Millionaire’s shortbread is the ultimate show-off bake. Tender shortbread stacked with chewy caramel, glossy chocolate, and flakes of shimmering sea salt? It’s practically begging to be peacocked around like a trophy. Our version went through about 10 rounds of testing until every detail was just right.
A simple shortbread dough gets a special upgrade: toasting a bit of the flour beforehand. This lends a deep nuttiness, almost like coffee, without any extra ingredients. The caramel takes a hybrid approach, bolstering caramelized sugar with sweetened condensed milk, so you get a bittersweet flavor with a sliceable texture. The final layer combines chocolate with butter for a mirror-like shine and fudgy bite.
While you won’t need any special ingredients or equipment to make this, just make sure you have a square 8×8″ pan on hand. For the cleanest edges, use a metal pan with straight edges, like the Test Kitchen favorite USA Pan.
March 2025: Pistachio Bundt Cake
The key to this pistachio cake’s tender crumb and mowed-grass green hue? A blender. It does all the hard work for you, decimating the nuts into a coarse flour and evenly distributing the dry ingredients (no sifting needed). This cake is satisfyingly hefty, with the regality of a cruise ship out at sea, and sturdily moist thanks to the pistachios’ natural fat content, a combination of melted butter and oil, plus a pearlescent lemon glaze. I’ve kept it on the counter under a mixing bowl for days, sawing off slices each time I saunter past.
I know many of us are nervous about inverting a cake in a Bundt pan. There’s always a moment of: Will it or won’t it? Over the years, I’ve found the best insurance against stickage is a can of baking spray—not cooking spray, which is a different product entirely. Made with oils and flour, baking spray works particularly well for Bundt cakes, getting into the valleys of the pan more effectively than just oil or butter. It comes out of the can in a beige mist, making it easy to see any missed spots. I stock Baker’s Joy in my cabinets both at home and at work.
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