Chocolate Tiffins

In London, I spent a lot of time in the cookbook section of various bookstores where I was happy to discover a whole new group of celebrity chefs. Rachael Ray was nowhere to be found, but Jamie Oliver was everywhere and Gordon Ramsay had quite a few books out too. There were many books by Hugh Fearnly, Bill Granger, and my personal favorite, Nigel Slater. Another author whose books I liked was Annabel Karmel, who focuses on kid and party food. There was also a book of pies by Sophie Conran, of the fabulous Conran family. I am kicking myself for not buying the pie book, but will definitely try to order it this week.

Along with celebrity cookbook authors, cookies were different in London. Chocolate chip cookies, which are of course very American, were harder to come and the ones I did find were more shortbread-like. There was all sorts of shortbread (naturally), pastries, many varieties of fruit/cereal type bars and most shops had individually wrapped chocolate brownies. Another bar cookie I discovered is called a chocolate tiffin. It’s basically a mess of toasted nuts, dried fruit and broken cookies encased in soft chocolate. The word tiffin means “a small bite or lunch”. It’s also a term used to describe a lunchbox. So “tiffin” is the perfect name for this cookie since the chocolate matrix acts as a box to small bits of goodies.

Like our own magic cookie bars, tiffins can be made a number of ways. Most recipes use milk chocolate, but some use dark and milk. For the broken cookie component, you may use shortbread, digestive biscuits or graham crackers. Hazelnuts seem to be the norm, but roasted almonds work well too. Some tiffins are made with cocoa powder and butter, but I think I’ll stick with the ones made with chocolate that has been gently melted with butter and golden syrup.

Using a recipe (scroll down) adapted from the Sainsbury grocery store as a guide, I made a batch of chocolate tiffins last night. Below is the Sainsbury adaptation and following that, is my variation. I used what I had around the house, which I suppose is the beauty of chocolate tiffins. Play around with the flavor combinations until you find one you like.

Chocolate Tiffins

4 oz salted butter, softened
1 1/2 tablespoons golden syrup,
8 to 10 oz Hershey Dark chocolate, cut up
6 or 7 ounces of tea biscuits, butter cookies, digestive biscuits or shortbread. I had to use Little School Boys.
2 oz whole almonds, toasted and chopped
1 or more oz dried sour cherries

Cut up butter and place butter, syrup and chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl. Stir to coat chips in butter. Microwave on high 30 seconds. Stir and repeat until chocolate is melted. Let stand while you prepare cookies mixture.

Chop the cookies into large chunks. Stir together cookie chunks, almonds and cherries, then add to melted chocolate mixture. Dump mixture into an 8 inch square pan that has been lined with Release foil or parchment. It will be quite wet. After a few hours, it will set, but you might want to put it in the refrigerator to speed it up, which is what I did.

Lift from pan using foil or parchment as a handle and score into little squares. I’m not giving an exact yield, but these are rich, so you may want to cut them very small.