Vegan English baking: Dark chocolate tiffin

Of the English baking posts we’ve had thus far, the first one on cherry bakewell tarts was for me.

The second, on fruit digestive biscuits, was for both of us.

This one is all for Mr Bite.

Until last year, I hadn’t actually heard of tiffin. It appeared in our fridge unexpectedly when my (now) sister-in-law made it for Mr Bite, as a way of saying thank you for some thing or other. I was interested to discover that it was quite like an Australia hedgehog slice, but with a solid chocolate top rather than an icing-style one, the addition of dried fruit, and the omission of egg and white or icing sugar. Tiffin can also be called a chocolate refrigerator cake, which I probably had heard of but not thought much about. Cadbury reportedly makes a tiffin bar, but as I have never seen or tried it, I can't comment on how similar it is to the home-made variety.

Whatever name it goes by, tiffin is a rich and chocolatey snack. The core ingredients are biscuits, butter, sugar, golden syrup, dried fruit and chocolate, which results in a product you’d probably like to have on hand if you were stuck in a snow storm and needed to survive for weeks with minimal provisions!

The history of the recipe was actually quite hard to find. In part, this is because 'tiffin' can also refer to an Indian meal involving multiple small dishes, a bit like the Japanese bento box. The chocolate tiffin appears to be of Scottish origin, which may suggest that my thoughts about cold weather provisions are accurate (and means that my post title is actually inaccurate...).  I imagine that similar no-bake chocolate recipes have evolved around the world, and tiffin happens to be the Scottish variety.

As with digestive biscuits, this is an easy recipe to veganise. Indeed, most tiffin recipes seem to include digestive biscuits as the biscuit of choice. From there, it is easy to use non-dairy spread and dark or dairy-free chocolate to keep the ingredient list animal product free. It is a good example of how vegan doesn’t necessarily equal healthy, and underscores my beliefs about vegan stereotypes being very misguided at times!  Although most recipes limit the dried fruit to raisins, I used ginger too as I recalled the vegan dark chocolate and ginger tiffin on the menu of York's Goji Cafe. Mr B likes ginger in chocolate form, at least in moderation, so it seemed a good version to try out.

Note the fifth listing...

Although I have retained ‘baking’ in my post title, this is of course baking free. This means that where we have 'Vegan English baking' we should really have 'Vegan Scottish no-baking'. I apologise for placing wording consistency over wording accuracy! An advantage of the no-bake nature is that this is very easy to make, and can be made ahead and kept in the fridge until required. It can also be adapted to the biscuit, dried fruit and chocolate you prefer.

Dark chocolate tiffin

An easy, rich, high-chocolate dish

Adapted from this recipe

Makes 12 - 14 small slices; double quantities for a bigger batch

Vegan

Print recipe

Ingredients

50g non-dairy spread (I used nuttelex)

1 tbsp golden syrup

1 tbsp brown sugar

1.5 tbsp cocoa

100g digestive biscuits

40g dried ginger, chopped small

25g raisins

100g dark (or dairy-free) chocolate

Method

Melt the non-dairy spread, golden syrup, brown sugar and cocoa in the microwave or over the stove top, on low heat and stirring regularly.

Crush the digestive biscuits roughly in a plastic bag, and then add to the melted mixture, along with the dried fruit. Mix well.

Line a loaf tin (or square baking pan) with non-stick baking paper. Transfer the tiffin mix to the tin and press down evenly. Refrigerate for at least one hour.

When the tiffin base has chilled, melt the dark chocolate in the microwave or over the stove top and pour over the base. Return to the fridge to set (at least two hours) before cutting into slices.

For something so easy, this is an attractive dish and I have noted it as a good option for entertaining. It could almost be made before work on a day it is needed in the evening - which is a good back up to have to hand.

Have you ever tried, or heard of, tiffin?

This post is part of my Vegan Month of Food contributions for October 2012. 

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