Last year my favourite human, Matt, suffered a loss we've all experienced at one point or another in our lives: His favourite sweet was discontinued-The Cadbury Tempo.
So I did what any girlfriend in my situation (not knowing what to use as a stocking filler to replace his beloved Tempo) would do: I followed my mama's advice: Don't put all your Cadbury Eggs in one basket.
I went a little mad. I went around every grocery store, corner cafés and even tuck shops around train stations to find any last straggling Tempos Cadbury's hadn't yet collected.Sadly, they are a very well organized company and apparently extremely thorough. Not a single Tempo bar remained in Cape Town.
I placed ads asking anyone in the country whether they still had any in stock. Not a peep from all of South Africa.
I bought him a bar of the replacement- a fancier looking, and more expensive- 5Star bar. While it is perfectly delicious, it just didn't hit that spot.
I couldn't stand the disappointment on his face.
In a last ditched effort, I wrote a heartfelt letter to Cadbury ( I even tried to use their tagline to tug at their heart strings):
But alas, the rumours were true and Tempo would forever be gone from our lives.
I had to figure out how to make them and make my human happy. But I couldn't let him know what I was doing, so I had to wait a while for the stars to align and our schedules to misalign so I would be home to make these while he was at work.
So, while he's off rehearsing Macbeth before a month long tour away, I figured I'd scour the internet for tasting videos and rely on memory from over 10 months ago to recreate it. (and give him tasty things for padkos on his tour)
Thanks to the hilarious and absolutely lovely Emmy from Emmymadeinjapan (check her out, she's awesome!) who decided to taste test South African snacks and filmed a brilliant cross-section of the bar and a concise description of the texture I could work with.
For creating a believable dupe, I knew the chocolate bit wouldn't need any tweaking because Cadbury Milk Chocolate works fantastically for any home baking jobs, and has a distinct flavour no other bars compare to. Outer layer: Check.
So I studied the cross section and noted the filling seems to be tiny buttons of shortbread-rather than broken pieces- enveloped in a slightly brittle ganache and topped with caramel, before being enrobed in luscious chocolate.
This is what the real thing looks like, note the teeensy cookie buttons in there! (I thought they were cute at first, then I had to hand-punch 400 of the suckers and now I'm not too sure.) 
Thanks to @cookwithus, I invented a caramel-slathered, chocolate-dipped, shortbread cookie for one of their wonderful challenges that featured 2 more components of the 4-component bar: Shortbread and a caramel resilient enough to stick while being dipped, but soft enough not to break your teeth (While it pains me, I had to omit the salt in the salted caramel so it tastes more like the true tempo...but I used salted butter because I can't not put ANY salt in things.)
All I had left to figure out was the ganache. Softer than chocolate, harder than ganache. After a couple of sneaky days of tweaking, (the results invariably ending up as a dipper for chocolate pretzels) I came up with a texture that resembles the tempo bar as closely as I could get it.
Matt left for work this morning and I had 5 hours to assemble it before he gets home.
So, without any further ado, here's how I did it...and while it isn't the exact bar: it is a little less sweet, because I pushed the caramel a bit longer to add a note of bitterness, and has the can't-miss-it flavour of real butter in the shortbread- it's pretty damn close.
I suspect all future gifts to Matt will feature a box of these- at least until Cadbury returns the Tempo to our shelves . (Please Cadbury! IF YOU CAN SEE THIS! )
Anyhow. Here's how to make this thing. (Yields enough for 6 regular bars, or 12 mini bars, with cookie dough and caramel sauce to spare for later nibbles)
Shortbread mini-buttons:
- 100 Grams Confectioners Sugar (You can use castor, but my stand mixer broke and I don't think my arms would survive creaming granules!)
- 200 Grams Salted Butter (You can use unsalted, but I love me some salt)
- 200 Grams All Purpose Flour
- 100 Grams Corn Starch
- 1 Tsp Vanilla Extract (Optional)
Method:
- Preheat oven to 180C or 365 F.
- Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. (Add Vanilla if using at this point)
- Sift in flour and corn starch and fold in with a spoon until juuust combined (you want little bits of butter mixture to stay untouched)
- Wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate for at least an hour, but preferably overnight.
- Dust your counter with a little flour and roll out to 1/2 cm or 1/5 Inch thickness and punch into tiny buttons. I used the small end of a round piping nozzle, but a straw and skewer to pop them out would work too- as long as it's cold it will hold its shape pretty much exactly.
