Traditional Scottish Recipes
- Tiffin

Tiffin is an Indian and British term for a light meal eaten during the day. The word became popular in British India. In South India the term is generally used to mean an in-between-meals snack and it is customary to be offered a "Tiffin" as a courtesy when you visit a Tamil resident. In home baking, there are a number of "Tiffin" recipes, most using broken biscuits and chocolate as the main ingredients. So although the recipe below specifies specific ingredients and quantities - feel free to experiment!

Other less elegant names for Tiffin are "Chocolate Concrete" or even "Cement" - though hopefully the picture here of Tiffin (and a scone and jam) at the tearoom at Kellie Castle in Fife, doesn't look like concrete!


Ingredients:
4 oz (or 125g or one stick) butter or margarine
1 tablespoon sugar (note that US tablespoons are 20% smaller than the UK so if you are in N America, use more for this and other tablespoon measures below)
2 tablespoons drinking chocolate
1 tablespoon golden syrup
2 tablespoons raisins
8oz (250g) Rich Tea or plain or digestive biscuits (crackers/cookies in US)
6oz (170g) good quality milk chocolate

Method:
Melt the butter and sugar with the syrup in a large pan. Add the raisins and drinking chocolate and bring to the boil. Allow to bubble gently for two to three minutes to thicken a little.

Crush the biscuits (crackers) with a rolling pin (putting them in a plastic bag beforehand cuts down on the mess). Don't leave the biscuit pieces too large, however, or the finished slab will tend to break up when cut. Mix the crumbs well into the melted mixture, coating thoroughly. Press into a lined 8 inch by 11 inch (28cm by 20cm) shallow Swiss roll tin and level out, pushing down the mixture well.

Melt the chocolate carefully (avoiding getting it boiling) and spread over the top. Leave to set in a cool place then cut into 15 or 24 pieces with a sharp knife. You can cut it into squares or rectangles or (as in the picture above), into triangles.

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