Homemade Tim Tams

Homemade Tim Tams

by | Nov 2, 2017 | 5 comments

Tim Tams came into my life rather late. I was 21, had just received my first (very meager) salary and was standing in the supermarket aisle with an intense desire to splurge. I’d seen these cookies before but had always been outraged by the ridiculous price tag. Where they made of gold to be deserving of 50 Randelas?! On this particular day though, it was this exact ridiculous price tag that lured me in – after all, my bank account was full!  I went home and ate the entire packet in one sitting. Since then, Tim Tams have become my treat. I share them with no one. I eat them in secret. If you’re a hardcore Tim Tam fan like me, though, you’ll have noticed that there are times when this Australian treat is impossible to find in South Africa. It’s like the ozzies hog them. How rude. Don’t worry though, because during Tim Tam shortages, you can now make your own. Yes, I cracked the recipe and they are so good you may never buy a packet again!

 

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Homemade Tim Tams

Yield: 14

Homemade Tim Tams

Ingredients

    For the Biscuits:
  • 150g butter
  • 150g soft light brown sugar
  • 3 tbsp (45ml) golden syrup
  • 330g cake flour
  • 60g The Kate Tin Cocoa Powder
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 3-4 tsp milk
    • Filling
  • 115g butter softened
  • 125g icing sugar, sifted
  • 1 tbsp The Kate Tin Cocoa Powder
  • 2 tbsp milk powder, lightly toasted (or Horlicks or Milo)
  • 200g good-quality milk chocolate, melted (I use AFRIKOA milk chocolate)
  • 1 tbsp odourless coconut oil

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celscius.
  2. Line a baking sheet with baking paper and set aside.
  3. For the biscuits, cream together the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy – about 8 minutes.
  4. Beat in the golden syrup.
  5. Sift the flour, cocoa, salt and bicarbonate of soda into the creamed mixture.
  6. Add the milk a bit at a time, until you get a soft even dough. It should be a bit crumbly, but just come together.
  7. Tip out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about a minute, until it comes together.
  8. Roll out with a lightly floured rolling pin about 1/2cm thick.
  9. Cut out into rectangles 8cm x 4cm and then carefully lift onto the prepared baking sheet with a metal spatula, leaving some space in between the biscuits.
  10. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, then remove from the oven.
  11. Carefully lift onto a wire rack to cool completely.
  12. To make the filling, cream the butter together with the icing sugar, cocoa powder and toasted milk powder.
  13. Add a little milk to bring the frosting together.
  14. Spread a heaped teaspoon onto each of half the baked biscuits and then top with another one, pressing down lightly.
  15. Repeat until all the biscuits are filled.
  16. Stir the coconut oil into the melted milk chocolate.
  17. Dip the bottom of each biscuit and allow to set on a sheet of baking paper. Place the set biscuits on a cooling rack with a baking sheet underneath then pour the chocolate over the biscuits to coat completely.
  18. Allow to set then store in an airtight container.
https://thekatetin.com/homemade-tim-tams/

Want more chocolate? Of course you do:

Chocolate Raspberry Truffles

Chocolate Sweetie Pies

Copycat Chocolate Romany Creams

Copycat Chocolate Romany Creams

by | Aug 21, 2014 | 5 comments

A few months ago I was entrusted with one of our family heirlooms – a tatty, splattered, literally falling-apart cookbook that belonged to my Great Aunt May. It fits perfectly on my bookshelf where it sits snuggly next to my grandmother’s equally worn cookbook (as well as my mothers!). Such a serendipitous reunion seeing as though both books were lovingly penned by sisters.
Homemade Romany Creams
These are the books I turn to when inspiration is low, when my passion for baking wanes or if I simply need a moment to be close to these three amazing women. Each recipe, whether handwritten, torn out of a magazine, passed on from a friend, or even jotted on the back of a shopping list, has a story and sometimes I wish I knew where the recipe came from and what made it special enough to be incorporated into the family repertoire.
I found this recipe for copycat Romany Creams jammed into the back of Aunty May’s book – written on a piece of notepad paper which had clearly been folded and refolded too many times. As it’s become extremely trendy recently to recreate homemade versions of childhood favourites, Great Aunty May was truly ahead of her time and it’s not the first time I have invented a recipe only to discover that Aunt May or my grandmother thought of it first!
Homemade Romany Creams
This is a truly moreish cookie – simple to make and delicious with a cup of tea! Best of all, it reminds me of the biscuit tin my best friend and I used to keep in our treehouse for tea parties; filled with romany creams bought with pocket money we saved! Thanks for the great recipe Aunty May!
Homemade Romany Creams

 

Romany Creams

Makes about 20

 

250g butter, softened

1 cup white sugar

2 ½ cups desiccated coconut

2 cups cake flour

50ml The Kate Tin Cocoa Powder

1 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

100g dark or milk chocolate, melted, to sandwich

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the coconut and sifted dry ingredients and mix to form a soft dough. Roll tablespoonfuls of the mixture into 3cm sausages then place on a lined baking tray and flatten slightly with your fingers. Scratch the surface of the biscuits with a fork to create a rough texture. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 10-12 minutes or until firm. Allow to cool then sandwich two biscuits together using the chocolate. Allow to set then store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Copycat Cronuts with Orange Blossom Glaze

