Name: Easy English Tiffin
Prep time: 10 min
Total time: 2 h 10 min
Yield: 20
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: 2 1/2 oz or 75 g golden syrup; 3 1/2 oz or 100 g unsalted butter, diced; 10oz or 300 g milk chocolate, roughly chopped; 2 Tablespoons Cocoa Powder; 8oz or 225 g biscuits, such as digestives, or Graham Crackers, crushed; 3 1/2 oz or 100g raisins

Easy English Tiffin is a delicious no-bake British colonial recipe, made of chocolate, crushed cookies, syrup, and raisins, often served at English afternoon tea.

This is a wonderful sweet snack! For those of you who aren't familiar with this delicious chocolately snack called Tiffin, we've added some information below, and if you're from England, or perhaps one of it's many colonies around the world, you will likely be familiar with the popular English Afternoon Teas, and no doubt have seen and tasted tiffins.

Depending on where in the world you live, you may know of this as chocolate cement, chocolate concrete, chocolate tray bake or something similar.

Tiffins are super easy to make, require absolutely no baking, and the young ones can easily help you with the prep of these little bars.

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They're often served at an English Afternoon Tea, alongside lots of other small, dainty finger foods, and they simply taste delicious! If you'd like to do an English Afternoon Tea, we have lots of recipes for a typical afternoon tea, so be sure to take a look!

We've given some substitutes for a few ingredients if you're not in the UK, for example, Digestive biscuits which are everywhere in England, and pretty much nowhere in the USA, well, you can use Graham Crackers. They're a great substitue. If you shop at Amazon, you can buy digestive biscuits there.

For the Golden Syrup, you could do with really trying to get hold of this delicious stuff! It is so good and used on many things such as pancakes, drizzled on cakes, added to the cake batter, in cookies and so on! The nearest equivalent in the USA is corn syrup, although that is not as thick as golden syrup, but it will work fine.

You can buy Golden Syrup from Amazon so check this out so you know what the packaging looks like.

Table of Contents 📋 hide

1) What is a British tiffin?

2) How is tiffin made?

3) Where does tiffin originate from?

4) Can I make changes to the ingredients?

5) Prep Time

6) Chill Time

7) Serves

8) Equipment you’ll need

9) Ingredients

10) Instructions

11) Recipe Card

12) Easy English Tiffin

13) Easy Sweet Bar Recipes

What is a British tiffin?

Tiffin is a layered bar recipe, made up of crushed cookies, sugar, syrup, raisins, cherries (optional), and cocoa powder, often covered with a layer of melted chocolate.

How is tiffin made?

Unlike regular cookies, Tiffin does not require baking. Instead, following the preparation of the mixture, it's simply chilled until set.

Where does tiffin originate from?

In the British Raj, tiffin was used to denote the British custom of afternoon tea that came from the Indian practice of having a light meal at around 3pm. It is derived from "tiffing", an English colloquial term meaning to take a little drink.

Can I make changes to the ingredients?

Swap the raisins for any other preferred dried fruit – cherries, apricots, or sultanas all work perfectly. Add some mini marshmallows to add a twist on the classic rocky road recipe!

Prep Time

10 minutes

Chill Time

1 hour

Serves

20 pieces

Equipment you’ll need

8-inch square pan
parchment paper
saucepan
heatproff bowl
spatula

Ingredients

golden syrup
unsalted butter, diced
Cocoa Powder
biscuits, such as digestives, or Graham Crackers, crushed
raisins
milk chocolate, roughly chopped

See the recipe card below for quantities.

Instructions

Line the base and sides of a 20cm/8in square baking pan with baking paper.

In a saucepan, add the golden syrup, cocoa powder and butter, under medium heat, warm through until everything has melted and combined.

In a separate bowl, add the chopped chocolate, and place in the microwave on 30 second intervals until completely melted.
You can also melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of gently simmering water. (as the photo below). This is a great way to melt large batches, for example if you are going to double or triple this recipe.

Easy English Tiffin, how to melt chocolate

In a large mixing bowl, add the crushed digestive biscuits and raisins and then pour in the syrup butter mixture from the saucepan. Using a spatula, mix everything until well combined.
Transfer the cookie mixture to the baking pan and smooth out, whilst pushing down slightly to firm up, with the back of a spoon.
Finally, pour the melted chocolate on to og f the levelled cookie layer and spread evenly so the whole surface is coated.

Place in the fridge for at least 2 - 3 hours so it can firm up.
Slice into suitable sized squares or rectangles.

Note: these are very rich and sweet so we would suggest cutting them in to no more than 1 - 2 inch wide squares

We'd love to hear from you and what you thought of our recipe. Did you make any changes or add some other ingredients? Let us know in the comments below. Thanks for reading and happy cooking!

Recipe Card

Easy English Tiffin

Yield: 20

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Additional Time: 2 hours

Total Time: 2 hours 10 minutes

Easy English Tiffin is a delicious no-bake British colonial recipe, made of chocolate, crushed cookies, syrup, and raisins, often served at English afternoon tea.

Ingredients

2 ½ oz or 75 g golden syrup
3 ½ oz or 100 g unsalted butter, diced
10oz or 300 g milk chocolate, roughly chopped
2 Tablespoons Cocoa Powder
8oz or 225 g biscuits, such as digestives, or Graham Crackers, crushed
3 ½ oz or 100g raisins

Instructions

Line the base and sides of a 20cm/8in square baking pan with baking paper.
In a saucepan, add the golden syrup, cocoa powder and butter, under medium heat, warm through until everything has melted and combined.
In a separate bowl, add the chopped chocolate, and place in the microwave on 30 second intervals until completely melted.
You can also melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of gently simmering water. This is a great way to melt large batches, for example if you are going to double or triple this recipe
4. In a large mixing bowl, add the crushed cookies and raisins and then pour in the syrup butter mixture from the saucepan. Using a spatula, mix everything until well combined.
Transfer the cookie mixture to the baking pan and smooth out, whilst pushing down slightly to firm up, with the back of a spoon.
Finally, pour the melted chocolate on to of f the levelled cookie layer and spread evenly so the whole surface is coated.
Place in the fridge for at least 2 - 3 hours so it can firm up.
Slice into suitable sized squares or rectangles.

Notes

These are very rich and sweet so we would suggest cutting them in to no more than 1 - 2 inch wide squares

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Nutrition Information:

Yield: 20 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 190Total Fat: 11gSaturated Fat: 6gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 15mgSodium: 86mgCarbohydrates: 22gFiber: 1gSugar: 13gProtein: 2g

Nutrition information isn’t always accurate