- You never been swimming in condensed milk before?
Hello everyone. Hi.
- Right Mrs. B? - Yes.
- Today we're doing another cheap-
- Versus steep.
- You gotta feel the weight of that in comparison.
- Oh my goodness, that's heavy.
- We're doing cheap versus steep
millionaire shortbread today
which turns out millionaire shortbread
is one of Mrs. B's favourite things.
- I think I really like it.
- I did not know that.
I know the year you're born.
I know your eye colour.
I know you like pickled onions.
- Err! (beep)
- Can you describe millionaire shortbread
for people that might not know
what millionaire shortbread is?
- Oh, so it's bottom layer shortbread,
middle layer caramel and top layer chocolate.
- Oh my gosh.
It's incredible.
And for me, the irony in that
it's called millionaire shortbread and the cheap one
I always want the cheap to win.
- I think the steep is gonna be rich.
- Yeah, so I've gone got the cheapest ingredients I can
from the cheap supermarket
and the most expensive extravagant ones I could
from the expensive supermarket in a battle to see.
And I genuinely think
I know you're saying about it being rich,
I think that too.
And it's quite minimal ingredients.
There's only a few key factors that could tweak this.
I think for the first time ever, the cheap could win.
- Okay.
- And like everything, it won't matter.
So should we get going? - Yes.
- All right, first thing, we're making a shortbread.
So we've got 250 grammes of plain flour.
This is the cheap one first of all.
1.5 kilos, you get 79p.
- 79p?
- But just for this recipe, 13p is needed, okay?
So you get a lot of flour left over.
Now the expensive equivalent was actually
by a well-known brand,
there goes that brand deal.
They got in touch before as well.
But this is plain pre-sieved flour.
And for a kilo, that's 1 pound 95 or 49p.
Yeah. - That's a massive difference.
It does come in a fancy box with a lid and not a paper bag.
- It does, it does.
All right, so that is the steep flower
and we're just passing cheap flour through.
We can sieve it ourselves and maybe save some money.
All right, now sugar,
the cheap, 75 grammes
1 pound 45 for a 1 kilo bag.
But for this recipe, that's only 10 pence of the sugar.
Whereas the steep was 1 pound 60 for 500 grammes.
So that's 3 pound 20, for the equivalent amount.
For this recipe alone,
you're paying 14 pence more for 75 grammes.
- Wow.
- By buying this sustainably sourced sugar
you are supporting small-scale sugar cane farmers.
So I quite like that actually, looks the same.
- It does. - Okay.
All right, so when it comes to the butter
we have got this West Country,
we're from the West Country.
The best place in the world, West Country, aint it?
- We are. - We are.
That is West Country.
Do we think we have accents?
- I don't.
- Let us know, that'd be really interesting.
So this is West Country salted butter, okay?
250 grammes, we need the lot for this recipe.
The cheap block, 1 pound 79, okay?
Now this is West Country organic butter.
So it might, and it doesn't tell me on the packaging
be from the same place.
Mm, but it is unsalted.
But for that block 3 pound 25,
you're actually paying 1 pound 46 more,
if you wanted the organic butter.
Again, big calls to make, but will they make a difference?
And it looks very, very similar.
- Sometimes you've used butter before
and it's been really a lot brighter in colour, hasn't it?
Yeah, folks, if you haven't seen
the cheap versus steep playlist,
do check it out after this video.
There is some butter I've used once or twice
where it's in this gold tube
it looks like something from the Willy Wonka factory.
I could have got that today
and it would've been slightly more expensive,
but I wanted to just go complete line up.
All right, so here we go.
We probably should have mixed that sugar together
with the flour, but hey-ho, it's all gonna get mixed anyway.
So this is the kneed step that I hate.
Remember they've got a gadget for that,
but we just work the fat in
and then we kneed it into basically the shortbread.
But what I hate
is when you know when you've got a really rough,
oh, that makes me feel all...
Does that not make you feel like ugh.