Copycat Cronuts with Orange Blossom Glaze

by | May 26, 2013 | 0 comments

If you’re in any way as obsessed with baking and desserts as I am, you will have already heard about all the fuss that’s being made over a trendy new confection that’s tipped to kick the cupcake off it’s pretty little throne (although, let’s be honest, the same thing was said about macarons, cake pops and whoopie pies and yet we still adore the good ol’ cupcake). Dubbed the ‘cronut’ (it’s already trademarked by the way) this hybrid dessert sensation has caused quite a stir. Half-croissant and half-doughnut, it sure does have a bit of an identity crisis but the New Yorkers queuing around the block at Dominique Ansel Bakery don’t seem to care as these deep-fried delicacies sell-out in minutes each day. There is even a limit as to how many you can buy! French pastry chef, Dominique apparently had to try 10 different recipes before getting the creation spot-on and his perseverance is clearly paying off. But since I draw the line at flying half way round the world to taste a dessert, I attempted to create my own cronuts. You know, so I could see what all the fuss was about.

If you’ve made croissants from scratch before, you’ll know that it takes an incredible amount of love, patience and muscle. And butter. Lots and lots of butter. But the problem with all that butter (incase you didn’t know, half the weight of a croissant is made up of it – eeeek!) is that if you were to deep-fry the dough just like that, as Dominique’s recipe (and name) suggests, it’s low melting point means it would just seep out into your oil when frying and you’d land up with a flat mess. So, I used margarine. First problem solved.

The second problem was the fact that, although the cronuts claim to be made from croissant dough, the texture in all the pictures resembles that of danish dough instead. Croissant dough, as I experienced, contains way too much fat, which makes it incredibly oily, as I discovered. So, that meant reducing the amount of fat in the dough.

There were a few more problems I encountered but I won’t go in to detail as by now I’m pretty sure you just want to see the recipe don’t you? Well, here it is, the recipe for Kronuts (my version of Cronuts).

P.S. My verdict? Personally, I think these things are not for the faint-hearted. Essentially it’s fat deep-fried in more fat and after just one my arteries were screaming. I baked a few rather than frying them (yes, I know that doesn’t really make them a ‘doughnut’) and they were delicious (and far more healthy!).

Copycat Cronuts with Vanilla Cream and Orange Blossom Glaze

Makes 50 small 

 

Roll-in

350g baking margarine (I used Stork Bake)

40g cake flour (or pastry flour)

15g cornstarch/cornflour

50g fresh yeast

400g lukewarm water

100g granulated sugar

100g margarine

20g salt

1kg cake flour

Oil, for deep-frying (I used vegetable oil but Dominique uses grapeseed oil)

 

Vanilla pastry cream

500ml milk

1 vanilla pod, split and seeds scraped

4 egg yolks

80g castor sugar

40g cornflour

500ml cream, whipped

 

Glaze

1 egg white

2 cups icing sugar, sifted (plus more, if necessary)

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp orange blossom water

 

Start by making the roll-in. Mix the margarine and flours well then spread out onto a sheet of cling wrap. Spread out roughly then top with another sheet of cling wrap. Using a rolling pin, roll the fat out until 1/2cm thick to make 30 x 20cm rectangle. Close the ends of the cling wrap and place in the freezer until hard. In the meantime, prepare the dough by mixing the yeast and water in a mixing bowl. Cover and place in a warm place until frothy. Then add the rest of the ingredients in the bowl of a mixer using the dough hook attachment. Add the flour gradually to form a stiff dough (depending on the gluten content of your flour, you may use more or less, so adding it gradually is important.) Knead for about 4 minutes then allow the dough to rest for 20 minutes. Roll the dough out on a floured surface to 1cm thick then place the chilled butter roll-in on top. Do a simple 3-fold (like folding a business letter) and roll out again to 1cm thick. Cover and place in the freezer to rest for 20 minutes. Roll the dough out once again to 1cm thick then do another 3-fold. Rest again in the freezer for 20 minutes before doing the last fold and rest. Roll the dough out again to 1cm thick and cut out with a round cookie cutter and a smaller one, to create the hole in the centre. Place the pastry circles onto a lined and floured baking sheet, cover lightly and allow to proof in a warm place until doubled in size. Preheat the oil to 165C and deep-fry the cronuts in batches until golden and puffed. Drain on paper towel and allow to cool completely. If you would like to dredge them in sugar, do so while hot. If, like me, you would like to bake them, bake in a preheated oven at 200C for 10-15 minutes or until golden and puffed. To make the pastry cream, heat the milk and vanilla until just below boiling point. Cream yolks, sugar and flour then gradually pour in the hot milk while whisking. Return the mixture to the pot and cook, while stirring until thick. Place in a bowl, cover the surface with clingwrap and allow to cool completely before folding in the whipped cream. Place the cream in a piping bag with a small plain nozzle. To make the glaze, whisk the egg white slightly then add enough icing sugar to form a stiff paste. Add the lemon juice and orange blossom water. To assemble, poke 3 holes in the bottom of each cronut with a chopstick or knife then pipe pastry cream into the bottom of each. Dip the tops in the glaze and allow to set. Serve immediately.