Your one must-bake treat for an Easter or springtime gathering – my Mini Creme Egg Chocolate Caramel Shortbread!
Aren’t they cute?!
If a dessert can be cute, which, duh.
So, when my husband tried one of these (one with the white chocolate to be exact), he said, oh my god, these are the best thing you’ve ever made.
I originally started making Creme Egg desserts for him since they’re his favourite. If you have any Cadbury Creme Egg addicts in your life, then you have to make these for them!
This recipe is based on my hugely popular Creme Egg Chocolate Caramel Shortbread, but changed to make 18 individual portions.
DON’T be intimidated – you can make these! It’s actually really easy and very straightforward. The shortbread layer is the only part of this dessert that is baked, and there are only a handful of ingredients – butter, sugar, flour, and vanilla.
On top of we’ll add a simple cheat’s homemade caramel, made with condensed milk, butter, sugar, and more vanilla. Again, not scary! I’ve got a step by step guide with photo’s and tips below to show you how.
Then we top that with chocolate! And top that with Creme Eggs!
Just in case it wasn’t clear, *This is not a health food*
Of course, you can also top these with whatever you like (not everyone loves Creme Eggs, gasp, plus there’s that six months of the year when you cannot buy them). Toasted nuts, flakes of sea salt, crumbled biscuit or chocolate like maltesers…. popcorn… whatever your heart desires!
I topped a few with mini Oreo’s – these ones were YUMMY!
This Easter, you could use caramel eggs, daim eggs, oreo eggs – ANY eggs! Make a big batch with different options, and everyone will be happy!
These cute single versions of my Creme Egg Chocolate Caramel Shortbread are super easy and convenient – no need to worry about caramel oozing out or cutting it into squares!
I’ve also refined my advice on the caramel making process to make it super easy for you! My top tip for making the thickest caramel ever is to pour it into a cold bowl and pop it into the fridge to cool completely. Once it’s cool, it will be ultra thick and delicious…
I tried out my new Lakeland mini cake tin to bake it in, but you can also use a muffin tin. Just brush the bottom and sides of the cups with melted butter first so the shortbreads pop out easily.
The Lakeland tin is non-stick and has little loose-bottoms on each hole – things pop out super easily. I can’t wait to make lots more mini cakes in it, or individual brownies!
These Mini Creme Egg Chocolate Caramel Shortbread take about an hour and a half in total – that’s to bake the shortbread, make and cool the caramel, and put on the topping.
You could absolutely get kids involved in making these with you! I’d recommend making the caramel in advance and storing it in a tupperware tub, so that you only have to make the shortbread and the chocolate layer – it will only take about 25 minutes and I bet kids would love choosing biscuits and chocolates to go on top!
- For the shortbread base
- 200g unsalted butter, softened
- 75g golden caster or caster sugar
- 210g plain flour
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract
- pinch salt
- For the caramel layer
- 1 397g can condensed milk (normal sized can)
- 150g unsalted butter
- 150g golden caster or caster sugar
- 1 tbsp vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract (we won't stir this in until the caramel has cooked and cooled)
- sea salt flakes
- For the chocolate
- 300g of chocolate - milk, white, dark or a combination
- For the Creme Egg topping
- Creme Eggs, or other sweets or biscuits of your choice
- Preheat your oven to 180C/gas mark 4/350F and prepare your muffin tin/s by brushing the bottom and sides with melted butter.
- For the shortbread
- To make your shortbread base, combine the very soft butter with the sugar, and then mix in the flour, vanilla and salt until you have a delicious mess. Pop roughly 1 tbspfull into each muffin hole and press down with your fingers - the shortbread layer should be 1 - 1.5cm thick. Bake for 10 minutes (depending on oven shelf - mine was on the middle shelf) or until golden brown (see photo in post). Remove and leave to cool COMPLETELY before you add the caramel layer.
- For the caramel layer
- To make your caramel, combine the condensed milk, butter and sugar together in a saucepan over a very low heat. Stir constantly as the mixture melts together. Once it's all melted, increase the heat to medium, but be sure to stir it constantly.
- As the sugar dissolves, the mixture will turn from yellow-y to golden, and thicken. Heat gently for approx twenty minutes, with the mixture at a gentle boil (so with the occasional bubble plopping up). STIR IT CONSTANTLY and watch it carefully, turning the heat down if the bubbles get more frequent.
- Once it's the thickness of a very thick yoghurt or gravy, remove from the heat and pour into a cold bowl (steel is ideal). Put it into the fridge, or freezer to cool down completely, then stir in the vanilla and a little sea salt. Once cool, pop heaped tablespoonfuls of caramel onto each shortbread base.
- For the chocolate
- Simply break your two bars of chocolate into chunks and pop into a microwave proof bowl. Heat on 30 second intervals until soft, not forgetting to remove and stir after every 30 seconds. Be careful - the bowl may get very hot! When it's almost melted, remove from the microwave as the residual heat will continue to melt the chocolate.
- Pour over your caramel layer, using the back of a spoon to spread around the muffin holes.
- For the Creme Egg topping
- Separate your Creme eggs or other toppings and push into the chocolate layer while it's still warm and melty.
- Pop your tray of shortbreads into the fridge to set (or the freezer if you're in a real rush) - they'll be ready to eat in about thirty minutes.
Give one of these a ten or fifteen second trip in the microwave and top with some vanilla ice cream for an even more decadent Easter treat!
I KNOW you’ll love these! If you make them, please tag me on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook so I can see your bakes!
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I think I’m going to give these a bash to sell at the cafe for Easter! Thanks Kerry!
Let me know what people think of them! 🙂
I can testify that these are amazing after making them last week!
Thanks so much Kat! That’s awesome to hear 🙂
I’ve never really been fond of creme eggs but I had one last week and I think I’m hooked. I will definitely be trying these for Easter!
Hope you love them! Weird how our tastes change isn’t it?
Wow, Kerry – this looks awesome! Have pinned – I have a special board just for creme eggs 🙂
Haha, me too!
Kerry, I seriously want to just jump ointo the computer and stuff these in my face.
Reckon if this hasn’t already gone viral Kerry, it very soon will. Another fab creme egg recipe.