Makes 24 – 36 squares or slices
Ingredients:
– 400 g plain chocolate, broken into squares
– 180 g golden syrup
– 100 g butter or margarine (100 ml)
– 2 packets digestive biscuits or 1 packet rich tea biscuits
– 15 glacé cherries, chopped
– 50g seedless raisins or dried cranberries
– 50 g chopped nuts (optional)
Method:
1. Place chocolate, golden syrup and butter in a microwave-proof bowl or jug; microwave on 70% power for 3 – 4 minutes until chocolate and butter are melted; and ingredients are combined.
2. Crush biscuits, using a food processor fitted with the double-knife stainless-steel blade. Pulse so that the biscuits are not too finely crushed, leaving some coarser pieces of biscuit in the crumb.
3. Mix biscuit crumbs, cherries, raisins and nuts together.
4. Add to this the chocolate mixture and stir well to coat all the ingredients.
5. Grease the base and sides of a 30 cm x 20 cm pan (or use a loaf pan of 28 cm x 10.5 cm). Line the base with baking paper, overlapping up the sides (this makes for easy removal of the biscuit cake); grease again.
6. Place the chocolate and fruit mixture into the prepared pan, press down to distribute mixture evenly in the pan. Level the top.
7. Chill for two hours before cutting into squares or slices (if using a loaf pan).
Tips:
• Top biscuit cake with chocolate ganache. Make ganache by heating 600 ml cream in a wide saucepan. When cream begins to spit, add 200 g dark chocolate, broken into pieces into the cream. Leave for a minute or two, then gently whisk together. Cool slightly before using.
• Decorate with extra glacé cherries.
• Replace raisins with yoghurt-coated raisins or mixed dried fruit.