Cheat's No Bake Millionaire's Shortbread – dairy-free

By lucylox on January 31, 2025

I love Millionaire's shortbread; crunchy biscuit base, gooey sweet caramel and delicious chocolate, it's a heavenly combination. Millionaire's shortbread will often be my number one choice, but it's a faff to make, so more often than not, I shelve the idea for another day. But then that's a sad day, because I don't get my beloved millionaire's shortbread. Well, not anymore, with this recipe I can always have my chocolate caramel shortbread fix, and everyday can be a happy day!

Sometimes you don't want a bake with multiple steps or the complication of making a caramel. On those occasions, you need a quick fix, a cheat's version that takes minutes to make, tastes just as good as the original, and can also be made suitable for nearly everyone! Say hello, to your new favourite recipe, Cheat's no bake Millionaire's Shortbread. Chocolate caramel shortbread that is dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free, vegan and can be made gluten-free and soya-free too.

This is one of the recipes that always fits the bill - for an emergency sweet treat with just four staple cupboard ingredients, for the person who doesn't like baking but wants to bring something to the party, for when you just need some millionaire's shortbread but can't make it to the shop, or can't find any that suits your dietary requirements.

This recipe contains gluten in the biscuits and Biscoff, but should you wish to make a gluten-free version use a gluten-free plain biscuit and either a smooth seed or nut-butter (if you can eat that). The Biscoff also contains soya, so again if you need to avoid soya I'd suggest a smooth sunflower seed spread instead. If you're a big chocolate fan you could use a chocolate spread in place of the Biscoff.

The only things you need to keep to, are the ratios; you want a thick enough biscuit base that happily holds together, generous but not over the top gooey layer and a nice thin chocolate top. This recipe is another small batch bake, or should i say no bake! I'm really into making smaller quantities at the moment, and i think it can make recipes be suitable for even more people - not everyone wants cakes and biscuits coming out of their ears each week.

So, the amounts below fit a 10cm x 15cm baking tray, the sort you buy to cook an individual portion, and this makes 3 good sized slices. If you have a standard 2lb loaf tin I would double the recipe, for a standard square 20cm brownie/cake tin, I'd do 4x the recipe.

I've used M&S Digestives which are dairy-free and no traces of nuts, taste exactly like good old McVities but they're not labelled vegan. If you're looking for a vegan alternative i'd suggest Doves Farm Wholemeal digestives that only contain gluten and wheat. Schar digestives are gluten, egg, dairy and nut free but do contain soya.

Let me know what you think - do you like these easy recipes? How about small batch, are you a fan, or would you rather a standard quantity?

Cheat's No Bake Millionaire's Shortbread

Quick, easy, no bake and just 4 ingredients

dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free, sesame-free, vegetarian and vegan (can be gluten-free and soya-free)

10x15cm baking tray

75 g digestive biscuits (approx 5 biscuits)
25 g dairy-free margarine (melted)
75 g smooth Biscoff spread
50 g dairy-free chocolate (your preference of dark or creamy)
5 g dairy-free margarine (1tsp)

Line the baking tray with parchment (see the write up above for details of using different sized tins)
Crush the biscuits
Melt the margarine and pour in the biscuit crumbs, stir well
Very firmly, press the crumbs into the base of the lined tin. Level off and place in the fridge to firm up
Gently melt the Biscoff spread and pour over the chilled biscuit base. Level off and place back in the fridge to set
Melt together the chocolate and 1 tsp margarine. Smooth over the set Biscoff layer and place back in the fridge to set.
Once set cut into three even sized bars