Lemon Tiffin Bars (Gluten-Free)
A crunchy biscuit base with a zingy yet creamy filling and a smooth chocolate top. What could be more delicious than these no-bake lemon tiffin bars? Use whichever plain (ish) biscuits you like, but gluten-free ones make this chocolate refrigerator cake a more inclusive one. It’s a must make recipe.
It’s time for that most exciting of blog challenges Random Recipes again. This month, Dom over at Belleau Kitchen has taken us back to the beginning with his simple, but not necessarily easy, formula of picking a book randomly and then picking a random page number.
With a hundred and one things to do, I was somewhat trepidatious as to what I might be landed with. As usual, CT did the honours and came up with Cox Cookies & Cake by Eric Lanlard. I used my new method of including all of my baking books as well as my chocolate ones. If I don’t get a chocolate recipe right away I just keep turning the pages until I come to the first one that includes chocolate.
Well CT picked page 78 – fat-free jasmine & violet cupcakes. Hmmm, no chocolate there. Nothing on the next page either or the next one, nothing in fact until page 91 which was for chocolate icing. Well, much as I enjoy a good icing, I didn’t fancy just eating a bowl of that on its own. Hmmm, ah, light bulb moment!
Let’s start from the very beginning.
Lemon Tiffin Bars
Whilst reviewing Honeybuns gluten free baking recently and pondering on what exactly I was going to make first, I spotted a new challenge. Sarah Maison Cupcake’s Zero Baking Required made the decision for me: chocolate orange tiffin. Actually, it would be chocolate lemon tiffin as I had some lemon curd that I’d made a while ago and it needed using up.
So to get Dom’s random recipe into the mix, it was a simple substitution of the Honeybun’s chocolate topping for Eric Lanlard’s one, or ahem, one based on Eric’s. His used single cream which I didn’t have, but I did have some double cream.
I decided to make only half the quantity of lemon tiffin stated in the book as it did seem rather generous and similarly half the quantity of icing. But first I had to make some custard creams.
I have to say I did give a rather big sigh when I crushed the heart shaped gluten-free custard biscuits I’d just made so lovingly. The end of a rolling pin is very handy for the afore mentioned crushing. When it came to adding the butter and syrup I was rather concerned that the mixture was way too dry and wouldn’t hold together. But I decided to trust the recipe and stick with it.
Although I baked the biscuits for the tiffin, this is not required and you can easily substitute any bought biscuits.
Gluten-Free Chocolate Lemon Tiffin
I was very glad I trusted the recipe, as the tiffin held together really well and cut beautifully. Even using half the amount, I still got 16 decent sized squares. Using double cream for the chocolate icing worked well, as it set more solidly than I suspect it would have done using single cream.
These no-bake lemon sherbet tiffin squares not only look appealing, but they’re delicious too. They’re not overly sweet, taste of chocolate covered lemon sherbet and have a great contrast of textures and flavours.
Having said that, the orange chocolate was rather lost to the lemon. Next time, I’ll just use straightforward dark chocolate.
The smooth chocolate, creamy zingy lemon and a really nice crunch from the biscuits work very well. CT thought they looked very similar to millionaire’s shortbread but were far superior. The sweet cloying quality he associates with them was absent and he found them much more refreshing.
Other Gluten-Free Bakes You Might Like
- Amaretti (vegan)
- Caramelised pear, honey & carob cake
- Coffee cardamom chocolate mousse cake
- Italian chestnut cake (castagnaccio)
- Raspberry rose friands
- Triple chocolate almond brownies
Keep in Touch
Thank you for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make these lemon tiffin bars, please let me know how it went in the comments below. I’d also appreciate it if you could rate the recipe. Do you have any recommendations or advice for making tiffin? If you post pictures of your creations on social media, please use the hashtag #tinandthyme so I can see them.
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Choclette x
Lemon Tiffin Bars
Lemon Tiffin Bars
Ingredients
Base
- 50 g unsalted butter
- 2 ½ tbsp golden syrup
- 1 ½ tsp cocoa powder
- 31 gluten-free biscuits or sub for plain biscuits of your choice
Filling
- 25 g unsalted butter
- 100 g icing sugar
- 4 tbsp lemon curd (I used homemade)
Topping
- 100 ml double cream (heavy cream)
- 125 g dark chocolate chopped (I used 25g G&B Maya Gold & 100g G&B 72%)
- 25 g unsalted butter
- ½ tsp orange flower water.
Instructions
Base
- Melt the butter in a pan with the golden syrup and cocoa.50 g unsalted butter, 2 ½ tbsp golden syrup, 1 ½ tsp cocoa powder
- Crush the biscuits with the end of a rolling pin or bash them inside a sealed plastic bag.31 gluten-free biscuits
- Pour in the melted butter mixture and stir until everything is well incorporated.
- Press the crumbs into the base of a 23 cm (9") sq. tin lined with baking paper.
- Place in the fridge for fifteen minutes to set.
Filling
- Meanwhile, cream the butter and icing sugar together until well mixed.25 g unsalted butter, 100 g icing sugar
- Beat in the lemon curd.4 tbsp lemon curd
- Spread this over the biscuit base, then place back in the fridge to set for fifteen minutes whilst you get on with the next stage.
Topping
- Chop the chocolate into small pieces with a knife and scrape into a heatproof bowl.125 g dark chocolate
- Pour the cream into a small pan until just about boiling, then pour it over the chocolate. Leave for a couple of minutes, then stir until smooth.100 ml double cream (heavy cream)
- Stir in the butter and orange flower water then pour over the lemon filling.25 g unsalted butter, ½ tsp orange flower water.
