Chocolate Tiffin

It’s tiffin time! This little treat is a favourite in my family and is also my Dad’s speciality. Whenever we see piles of chocolate and digestive biscuits in the kitchen, we know a tray of this is on the way. What essentially amounts to a collection of digestives, nuts, dried fruit all encased in a chocolate block is surprisingly tasty, and whilst it’s not great for anyone on a diet, it’s perfect as an any-time treat.

As this is fundamentally a tray bake, it also works really well for cake sales and sharing, as it’s easily transportable and can be cut into as many pieces as you want. This is also really easy and quick to make, so even if you’re not a whizz in the kitchen you can give this one a go. It’s also a great one to make with kids as it’s hands on but not too complicated.

Whilst I’d recommend sticking to the quantities of chocolate, syrup and butter in the main mixture (as this gives the ideal soft set mixture you want in tiffin), you can from there customise these however you want. I’ve included a list of variations you can try at the end of this post, but you can go as crazy with additions as you want.

Recipe

Makes 12 squares

Time: 30 minutes, with extra time for chilling

Ingredients

• 250g Digestive biscuits
• 150g Milk chocolate
• 150g Dark chocolate
• 100g Unsalted butter
• 150g Golden syrup
• 50g Pistachios, chopped roughly
• 100g Dried apricots
• 75g Dates, chopped
• 50g Raisins
• 50g Pecans, chopped roughly
• 50g White chocolate to decorate

Method

1. Put the biscuits into a large bowl and crush by smashing them with the end of a rolling pin.
2. Put the two chocolates, butter and golden syrup into a large heatproof bowl and melt slowly over a pan of simmering water. Stir to combine.
3. Whilst waiting for the chocolate mixture to melt, line a square tin with cling film. If you’re having trouble with this, lightly greasing the tin with butter can help as the cling film will stick to it.
4. Remove the chocolate mixture from the heat and stir in the biscuits, dried fruit and nuts until it’s all coated in the chocolate.
5. Spoon the mixture into the lined tin and smooth out with the back of a spoon until all the same thickness.
6. Put the tin into the fridge to set for at least 1 hour, until hard enough to slice.
7. Melt the white chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Drizzle the chocolate over the tiffin, top with any more fruit and nuts you want, and then leave to set.
8. Take the tiffin out of the tin, remove the cling film and slice into 12 pieces.

Variations

As I said above, this recipe is really yours to change and make your own. I’ve given 5 other variations which are also great to try. All these run on the basis that you use the same amount of chocolate, butter and syrup as above and then add to the melted mixture the following ingredients…

1. Cranberry and Pistachio – 250g crushed digestive biscuits, 75g dried cranberries, 100g raisins, 100g chopped pistachios, 150g white chocolate Maltesers.
2. Black Forest – 250g crushed dark chocolate digestives, 100g dried cherries, 50g glace cherries, 75g quartered mini chocolate brownies.
3. Cookies and Cream – 250g crushed Oreos instead of digestives.
4. Chocolate Heaven – 250g crushed chocolate digestives, any chocolates or sweets you like chopped into bite size pieces (e.g Twirls, Maltesers, Crunchies, Double Deckers, KitKats, Popping candy, Jelly babies, Smarties…).
5. Rocky Road – 250g digestive biscuits, 100g mini marshmallows, 75g raisins.

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Emma x