Millionaire Bars

I've seen these so many times on pinterest and I always wanted to make them so I did so yesterday for my luncheon. I really should know better than to try something for the first time when I am cooking for others.  Though they look good, I think they came up short on flavor.

 
Base:
125g (1 cup) flour 
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
113g (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
50g (1/4 cup) sugar

Caramel:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces 
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp light corn syrup
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk

Topping:
3.5 oz / 100g milk or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped 
1/2 tsp light corn syrup
30g (2 tbsp) 1/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces 

1) Preheat oven to 160C / 325F. Line a 20 x 20 / 8 x 8 inch baking pan with parchment paper. In a small bowl, combine together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, combine together butter and sugar and beat with a mixer until light and fluffy. Stir in the flour mixture and mix just until incorporated. Spread into the pan and bake for 15-18 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Let cool completely.

2) To make the filling, combine together butter, sugar, corn syrup and condensed milk in a saucepan. Heat, stirring occasionally, until the butter in melted and the mixture looks smooth. Bring to boil and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens a bit and turns amber color. Spread onto the shortbread layer and let cool completely. Transfer into the fridge for a few hours or overnight.

 The base was fine, it tasted like shortbread.

 This layer is the one I was unhappy with. I think this layer should have tasted like caramel and I tried to caramelize it but it became very thick and started spitting and it became downright scary.

So, I followed the directions and poured it on the crust.  I hoped it would end up being fudge-like.  It wasn't.

I skipped the topping directions above and made a ganache thinking that ganache makes everything better.

The end result was a strongly flavored ganache bar with a condensed milk flavored filling.  Like I said, rather disappointing.  Though I must say, some people gobbled them down. Has anyone else made these and if so, what did you think?