White chocolate and Strawberry Tim Tams

Makes 25. Takes 1 hour + 4 hour chilling time.

If you haven't realised by now, I'm a bit of a biscuit fiend. Today I present to you my third Tim Tam flavour - white chocolate and strawberry! If you haven't checked out the original or caramel Tim tams, you can find them here. While this one is slightly more difficult, with using white chocolate, and making your own strawberry puree, it still follows the basic format, so if you have previously made my other Tim Tam recipes, this will be a walk in the park. In fact, to make it even easier - here's the link to a video on how to make them:

This biscuit is a special mention in my New Zealand Baking challenge because, well, it's Australian. But hey, our countries share a lot of things such as, the rest of the world being unable to distinguish our accents, pavlovas, drinking culture, a can-do attitude, and saying 'mate'. So I'm confident that sneaking this one in will be ok with our Australian Cuzzies. The original Tim Tam is a humble biscuit made by the brand Arnott's, first sold in 1964, consisting of two malted biscuits separated by chocolate buttercream and coated in chocolate. This original Tim Tam is what I've tried to recreate, but gluten free. I've already made the original which you can find here. I have also made a version with caramel (my personal favourite) which you can find in this link. If you have any suggestions of what type of Tim Tam you'd like to see next, throw them my way.

Can you Tim Tam Slam it?

Yes, you absolutely can. I have tested over 10 times.

If you unsure what a Tim Tam Slam is, let me enlighten you. You take a Tim Tam and bite opposite corners off, dunk it into a hot drink (usually tea or hot chocolate) and then using the Tim Tam like a straw, suck up the hot liquid until it reaches you mouth. Then you want to 'slam' the whole biscuit into your mouth before it disintegrates. You will then experience the euphoria of a warm, melted, Tim Tam falling apart in your mouth. Beautiful. If you couldn't quite visualise my description - here is the link to the WikiHow.

I N G R E D I E N T S

• 80 grams butter

• 1/4 cup of caster sugar

• 1 egg

• 220 grams of gluten free flour

• 1/2 tsp baking powder

• 1/4 tsp xanthan gum (omit if flour mixture contains this already)

• pinch of salt

For the filling

• 150grams cup icing sugar

• 30 grams of butter

• 4-5 strawberries

For the coating

• 250 grams of white chocolate

• 1/2 tbsp coconut oil

M E T H O D

1. Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy.

2. Add egg and beat again until combined.

3. Sift in flour, baking powder, xanthan gum, and salt.

4. Fold in with wooden spoon until you can form into a ball.

5. Preheat the oven to 180° celsius bake and line a tray with baking paper.

6. Dust a flat surface with flour and roll out the dough with a rolling pin until about 0.5 cm thick. You may need to do this in two or three lots, depending on how much space you have.

7. You can either use a rectangle cookie cutter or use a ruler to cut out the cookies, if you are using a ruler, cut the biscuits into 3cm x 6cm rectangles and gently place onto the lined baking tray.

8. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Be careful not to overcook. Place on a cooling rack.

9. While the biscuits are cooling, make the filling.

10. Blend strawberries with a splash of water until smooth.

11. In a large bowl beat the icing sugar and butter together and slowly add in the strawberry puree, about half a tablespoon at a time until you have a smooth and pipe-able consistency. You don't want the icing to be runny, so don't add to much puree.

12. Pipe or spoon the icing onto half of the biscuits and sandwich the other biscuits on top. Set aside while you melt the chocolate.

13. To melt the chocolate, boil a small pot of water in a sauce pan and place a glass bowl over top.

14. Break the chocolate into the bowl, add the coconut oil and stir until the chocolate is half melted.

15. Once the chocolate is half melted, remove from heat and continue stirring until the chocolate has all melted.

16. Dip the sandwich biscuits into the white chocolate and place on a tray covered with baking paper. Continue until they are all coated.

17. Place the Tim Tams into the fridge to harden for a couple of hours and then enjoy!