Homemade Tim Tams
Homemade Tim Tams. Chocolate cookies filled with malted chocolate buttercream and dipped in milk chocolate!
I am incredibly excited about two things today! These homemade Tim Tam cookies (which are beyond ridiculous ) and my friend Sarah’s new cookbook The Sugar Hit!. I’m going to tell you about both of them.
First, let’s talk about this cookbook.
If you’ve been following my blog for some time or have read a handful of my Sunday Thymes posts, you know that I am a huge fan of Sarah’s blog and recipes! She makes some of the most creative, decadent, and playful sweets out there.
Sarah’s incredible eye for design, graphics, and photography drew me in years and years ago and ever since, I’ve been absolutely hooked.
Like any true fan girl, I sent her an email at one point (in blog years, it was a century ago) telling her just how much I admire her work and I’ve been lucky enough to call her a friend ever since.
As you can imagine, I was incredibly excited when she announced last April that she was publishing a cookbook! I knew right away that it would be, in no other words, epic.
Now that I have a copy in my kitchen, I’m even more blown away than I expected to be. If you’re a dessert or sweets lover, you will absolutely adore this cookbook. It is filled to the brim with wildly fun and whimsical sweets (from breakfast, brunch, and holiday treats to midnight snacks and everything in between!), tips, and baking inspiration.
If that wasn’t enough, every single recipe is accompanied by a gorgeous photograph. It exceeded even my wildest expectations! I mean, how can you not smile when you see recipes like Passionfruit S’More Cones, ‘Like a Fat Kid Loves’ Milkshakes, Filthy Cheat’s Jam Doughnut, and Eggnog Bread Pudding with Cinnamon Caramel Sauce?
Sarah poured her heart and soul into this book and it shows with each turn of the page. So, when I was trying to choose a recipe from the cookbook to share with all of you–I struggled because I wanted to make every.single.one!
At the end of the day, my heart was stolen by a recipe for homemade Tim Tams. If you’re not familiar with Tim Tams (and you most likely aren’t), they are a household cookie staple in Australia. [Spoiler alert: Sarah lives in Brisbane, Australia!]
Tim Tams are basically the Australian equivalent of an Oreo–but 10,000,000 times better. Essentially, they are two chocolate malt sandwich cookies sandwiched with a malted chocolate filling and enrobed in milk chocolate.
During college, I studied abroad and lived in Brisbane, Australia for six months. Ironically, Sarah and I lived within blocks of each other at one point in our lives without ever realizing it! While I lived there, I became privy to the Tim Tam phenomenon (and equally as phenomenal Tim Tam slams!) and have been enamored with these little cookies ever since.
When I spotted a recipe for homemade Tim Tams in Sarah’s cookbook, I was sold. I debated making my own adaptation of this recipe, but the original was too good not to share.
Now that I’ve made said recipe, I can confidently declare that Sarah nailed it and this homemade version of a Tim Tam is significantly tastier than the pre-packaged version.
Although dipped chocolate cookies always appear to be complicated and fussy, don’t be intimidated by this recipe, as it is much simpler than it appears to be (the cookie dough comes together in minutes, the ingredient list is simple, and these cookies can be made start to finish in under an hour and a half!).
If you don’t have the patience to cut these cookies into rectangles–I used a ruler to make this easier–you can also use a biscuit cutter and cut them into rounds. Additional tip? Buy good-quality milk chocolate for dipping (do not substitute with milk chocolate chips).
If you’re looking for a special treat to bring to holiday or cookie-swap parties over the next few months, these Homemade Tim Tams are the perfect choice! I personally guarantee that you will win over all of your family and friends with these things.
In the mean time, don’t forget to get your hands on a copy of The Sugar Hit! cookbook! It’s a true winner.
