS: I always transfer mine into a separate airtight container and put in the fridge.
SU: Yeah, I agree.
JS: Well, I know that leaving things in the can in a professional kitchen is a big no.
SU: It's, yes, such a big no. It drives me crazy, but the condensed milk, at least in my house, condensed milk, it's a good bonus to have.
JS: It's tasty.
SU: I never run out of ways to use it up, but what do you use condensed milk for if you have it left over?
JS: I put it in coffee.
SU: Oh yeah, like Vietnamese style?
JS: Yeah. It's such a little treat.
SU: Yeah, I like it With whipped cream, to sweeten whipped cream instead of sugar,
JS: I put it on fruit.
SU: Oh, yeah. On strawberries or mangoes.
JS: Yeah. That's nice.
SU: That would be good.
JS: Yeah. I don't think there's too much left over in this recipe, so I think just eat it.
SU: Just eat it.
JS: Yeah.
SU: Eat a spoonful for dessert or serve it with the coffee, that's a good suggestion.
JS: I always say eating a spoonful when it's chilled, that's nice.
SU: Oh, yeah.
JS: That's nice.
SU: Okay. Anything else you want to mention about caramel, and this caramel in particular?
JS: I think just be fearless. I think the worst that can happen is nothing maybe.
SU: You could turn your caramel into carbon.
JS: Yeah, okay, whatever.
SU: That could be the worst thing.
JS: Sure, sure, sure. Okay, don't do that, but just go past your comfort level. Just go crazy, have faith in it. Take it a click farther than I think maybe you're comfortable with, and you're going to be rewarded with a very intense, rich caramel.
We are going to take one more break.
SU: When we get back, the chocolate ganache topping. And also, Jesse's favorite topic, cutting your cookies so they look very sharp and extremely perfect.
JS: Welcome back to BA Bake Club.
SU: Jesse, let's finish up with the top layer of your millionaire shortbread, the ganache. You're like the ganache king. You've ganached it up for a few occasions, not least the chocolate olive oil cake.
JS: I make a lot of ganache. Yeah. I was talking to Chris. I think I just like emulsifying things. I don't know why, but yeah, okay. So this was super easy, the topping. You literally just microwave chocolate chips and some butter in short bursts in the microwave, just to make sure you're not burning it. And at this point, it'll look like you got a fat next to melted chocolate bits. And then when you whisk it together, it creates this glossy, smooth ganache, and then you just pour that over your set caramel. And then what I like to do is let it hang out for, I don't know, 30 minutes, so it's half set, and then sprinkle it with flaky sea salt. So then some of it melts in, but not all of it, and you just let it set.
SU: This is a level of detail I love from Bake Club. Do you want to tell us... Break that up a little bit. Tell me what happens when you do sprinkle that flaky salt right after you pour the ganache while it's still liquid. What happens?
JS: Well, first of all, it's ugly because it's wet chocolate and salt, so a lot of it starts to melt, so then you end up with these melty bits. And then the other issue, and you'll notice in cookbooks if you look carefully is that if you set it completely and you put the salt on top, it's just salt on chocolate. It's like, okay, it's going to fall off.
SU: It doesn't set. It's not held in place. It's just going to flake off when you go to cut it.
JS: And you see cookies like that all the time. I'm like, what is that? Anyways. So I think letting it set a bit until it has a whiff of sheen, but it's not wet looking is the perfect time to put your salt in, because it will adhere but it won't melt.
SU: So a slightly excessive detail, but one that's very considered.
JS: And everyone will notice now and they look at pictures, like, "Oh."
SU: And speaking of that top layer and sticking and texture, in lots of millionaire shortbread recipes out there, they'll layer sometimes just melted chocolate.
JS: Yes.
SU: Or it can be sometimes I've seen recipes as a ganache, but chocolate and cream.
JS: Sure, sure.
SU: But you chose to make your ganache with chocolate and butter specifically.
JS: Yes.
SU: How come?
