Sal's Kitchen: Chocolate Tiffin

This scrumptious little treat combines rich chocolate with chewy dried fruit and crunchy biscuits. It’s super-simple too – perfect for making with the kids as they can do almost everything (with a bit of supervision). My three-year-old nephew Ozzy helped me make this batch, and particularly enjoyed bashing the biscuits with a rolling pin!

I must confess that I don’t particularly like Christmas cake or mince pies (bah humbug!), so it’s become a tradition for me and my mum to make this chocolate tiffin at Christmas, so that I can tuck into a piece while everyone else is getting out the festive treats. I don’t make it at any other time of year so it’s a rather special recipe for me – but I won’t blame you if you can’t wait a whole year…

225g rich tea biscuits

A couple of big handfuls of raisins and glacé cherries

Makes about 12 good-sized slices

To start, pop the biscuits into a sturdy plastic bag, seal, and crush with a rolling pin – you don’t want tiny crumbs, just smallish pieces. Transfer the broken biscuits to a large mixing bowl and set aside.

Next, break up the chocolate and put into a bowl with the butter, syrup, sugar and cocoa. Microwave in blasts of no more than thirty seconds, stirring each time, until melted. Alternatively, you could do this in a saucepan on the hob – if you use a low heat and keep an eye on it, you shouldn’t need to mess around with a bain marie. Just make sure you keep stirring.

Pour the chocolate mixture into the bowl with the biscuits, add the fruit and give it a really good stir so that all the biscuit pieces are well-coated. Line a brownie tin with greaseproof paper, scrape the tiffin out into the tin, and use the back of a wooden spoon to spread it out to the edges and corners, pressing down well. Place in the fridge for a few hours until firm, and then cut into pieces. You shouldn’t need to store the finished product in the fridge – just keep in an airtight container. Serve with mugs of tea after the traditional Christmas Day walk.