- No. - Oh, ugh.
- I do think they're- - I hate that feeling so much.
Why do I hate it?
It's like someone's tickling me and not in a good way.
(utensil clicks)
Got a few indentations with my finger there,
but that'll all get masked by the caramel.
20 minutes.
On that topic, let's start going.
We've got two sauce pans, both with the remaining butter in
that we've talked about already.
And now we need some condensed milk.
So we have got two identical tins there.
The recipe for the millionaire shortbread
calls for 397 grammes,
which is like the stereotypical size of a tin
of condensed milk.
I don't know why, does anyone know why that is?
The cheap tin, 99p, 1 pound 95 for this,
1 pound 95. - Wow.
- For the same thing potentially.
So this is where I'm like, will this make a difference?
That is a 96 pence difference and you need the whole tin.
What's it gonna do?
- I don't know.
But this one says it's got whole milk, sugar
and calcium chloride.
- Ingredients, whole milk and sugar.
What's calcium chloride?
- So apparently it's a stabiliser.
- Isn't that what you put in swimming pool?
But that is you're literally paying double.
I feel like it should be slightly darker in colour,
but maybe not.
That is identical.
If anything, yours is slightly more paler.
- Yeah, that's what I was gonna say.
Yours looks darker.
- That'll be the chlorine.
Come on guys.
Look, this is why I was so keen to do this one.
This is looking identical.
In the past when we've done cheap versus steep recipes
there's a clear difference.
- Yeah, so far it's all looked exactly the same.
- Mm, but that might be about to change.
- Oh dear.
- Yeah, I could only get light brown sugar
from the cheap supermarket.
Oh, is the shortbread done?
(timer beeps) - It is.
- Yeah, light brown sugar from the budget,
but we got the light muscovado.
Cheap light brown sugar, 1 pound 99 for a kilo
or for this recipe, 19p.
The light muscovado for 500 grammes is 1 pound 95, okay?
So that's pretty much double.
So you're paying 40p for this recipe.
It's gonna come down to the quality, isn't it?
The chlorine.
This is exciting.
Why do I get- All right.
- So excited by this? - Chloride.
- You've never been swimming in condensed milk before?
Folks, this is gonna be really hard to show,
but cheap, steep, okay?
This one does look slightly darker, doesn't it?
- It does. - Right, we're gonna
warm this up.
I like to let Mrs B have the more elegant ingredients
so that just for five minutes she can have a posh lifestyle.
Shall we tip and show?
Is there a colour there?
- Yeah, look. - There is, isn't there?
- There it's massive.
- Cheap, steep. - Steep.
- How is that gonna affect the taste though?
That's the most important thing.
All right, so here is the cheap caramel.
- [Mrs B] Oh wow, it looks pretty much the same colour
as the shortbread.
- It does, doesn't it?
(upbeat music)
Oh wow, that is darker.
Oh my goodness.
So the steep shortbread was still slightly warm
so we could still pour that on.
It's just gonna take a little while to cool
to room temperature, which we can then stick in the fridge.
But that is where this one is going right now.
The final layer of chocolate you have got there
200 grammes of milk chocolate.
That is a 99p bar. - Bargain.
- The most expensive ones were this company called Menier
which I think is a French company
that apparently is world-renowned
with many accolades and awards.
I've never actually...
Oh no, I recognise the logo actually.
- I do.
- For 100 grammes of this in a bag like this
we needed 200.
(chocolate clinks)
2 pound 40 per bag.
- Per bag? - Yeah.
- For that? - Yeah.
4 pound 80 for 200 grammes of chocolate.
(Mrs B gasps)
4 pound 80?
- Oh my god, I cannot believe that.
- Versus 99p, you're paying 3 pounds 81 more
for the chocolate layer.
- I can't believe that.
- So that is a hell of a difference.
4.8 times more than that.
I mean, it looks like chocolate.
It is chocolate but maybe slightly darker.
All right, this is the cheap, we'll just pour that on.