JS: First of all, we're already using butter in the recipe, so it's nice to just carry that over. In terms of people making it with just chocolate, then when you go to cut it, it's like a shard of hard on soft and tender.
SU: Yes.
JS: So I don't think, A, you're going to be able to get really nice clean cuts, and then B, it's just not going to be a cohesive eating experience.
SU: I just think this is a perfect example of all of the things we think about when we develop a recipe. I'm sorry, but I want everybody to appreciate us, because that's crazy. You said you made a ganache with butter because there was no cream elsewhere in the recipe and you didn't want a reader to go out to the store and get cream just to use maybe, I don't know, two tablespoons of it.
JS: Yeah.
SU: That's a lot of consideration for the final user.
JS: Yeah. I know groceries are expensive right now too, so I don't know, what is cream? Like $8 sometimes? Yeah, so I don't think that's worth it.
SU: Yeah. And then thinking about when you add the salt, wait for the chocolate to set a little bit, then add the salt. Thinking about why you want to make a softer chocolate layer, so it doesn't crack when you cut into it. And I think for both of us, in our normal course of work, we generally are very careful and thoughtful, and as is everybody in the test kitchen. But I think with these Bake Club specific recipes, we are even more so because we have a really dedicated group of people who make these recipes, and they come back to us and tell us how things went. And we almost feel like, not obligated because that sounds unromantic, but it feels really nice to be committed to them and to be like, "I want this to succeed for them."
JS: Yeah, it keeps us on our toes in a really good way.
SU: I'm proud of us. I think we do such a good job and this is a great attention to detail, and this millionaire shortbread really synthesizes all of that, all of our work. So you really did a fantastic job on these.
JS: Well, thank you. I couldn't have done it without you.
SU: Okay, Jesse. Question from Koa. How crucial are chocolate chips versus a bar of chopped chocolate? I have an inkling that the stabilizers in the chips help the dessert set better, or am I overthinking? That's the question.
JS: Definitely not overthinking. A lot of times, it actually is important. There is a difference between the two because they do act differently, but I think because this has the butter and it's such a thin layer, this doesn't really matter. You could use both interchangeably and I see no issue, but it's good thinking because sometimes you do want to use one versus the other.
SU: Will the percentage of chocolate make a difference here? I know that's not that much of a concern if you're using chocolate chips, but sometimes if you're using bar chocolate, it can vary a lot, like there's 70%, there's 56 for instance.
JS: The lower the percent, I think the softer it will be. I would say I guess it's also a personal taste thing. If you're using a milk chocolate here, I think that would be quite a soft upper layer. I think it will still set, but it'll be a slightly different texture.
SU: Okay. Once the millionaire shortbread is finished and set, you still need to cut it into bars.
JS: Mm-hmm.
SU: And Jesse, I know you care a lot about the aesthetics of your baked goods, and I feel like you have a lot to say about this. I saw you go through the whole spectrum of emotions when it came time to cut these bars in the test kitchen.
JS: And you were unfazed every time. You're like, "It's fine."
SU: I was like, it's a cookie. It's going to crumble. It's fine. And you were like, "Absolutely not. Not a single crumb should fall from my knife." You were obsessed.
JS: I guess this is also, I should out myself, is that I was a food stylist prior to this position, so yes, some crumbling is fine. I've come to realize that a good shortbread will crumble, so deal with it. However, if you want to get crazy, I've found that if you take a sharp knife, a thin sharp knife, say a chef's knife, whatever, a slicing knife, and you score where you're going to cut these bars, through the chocolate, through the caramel and stop at the shortbread, and then you switch out to a serrated knife.
SU: No, we're done here.
JS: No, let me continue. And then you saw back and forth using very little pressure, they won't really crumble.
SU: Okay, Jesse.
JS: And I did write this in the recipe, okay?
SU: Honestly, can I just advise you? I think just for your own perception-
JS: Get it together?
SU: I think you should not continue further. You sound psychotic.
JS: Well, now they know. Okay. And so if you care like I do, do that, and it works really well. And you know what? I'm going to say I think you're the one who's suggested this, so let's reel this in, okay?