Homemade Tim Tams
Ingredients
Cookie Dough:
- 1 stick (4 oz; 115 g) unsalted butter softened
- ½ cup (115 g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- ¼ cup (30 g) unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa powder
- 1¼ cups (150 g) unbleached all-purpose flour
- pinch of kosher salt
Filling:
- 1 stick (4 oz; 115 g) unsalted butter softened
- 1¼ cups (125 g) powdered sugar sifted
- 1 tablespoon unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa powder
- 1 tablespoon malted drink powder such as Ovaltine
Coating:
- 7 ounces (200 g) milk chocolate (60% cocoa solids)
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
Instructions
- Prepare the Cookies: Cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Scrape down the bowl, add the egg and continue beating until the egg is incorporated and the mixture lightens in color. Add the cocoa powder and beat until there are no lumps. Finally, add the flour and salt on low speed until incorporated. The dough will be very soft. Turn the dough onto a piece of parchment paper on a work surface, top with another piece of parchment paper, and roll out into a large rectangle about ¼-inch thick. Put the dough on a tray and place in the freezer for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) with a rack in the center position and line two sheet pans with parchment paper.
- Take the dough out of the freezer and slice it into 28 small (1¼ x 2½ inch) rectangles. Seperate the rectangles and spread them out on the lined baking trays. Bake for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Make the Filling: Cream the butter until soft, sift in the remaining ingredients and beat until well combined. Spread a heaped teaspoon of filling onto half of the cookies, on the bottom side. Top with the remaining cookies, then place in the refrigerator to chill while you prepare the coating.
- Prepare the Coating: Place the chocolate and coconut oil in a heat-proof bowl and melt together in the microwave on High (100%) in 30-second bursts, stirring well after each burst. Once the chocolate is mostly melted, remove and stir gently until smooth.
- Take a chilled cookie and carefully coat it in the chocolate – this is easiest if you use your hands – then put it on a lined baking tray. Chill in the refrigerator completely before enjoying.
76 Comments on “Homemade Tim Tams”
How do I the carmel ?
Never are a Tim Tam before. Person helping me said they are pretty close. Chocolate coating really never hardens so it makes a mess when eating…perhaps chocolate meltingly wafers would be better?
These are ‘homemade’ Tim Tams. It is important to keep them on the colder side to prevent the coating from not being too soft. You would need to use tempered chocolate if you wanted it to be less sensitive to temperature, which is not something most people want to bother with (it’s very technical!).
I loved the biscuits however with the nutritional information, how many would be one serving? Hope you can help 🙂
When i make these I leave the wrapped dough in the fridge overnight to let the flour do its thing. Dough is easier to roll out and i use a rectangle cookie cutter. After baking i leave them on the tray while i gently smooth them down with an offset spatulas to give them a nice flat surface. After 10mins i remove them to a wire tray to fully cool. I make a normal chocolate ganache as its not so sweet.
They look great! I made these for the whole family.
What do you mean’ separate the rectangles’ are we not cutting 28 individual biscuits?
Oops! I think you’re misunderstanding the instructions. That step just means to spread the cut out cookies on the sheet pan for baking so they are not touching one another.
I tried the recipe and i love it !!!!!!
Made these tonight, and was so excited to try it since where I live they don’t sell them anymore.
Let’s just say, they are SUPER RICH. Holy batman, I had half of one, and thought I was going to have a sugar overload. I had a package of Tim Tams in front of me after I made them, and I noticed baking powder in their ingredients. However, there wasn’t any baking powder in this recipe. I think that makes them more of a wafer, and less of a brownie. I even made 2 separate batches to try and test a few different things out, and we preferred the modified one.
I think it’s a close recipe, but it definitely needs the cookies more lighter. They’re just so rich, so I think we’ll play around with adding baking powder to try and lighten them up. 🙂
I struggled to get these into nice rectangles, felt like 30min freezing the fought was not enough and it did not come off the parchment paper so the shape would be ruined as I tried to move from paper to pan. What did I do wrong?!
Hi! I haven’t heard that feedback before. My only thought is that the dough got way too warm (are you working in a hot kitchen?) – did you use a scale to measure your ingredients? I highly recommend always doing that for best results. If the dough was rolled out to 1/4-inch thickness, 30 minutes in the freezer should absolutely be plenty enough time for it to get chilled enough to cut out. But if your dough was super soft, etc. time always might need to be adjusted! It should very, very chilled coming out of the freezer, otherwise it would not slice cleanly and the parchment would stick.