- Place back in the fridge to set for at least half an hour.
- Slide the paper out of the tin and cut the tiffin into 16 squares.
Notes
Nutrition Estimate
Sharing
As this was the first time I’ve ever made my own biscuits for a refrigerator cake, I’m also submitting these lemon tiffin bars to Javelin Warrior’s Made With Love Mondays. Because this is where everything must be made from scratch. Even the lemon curd was my own.
The three layered lemon tiffin looks good.
ooh – what a nice variation on millionaire’s shortbread. mr CC would love these – I must bookmark the recipe!
Well that puts my regular tiffin recipe well and truly to shame. Fantastic recipe.
Wow Choclette – that really does look delicious. I love the idea of lemon and chocolate on top of the biscuit base – inspired. I don’t think I’ve ever made tiffin either.
I love lemon! Lemon and chocolate would be a great WSC challenge – no complains from me 🙂 This looks fabulous – I am impressed that you made your own biscuits (and then crushed them!) and your own lemon curd.
I have never made tiffin, but I think that is about to change. These look delightful and very inventive. I’m impressed by your triple blog challenge entry too. Feels so satisfying to get more than one entry on a post. The lemon sherbert description had my mouth watering.
Fleur, I am truly shocked – no Tiffin? I must say, I don’t normally make Tiffin as elaborate as this one, but it was very tasty and worth the effort. There are so many blog events around these days, it’s very hard to keep up.
The name alone is good enough for me. I really do love a good tiffin but have always struggled when making it as it normally does not set very well. I am so glad you have tried and proved that this is a recipe to rely on. Also, I think your adaptations are well judged. I happen to love chocolate & lemon combination but those custard cream biscuits take it to another level……….Wow xx
Both recipes I’ve tried from the Honeybuns book have worked well Laura – phew! I’ve not heard of setting being a problem with Tiffin – unless you have it out of the fridge? Thanks for your always supportive comments 🙂
a holy trinity of delicious words: lemon sherbet tiffin… and then you go and add chocolate too! This sounds almost too good to be true – gorgeous.
He he, some call me Choclette, others Wicked Temptress 😉
Sounds and looks like my kind of comforting sweet treat. Choc icing on lemon – lovely.
Phil, there are far too many comforting sweet treats in the world, they are my downfall :-S
Lovely looking combination there Choc… yum!
Thanks Brydie. They were surprisingly good.
This is simply great! Great combo & no bake too! What can you ask more! Love to try these lovely treats! 🙂
Thank you Kit. I’m sure if you made them they would look absolutely stunning.
This looks very good…my tiffins always crumble a little bit. This tiffin has been cut perfectly! Well done, a good RANDOM recipe.
Thanks Rita, I rarely get such a good cut as this – I was well pleased 🙂
They look delicious – love how the recipe evolved too!
Thanks Hannah. You should know by now that I’m not very good at sticking to recipes.
These look fantastic!
Thank you 🙂
Mmmm! I love the idea of these chilled so that they snap when you bite into the chocolate! Great innovation on your part, dearie!
Thanks Susan, these are definitely better straight from the fridge.
how absolutely stunning!… I mean lemon sherbet must be one of my most favourite things in the world ever… then smothered with chocolate, it’s a triple win win win!… what a great chocolate icing recipe too, simple but luxurious and very well adapted to what you had in… really beautiful, thank you so much for entering ‘the most exciting of blogging challenges’ this month … I shall take that to the printers… xx
Thank you Dear Dom. Lemon goes surprisingly well with chocolate. I’ve been pondering this one for a We Should Cocoa challenge for some time now, but not sure I can cope with the howls of “it’s too hard”!
I absolutely love the sound of these. Chocolate and lemon isn’t a combination I make that often, but can imagine the tangy lemon, salty sweet biscuit and chocolate topping is simply divine. I would have called this a kind of millionaire’s shortbread – my understanding of tiffin is that the chocolate is incorporated but maybe I’m wrong?!
You make it sound so good, I want to eat it all over again. Hmmm, I’m not actually up on the niceties of what constitutes Tiffin. My thoughts were similar to yours, but this is what Honeybuns called their creation.
You had me at Lemon Sherbert. YUM!
And that lemon cream filling really did taste of sherbet lemon.
that slice looks so simple and yet you had to make three recipes to get there – that is really made from scratch (and I am glad I am not the only one who rejected the first recipe I found in the Random REcipe Challenge)
That’s the beauty of fridge cake, it can be really quick or extra special if you want to make everything yourself. No rejection Johanna, I used the RR recipe in this one.
look really delicious!!
Thanks Gloria
That does look good, I think the sharpness of the lemon would be better than the orange anyway.
The contrast was a good one, although chocolate and orange is a fantastic pairing too.
Very cool recipe, Choclette – love that there’s no baking involved and the combination of lemon with chocolate. I have no idea how it would pair (I’ve never tried it myself), but they’re two of my favorite flavors 🙂 And it’s awesome you used your own cookies for the base instead of some boxed premade kind… Thanks so much for sharing!
One to try JW, it works better than you’d think. I’ve used it a few times now and have so far found it works.
Mmmmm. I love sherbet lemons.
I also like your efficiency – three birds with one stone!
Thanks – sometimes I manage to get my act together 😛
How could you bear to crush those beautiful biscuits? I do love the sound of this, intrigued by the thought of lemon and chocolate. Very clever indeed.
It was a little “heart” breaking. And the lemon and chocolate was a much better combination than one might think.
I really like the look of these! I bet they’d be good with a white chocolate topping too.
Certainly, if you wanted something a bit sweeter, white chocolate would do nicely. I so love all the variables.