- Bake for 4-6 minutes, checking regularly after the 4 minute mark. Remove as soon as they're just starting to turn golden around the edges. (These little dudes burn super quickly. Watch them like a hawk!)
TRIGGER WARNING FOR TRYPOPHOBIA SUFFERERS AHEAD!!
Caramel
- (60 ml) water
- 1 cup natural brown sugar
- 1/4 cup (80 ml) heavy whipping cream
- 3 tablespoons salted butter, (If using unsalted, adjust salt to taste)
- 1 Tsp Vanilla Extract.
Method:
- Add water, sugar, butter and salt to heavy based saucepan, slightly bigger than you think you need (it just helps prevent * the sugar from catching and a bigger pot helps prevent boiling over.)
- Gently bring to a boil over medium heat until sugar turns a warm amber- about 12 minutes.
- Remove from heat and gently stir in cream and vanilla
- If too runny, return to the heat for a few more minutes until a little dropped into a bowl of cold water turns into a soft little ball you can squash with your fingers. (We encourage a taste test at this point, it's already on your finger.)
- Remove from heat and leave to cool.
Ganache:
- 100 grams cadbury milk chocolate
- 100 grams high quality milk baking chocolate (can substitute for cadbury, but the baking chocolate helps harden the texture)
- 80 ml heavy whipping cream
Method:
- Break chocolate into a microwave safe bowl, add cream and nuke over medium heat in 30 second bursts until chocolate just begins to melt.
- Remove from nuker and allow to stand for a minute before stirring until smooth.
To Coat: (only do this bit after all the other components are assembled and set)
- 150 grams cadbury milk chocolate (for authenticity. Any milk chocolate will do for a dupe !)
- 50 Grams high-quality milk baking chocolate (helps the setting process if your tempering skills are as bad as mine!)
Method
- Break 3/4 of the chocolate into small chunks in a microwave safe bowl and nuke in 30 second bursts until starting to melt.
- Stir until smooth before adding remaining chocolate and stirring until completely melted.
To Assemble:
- Line your mold (I don't have chocolate bar molds, so opted for a small bread tin) with cling film, or use silicone molds (I have one ice tray, they result in cute little tempo bites).
- Brush the bottom of the mold with an even layer of coating chocolate and allow to set.
3.Mix 1 cup of biscuit buttons with your ganache mixture and spread evenly into mold. - Place in freezer for 10 minutes until firm to the touch.
- Unmold and cut into batons (about the width of any regular candybar)
- Top each bar with a slathering of warm-but not hot- caramel and allow to cool completely
- Dip each bar caramel-side down in chocolate, invert and allow to set on a tray lined with clingfilm.
- Once set, store in an airtight container for approximately 2 hours before your human comes home and eats them all.
So that's that I guess. If you guys enjoyed this post and would like me to recreate any discontinued treats from days gone by, leave me a comment describing the treat, a picture if possible, and a reason why you'd like to see it come back and I'll do all the homework I can to create a dupe you can make at home!
Oh I just realised not everyone is South African. In case you were wondering, Padkos is a South African term for snacks specifically eaten while in a car, translates to 'Road food'.
Well, first I want to know if Matt was thrilled by this super-human effort! I hope so. And second, your cookie dough stamping project reminds me of a boss I had at one job who decided she would show grains of sand on a poster by tap, tap, tapping on it with a felt tip pen. Three days later, she was still at it! It does not seem like much until you do it.
I do not have any treats I miss enough to put you through this effort, but I agree that there is nothing it the world like Cadbury Milk Chocolate. I do not know what they do to it, but no other chocolate tastes like that. You make me crave some right now and 7-11 is right downstairs and open now!
Congrats on your curie vote. I found your post through their list and you sure deserve the honor and much more!
Matt was happy as can be, he left on his tour this morning and thankfully I baked some cookies with the leftovers or he'd be leaving empty handed!
I still can't figure out how cadbury does it- and people look at me funny when I say the texture is slightly grainy in the smoothest sort of way (press a little between your fingers and watch it melt, no other chocolate behaves that way) baffles me to no end.
Sorry for the cravings, hope you got your fix though!
Hahaha. Love the fact that you sprinkled some humor, while getting it all cooked up. You really put some effort and time into this. Thanks alot.
Thanks for having a read @solcross! Give me a shout if there are any tasty things from your childhood they don't make anymore and I'll figure out how to make it!
You are welcome :) I might just take you up on that offer! Gonna follow your blog to keep my eyes close!
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STOPWow! That's a whole lot of effort to have to put in for something that we use to so conveniently buy from the store. It does look delicious though, got me salivating! H-m-m I wonder if you could just find some terrifically delicious new treat that would supersede the craving for his lost treat and introduce him to that - Laura Secord dark chocolate truffles!