Thank you! I think it was just my rolling consistency, but I’ll also use a scale next time. We just moved back to USA from Australia and these definitely are our best bet to recreate something that truly reminds us of our time there, rectangles or not 🙂 they taste great!
These look amazing. I’ve done part one to make the biscuits but they are a bit softer than the harder crumbly tim tam biscuits. Still delicious, but not quite there with that crunch. Should I have cooked them a little more? Can I pop them back in now they have cooled or will that destroy them?
They shouldn’t be soft once baked – or cooled. They should be crisp – I wonder if they were not baked long enough or you haven’t let them cool sufficiently? I haven’t heard this feedback before, so it’s hard to troubleshoot without more information.
these look so good! Do you have an ideas for a substitute of coconut oil?
Coconut oil will thin the melted chocolate slightly and help it set quicker (coconut oil solidifies at 76/77°F) after dipping. You can leave it out if you want – it isn’t essential – just helps with both those things mentioned above!
they were delicious
I made these yesterday and they turned out amazing.
I didn’t have any malted milk powder so I made a peanut butter frosting and dipped in semisweet chocolate instead of milk to counter the sweetness. With a little sea salt these were a huge hit.
I’ll get some malted milk powder soon and try the original. These are really special. I love the way the dough bakes up. Kind of porous and lite. I also love the coconut oil trick. Makes melting and dipping less of a pain and adds a wonderful shine and texture.
Hi again!
Sorry, I have another question, is Milo drink powder well to use in the recipe?
Thanks.
Sure, that could work too!
Hi! I am addicted to Tim Tams the first time I tried it. When deciding to make some, I found your website and it is so amazing! Can I replace coconut oil with butter?
I’m not sure, they don’t really behave differently, so while I think it might be fine, I haven’t made that substitution before and can’t guarantee the same results. Sorry I can’t be more helpful!
Okay, thank you for your recipe though!
Okay….. I was a local specialty store and saw Tim Tam’s.. Thought… hmm Ive heard of them. Im on a macaron group on FB and there are about 30,000 members and many have suggested I create a macaron version. Well, I had no idea what they taste like so was not able to help. NOW I am going to make this recipe and have also infused a couple of cups of sugar with bourbon and will try the bourbon variety once I make them the way they are posted. ( then do a chocolate bourbon filling as well)… Thanks for the recipe!!
Did you successfully make a Tim tam macaron? If so will you share your recipe!?
They look great but it should be illegal for a Tim Tam to be referred to as a “cookie”. It’s a BISCUIT!!!!!
I made these and WOW they are soooooo good! That malted buttercream is out of this world! I really am having a hard time not eating all of them at once. I might dare to say they taste better than real Tim Tams. I want to try making this recipe again, but add some espresso powder to the filling since the espresso Tim Tams are my favorite, but they are not to be found in the US. Thank you so much for sharing the recipe!
We really want to try this recipe, but is the coconut oil very important for the coating, or can it be substituted with another oil?
BR fro Norway
Coconut oil solidifies at a lower temperature than any other type of oil, which helps with setting the chocolate, but you could leave it out or add a touch of vegetable oil (only if needed to thin). You might have to store the cookies in the fridge to make sure the chocolate doesn’t soften too much. Hope this helps!
Can you recommend a brand of chocolate for dipping the cookies?
There are a lot of great quality bar chocolates out there, but if you’re in the US, I always think Trader Joe’s bar chocolate is pretty good for the value. Also, Valhrona, Guittard, or Lindt are some other good choices. Hope this helps!
Thanks for the recipe, I’ve tried TimTams once before but I’ve been wanting to make some. Last night I did and I’ve got a question, how exactly are you supposed to do the coating? I followed the recipe but it did not turn out right. It is too liquidy and there small chunks of coconut oil in it. The filling was soooooooooooo goooood!! TIA
Sounds like the coconut oil was too cold and solidified – this would happen if you didn’t microwave it long enough, but it should melt in the microwave. If you’re using chocolate with stabilizers, there is a chance that the chocolate seized, but I haven’t gotten this feedback before.
Thank you! I will try it again soon!