- [Mrs B] That looks good.
- So it's gonna go back in the fridge
and we'll do the same with the steep chocolate
which is a lot more rigid.
Look, it's not as flexible.
Oh, look at that though.
- [Mrs B] That's spreading nicely.
- Oh, that looks luxurious.
It's actually really interesting.
I was just reading the ingredient comparison
and I'm not gonna go through all the emulsifier
and all that stuff, but quite similar.
But the thing that stood out,
they both got vanilla extract in,
I've never known that before.
Wow, cheap, steep. - Steep.
- And there is a difference in colour for sure, isn't there?
Right, let's just slice a couple of squares up.
And I think we'll both blindfold each other in turns
and swap around and just do which one's which?
Cheap. - Cheap.
That looks good.
- It's quite a wedge of biscuit though, isn't it?
- Yeah. - But that was me,
that was me.
- But look, that's how it's meant to be.
- Oh yeah.
That is the steep.
Is it me or does that look absolutely identical?
This is a steep, and that's the cheap,
there is not much difference at all there, is there?
Okay, we cut 'em up.
Mrs. B's, blindfolded, cheap, steep.
I'm gonna give her one of these now
whilst I talk through some facts.
She doesn't know which one I'm gonna give her first.
So there you go mate, okay?
- Thank you.
- To conclude though,
the total shop was 8 pound for the cheap
15 pound 50 for the steep.
But the actual total, just to make the recipe,
cheap was 4 pound 19 and the steep 11 pounds 13.
So you save 6 pound 94 just for this batch.
So you could make another one that's roughly 2.8 times more
for these recipe, which is nuts.
- Mm, mm.
- Is that good?
- Hm-hmm.
- So here's the other one.
Tension is unbearable.
Is there a preference?
- Yeah. - Ooh.
- Yeah, there is, the first one.
- You prefer the first one?
- Yeah. - Okay.
- Had more flavour in a way, it's weird.
- But you like both, right?
- Hm-hmm.
- Okay, wow, it's heavy, isn't it?
- Hm-hmm. - Well, that's nice.
The dominant thing in that is the chocolate though.
I'm tasting really sugary chocolate if anything.
But I'm getting the caramel.
I'm getting a nice even biscuit.
That's all right.
Just felt like you put a weight on my hand.
Is that upside down?
Oh, there you go.
You can feel the chocolate. - Hm-hmm.
- Mm, mm.
All right, which one was that one?
- That was the steep.
- Was it?
- Which one did you give me first?
- The cheap.
- Did you?
- Yeah, you liked the cheap.
- Oh my gosh, yeah I did.
- And I liked the steep, the caramel in that is amazing.
- I couldn't really taste it though.
- Mm. - It was weird.
- But maybe just because we've got
a bit bigger wedge of caramel in that second one,
it was a little bit more,
but it had, it seemed to be a bit more depth to it.
- Do you think?
I don't know.
- Let me try another a cheat then.
Mm, see when you go back to it, that's more even
that just had this huge band of caramel in it
was just like, "Oh yeah."
I like 'em both, which I think to me is kind like
the whole point of it.
If it doesn't matter, they're both millionaire shortbreads
at the end of the day.
That's so interesting with the blindfold on,
I like the steep and you like the cheap.
It's normally the other way round.
It's like a vanilla-ness.
I know vanilla's been the key,
but that's vanilla more impact in that steep,
I don't know why.
- I think you're right though.
The chocolate does take over on the cheap.
- So in a strange way,
if you did wanna do a perfect combo,
cheap chocolate, that's the most expensive thing
that we used with the more branded caramel,
and the biscuit is irrelevant, I think.
- Yeah. - There's no difference
in that at all. - No.
- So that's what you should do for the perfect one.
But that's amazing.
I think cheap is the winner though, yeah.
- Hm-hmm, I do.
- It doesn't matter, they're so close.
Well, I really enjoyed this.
I mean, I love all the cheap versus steep.
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