This recipe is all about chilling rather than baking, but the idea of putting the oven on over the past week has been about as attractive as the idea of baking your own head in it – so fridge cake, in the form of extra nutty chocolate tiffin, it is.
Fridge cake (which I still want to call refrigerator cake for some reason, although I can see four of those syllables are superfluous) is probably the easiest traybake there is. What is special about this recipe, apart from the fact that it’s vegan (which surprisingly few tiffin recipes are) is the inclusion of cocoa butter and vanilla for a taste more reminiscent of a milk/dark chocolate mix.
What else is special is the quantity of whole nuts. You can use any combination of nuts – the pictured tiffin was made with an equal mixture of whole hazelnuts and almonds (with their skins on) and walnut halves.
You can adjust the ratio of cocoa butter upwards for a creamier flavour, and use a darker (70%+) or milder (30-50%) dark chocolate to taste. A milder chocolate and slightly higher ratio of cocoa butter will result in more of a milk chocolate flavour.
Keep it in the fridge on exceptionally hot days, but it will usually stay firm at room temperature once it has set.
Extra nutty chocolate tiffin…
Ingredients
- 280 g non-dairy dark chocolate
- 40 g cocoa butter
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp non-dairy milk
- 50 g golden syrup
- 200 g whole mixed nuts
- 220 g digestive biscuits (several brands are vegan)
Method
- Line the base of an 8″ square or similar sized baking tin.
- Place 200 g of the chocolate in a large bowl together with the cocoa butter, vanilla extract, milk and syrup. Warm gently in the microwave until the cocoa butter is almost melted and then stir until it is fully melted and you have a smooth glossy mixture.
- Crush the biscuits using a rolling pin. You may wish to place them in a freezer bag to do this, to minimise mess, or you could crush a few at a time by rolling them on a large board.
- Stir the digestive biscuits and nuts into the melted chocolate mixture until everything’s well combined, then transfer to the tin, pressing and flattening it with the back of a spoon.
- Melt the remaining 80 g chocolate in the microwave. Drizzle this over the top and spread with the back of a spoon to create a thin layer all over.
- Chill for at least two hours before cutting into squares.
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