SU: Actually, yes.
JS: Shilpa's literally the one who's like, "What if you tried this?" I'm like, "Yes, yes."
SU: Yes, I suggested it, but would I do it? Absolutely not.
JS: So yeah, if you use just a chef's knife, it's going to be fine. They will crumble slightly, but a good shortbread crumbles, and that's ultimately fine, but use the serrated knife.
SU: No, no, you use two knives. Use the sharp knife, and then when you get to the shortbread, use a serrated knife. Okay, an easy one now.
JS: Okay.
SU: We have a question from Mariah, and Mariah writes, "What is the best way to store these bars?"
JS: Okay. I was actually thinking about this more. I just store them at room temperature, but I'll say, you know how some people like eating their candy bars chilled?
SU: Yeah.
JS: Same thing, it's up to you. So if you like that firm, toothsome caramel texture, eat them cold, but both is fine. I put them in an airtight container or just lightly wrap them in plastic wrap over the top and it's fine.
SU: And I think a good thing about this, I remember from when you tested in the test kitchen, even when it was fridge cold, the caramel wasn't hard.
JS: No.
SU: You wouldn't be worried that you would snap your tooth on it.
JS: Not at all.
SU: It was still chewy.
JS: Totally.
SU: But a more dense chew when it was cold, as opposed to a slightly more molten effect when it was room temp.
JS: Yeah. A room temp, if you pull it, you'll get maybe, I don't know, an inch of pull. When it's cold, you'll probably get like four inches of pulling.
SU: Okay. That's it for this month's edition of BA Bake Club.
JS: Shilpa, do you want to tell our bakers about the May Bake Club recipe?
SU: Yes. These are coffee cake cones, which honestly, love.
JS: They're really good.
SU: They were really good. We went through a lot of iterations about scones.
JS: It was a cerebral exercise.
SU: It really was.
JS: What is a scone?
SU: Was it a scone? Was it a muffin?
JS: What is the texture of a scone? What is the form? What is the difference between shortcake and a scone?
SU: God, we answered all these questions. Anyway, coffee cake scones in the end turned out to be these triangular scones that are very buttery, flaky, and short.
JS: They are short.
SU: They're short, and they have these big chunks of a cinnamon-scented streusel on top, and also a ribbon of cinnamon and brown sugar running throughout, just like a coffee cake.
JS: Shilpa, are there any special equipment or ingredients that the bakers should have on hand for this?
SU: I think what I found most helpful was a bench scraper. I really found that helpful, because the dough is a bit sticky, so it really helped to corral all of the ingredients together in the shaping of it.
JS: That makes sense.
SU: And a rolling pin.
JS: Yes. Cool. So Bake Clubbers, once you bake through the coffee cake scones, send us your pictures and questions. There are so many different ways to get in touch.
SU: You can comment on the recipe on the Epicurious app or on the Bon Appétit website, or you can email us at bakeclub@bonappetit.com. And if you've made it and loved it, rate and review the recipe on our site. We're your hosts, Shilpa Uskokovic.
JS: And Jesse Szewczyk.
SU: Michelle O'Brien is our senior producer.
JS: Jake Loomis is our studio engineer.
SU: Research editing by Marissa Wolkenberg.
JS: This episode was mixed by Amar Lal at Macro Sound.
SU: Our executive producer is Jordan Bell.
JS: Chris Bannon is Condé Nast's head of global audio.
SU: If you like this show, leave us a rating and a review, and hit that follow button so you never miss an episode of BA Bake Club or Dinner SOS.
JS: And if you're not already part of the club, head to Bonappetit.com/BakeClub to find all the information you need to join.
SU: Thank you for listening to BA Bake Club. We'll see you next month.
JS: But until then, next week on Dinner SOS, Natalie is confident in the kitchen, but she's finding herself in a rut when it comes to cooking leafy greens.
Natalie: We can certainly saute some greens with some garlic and just add that to whatever we're eating, and that's totally fine sometimes, but it's not maybe the most exciting way to leverage leafy greens.