It’s been so long since I last updated my baking blog! But this comeback recipe would be well worth your time – it is a homemade version of my most favorite cookie ever (and I don’t use superlatives lightly) – the Tim Tam!
Tim Tams are chocolate overloads in a little package. You have a chocolate biscuit sandwich with a malty chocolate buttercream filling, which is then dipped into creamy chocolate. Chocolate3! My next favorite cookie are probably Loackers and I enjoy it for the same reason I do Tim Tams – that textural contrast, mmm. Note that Tim Tams and Loackers are from Australia and Italy respectively. America, can you please step up your cookie game?! Happy to take any recommendations.
Here’s a close-up cross-section of the cookie. I think what really elevates the cookie is the malted chocolate filling. I don’t even know how to describe the taste of malt. I just spent five minutes Googling it and it looks like the Internet doesn’t know either. To me, it tastes like nostalgia and afternoon snacks composed of Milo drinks and Hup Seng cream crackers.
Anyway, Whoppers (or Maltesers, for my Commonwealth folk) have a malt interior.
Now that I have expounded upon my love for this cookie, let me nerd out about the recipe I tried. The cookie made surely wasn’t perfect, but I’ve analyzed what exactly to watch out for to ensure utmost approximation to the original cookie.
- I tried both a dark chocolate and a milk chocolate coating. I used Trader Joe’s Pound Plus Dark Chocolate for the other half batch and I would recommend using more coconut oil than recommended to compensate for the lower fat content in the dark chocolate. The coating on the dark chocolate Tim Tams were more of a crisp shell than a creamy coating, which is not ideal.
- Use good quality chocolate to better approximate the high quality chocolate that Commonwealth countries get, i.e. not that sour chalky Hershey crap. I used American-produced Cadbury milk chocolate and that tasted decent.
- Try as much as possible to roll the cookies to a 1/4 inch. It’ll also help with ensuring cookie crispness. You want that nice contrast between crunchy cookie and creamy chocolate.
- Dip the cookie sandwiches sparingly into the melted chocolate. Otherwise, the chocolate coating ratio goes all awry.
Enough talk, on to the recipe! I made very minor edits to the source.
- 4 oz (115 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 4 oz (1/2 cup, or 115 g) granulated sugar
- 1 egg, at room temperature
- 1 oz (1/3 cup, or 30 g) unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa powder
- 5½ oz (1 cup, or 150 g) all-purpose flour
- Pinch of salt
- 4 oz (115 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 4 oz (1 cup, or 115 g) powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa powder
- 1 tbsp malted drink powder (like Ovaltine or Horlicks)
- 10 oz (280 g) milk or dark chocolate
- 1 tbsp coconut oil (if using dark chocolate, use 1.5 tbsp)
- Combine the butter and sugar in the bowl of a large stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, and cream until pale and fluffy. Scrape down the bowl, and add the egg and continue beating until the egg is incorporate and the mixture lightens in color. Add the cocoa powder and beat until there are no lumps. Finally, fold through the flour and salt until it is all incorporated. The dough will be very soft.
- Scrape the dough out onto a piece of parchment paper. Add a second sheet of paper on top, and roll out the dough between the two sheets until it is a rectangle about ¼-inch thick. Place the dough on a tray and freeze it for 30 minutes, or refrigerate it for 1-2 hours, until firm.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C). Line two baking trays with parchment paper.
- Cut the chilled dough into 28 small 1¼ in x 2½ in rectangles. Place them in evenly spaced intervals on the baking sheets and bake for 10 minutes. Let the cookies cool completely on the baking sheet.
- Cream the butter until soft, then sift in the remaining ingredients and beat until light and fluffy. Spread a heaping teaspoon of filling on half of the cookies, or transfer the frosting to a piping bag and pipe an even layer of filling on half of the cookies. Top with the remaining cookies, then put in the refrigerator to chill while you make the coating.
- For the coating, place the chocolate and coconut oil in a heat-proof bowl and melt them together in the microwave in 30-second bursts, stirring after every 30 seconds to prevent overheating. Once the chocolate is mostly melted, remove and stir gently until smooth.
- Using a fork or dipping tools, dip a chilled cookie in the melted chocolate and place it back on the baking sheet. If you want to create a wavy pattern on top of the cookies, lightly press the tines of the fork or dipping tool to the top while the chocolate is still wet. Repeat until all of the cookies are dipped. Chill in the refrigerator, then devour!
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