Thanks for popping in! I've tried giving him every similar chocolate on the market but no luck yet. I'll definitely try find those truffles though (my favourite!)
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This really looks delicious. Might even give it a try myself when the autumn comes. Now in the summer I don't feel like these kind of baking adventures. And let me think of some things, I used to love but can't find anymore. Love what you're doing!
They're definitely best to make in colder months (it's late winter here). Would love to help bring back long lost treats- will even give savoury snacks a bash! Thanks so much for stopping by!
What an amazing adventure! I am so happy you are a blogger on steem! This is one of those unbelievable true stories that leave me with my mouth agape at your dedication (with little driblets of drool for the different chocolate bits). Basically like watching a chocolate bar, not any chocolate bar but the super sexy super model version of a chocolate bar getting dressed.
If you really do plan to keep making these, we need to figure out a way to speed up the hand punching of the shortbread bits. I think we could make a metal mold that would punch a couple dozen each push....
Also, I propose that we use this article and make a campaign to Cadbury, this is literally the type of stuff that get's you featured on tv comercials or 60 minutes specials!
Oh and
LOL!
Thanks so much for your comment @ecoinstant! I know, if I'm to make a box of these for gifts I need to figure out a better method. I think an extruder might work better, am on the hunt for a potato mouli or something I can test it with. If you have any ideas on how I could make a metal mold it'd be greatly appreciated!
I've tagged Cadbury in my instagram and facebook posts about the blog- but no feedback yet (they were very friendly and patient during my pleading call to ask if they could send me any recalled stock they may have left after their swift collection....so I know they're nice people...I'll be patient too!) (if you have any idea how I can get the message through to them more quickly though, again great gratitude awaits you)
Lastly- salt belongs everywhere. I refuse to believe otherwise. My blood pressure is the result of global politics , the failing economy and the fact that landlords in Cape Town don't permit keeping pets. I will not be suaded to give up what little good remains in this world: Delicious, well-seasoned nosh. (and the possibility of feedback from Cadbury)
What a wonderful comment! I am going to call on a friend @makinstuff to see if he has any ideas, if not I have a grandpa who is a machinist and I think we help you invent something. You've come this far!
I will think on Cadbury, I might just call up the marketing department and see how far I can get...
Cheers! (a big salty cheers!)
Steem seems to be glitching and refuses to let me comment on your last reply. Hopefully this one makes the cut. The cookies are about half a cm in diameter once baked, so they're a little smaller in the press, though I think I can get away with them being slightly bigger. Thanks so much to you and @makingstuff for the help! (I'll post you some bars once I've got a production line figured out!)
What the Duck!
I need to know about how big those buttons are; a friend of mine (@makinstuff) has offered to test a conceptual design for mass-producing these buttons. What would you say is the diameter of each button?
Persistent trial.
You made all the steps possible, trying all shops, all stores and writing to the company itself all in vain.
I see. You know the secret behind surprises.
You knew your best human would not escape this surprise.
I have enjoyed the process you've taken me through to make these chocolates.
The chocolates indeed look nice.
thanks so much for your kind comment @musemeza! Let me know if there are any recipes from your childhood you miss and would like me to recreate and I'll give it a bash! Have a great weekend
I used to so much enjoy sweets that were made in shapes or a car.
As kids we loved cars, and so mum could buy us those shape sweets.
But now ice cream is my drive for that category.
Take a bow for one of the most amazing recipe posts I've ever seen. Your dedication to getting it right for your other half was so beautiful- that's true love right there!! I had to laugh when your natural inner chef had to step in to use salted butter though... some things are non negotiable 😁 so glad to read in one of your other comments that he enjoyed them!
A though about punching those mini shorties... I'm sure when I used to do leather work as a kid, there was a metal tool used for punching multiple holes. It was a handle with a metal wheel at the end with multiple sharpened punches and you'd roll it along the leather while pressing to punch the holes. Might work for dough too! E
P.s. check it out... just been googling for you... it might be an icing cutter you need to search for to get something small enough... there's a multi punch here that might just be small enough... www.jbcookiecutters.com/product/circle-multi-cutter-1/
Thanks so much @eveningart, I'll definitely have a look at something like that! (oh the things I could make with a million cookie buttons!
Ooh the possibilities ;)
Thanks for the mention @whattheduck - you are truly a dedicated lady and you have a very lucky boyfriend. You still have time to enter this into the cutting skills this week
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