Why are tim tams Australian?

This afternoon a little group of us are going to stuff envelopes with newsletters at my house, so as a good hostess I thought I would provide nibbles, such as cheese and biscuits and something sweet. What to do for something sweet? I didn't feel like making anything, so thought, chocolate biscuits. Since I was walking into Eltham for the Thursday newspaper, and was meeting in Woolworths, I thought to have a change from Aldi's delicious chocolate biscuits and go for Tim Tams.

Now I don't really know much about Tim Tams other than that they are dear to Australians' hearts. Why I wondered? I had a vague memory of similar things in England. So I looked it up - and I was sort of right. It's amazing what's on Wikipedia.

First of all they are not as old as I thought. I must admit that I thought that since the Australians were so protective about them they must date from colonial times. But no - they were first produced in 1964 after a world-wide trip by Arnott's chief food technologist to look for inspiration in 1958. The inspiration was found in England where there are biscuits called Penguins. See the comparison below.

Pretty similar I'm sure you will agree. I guess you would have to do a taste test to really know. The name, incidentally, is also not Australian. It is the name of the winner of the Kentucky Derby in 1958 (maybe that world trip), and chosen by Ross Arnott. Since the original version there have been all sorts of variations (see above) and special editions including some with alcohol - there was one with Martini in Woolworths today - which caused a bit of an uproar until it was pointed out that the amount of alcohol was extremely minute.

The other thing to say about Tim Tams is the Tim Tam slam - a way of eating them. Bite off each end, dunk the biscuit in the hot drink of your choice and suck the drink through the biscuit until everything melts enough to need to be eaten. Now that sounds pretty Australian.

There is a website with recipes of things to make with Tim Tams - and they look pretty nice too. Click here to access it.

And here are a couple of recipes I found elsewhere.

TIM TAM CHOCOLATE MOUSSE

150g dark chocolate, chopped

25g butter, finely chopped

2 eggs separated

300ml thickened cream

1 packet Original Tim Tam biscuits

Place chocolate in a heatproof, microwave safe bowl. Microwave on medium, stirring every minute with a metal spoon, for 2-3 minutes or until smooth. Add butter. Stir until smooth. Set aside for 2 minutes. Stir in egg yolks.

Place ¾ cup cream in a bowl, using an electric mixer, beat until soft peaks form.

Beat egg whites in a bowl until soft peaks form. Gently fold cream into chocolate mixture. Stir in 2 tablespoons of the egg white. Fold in remaining egg white.

Finely chop 7 Tim Tam biscuits and fold into mousse. Spoon mousse into 1 cup- capacity glasses. Refrigerate for 3 hours or until firm.

Using an electric mixer beat remaining cream until soft peaks form. Chop remaining Tim Tam biscuits. Top mousse with whipped cream and Tim Tam just before serving.

TIM TAM TARTS WITH RASPBERRIES

200g pkt Tim Tams

30g unsalted butter, melted, cooled

200ml pure (thin) cream

200g dark chocolate, chopped

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 egg yolks

Raspberries, cocoa and vanilla ice cream, to serve

Grease four 8cm loose-bottomed tart pans. Place Tim Tams in a food processor and whiz to fine crumbs. Remove 3 tablespoons for the soil and set aside. Add melted butter to the processor and pulse to combine. Press crumb mixture into the base and sides of the prepared pans and chill for 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 160°C.

Place cream in a pan over low heat and bring to just below boiling point. Remove from heat. Add chocolate and stand for 1 minute to melt a little, then stir until smooth. Cool chocolate mixture, then add vanilla and yolks and stir to combine. Pour chocolate filling into tart cases. Bake for 15 minutes or until just set. Cool tarts completely in the pans.

When ready to serve, remove tarts from the pans, then top with berries and dust with cocoa. Serve with vanilla ice cream and Tim Tam soil.

Looking forward to having some this afternoon. I bought the salted caramel variety.