Tim Tam Brownies with Vegemite

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Recognising Australia Day today with these Tim Tam Brownies with Vegemite – celebrating two of Australia’s most infamous foods in one delectable creation!

Tim Tams lie in the centre of these soft and gooey chocolatey brownies, adding a contrasting and fabulous change of texture with their wonderful crunch. You can’t actually taste the Vegemite but, a little like adding miso to a sweet dish, it adds an earthy, salty unami and deepens the flavours already there. They are then topped with a thick layer of the chocolate of your choice, I used milk chocolate, and then sprinkled on some glorious, pink Murray River salt flakes.

The eagle eyed Aussies amongst you may notice that the biscuits in these brownies are not actually Tim Tams – sadly I couldn’t find any over here so I used Penguin biscuits instead, which actually make a very similar and fine replacement. If you can’t quite get your head around using Vegemite, (or Marmite!) simply add ¼ teaspoon fine salt instead!

Australia Day

Australia Day celebrates everything to love about Australia from cultural diversity, freedom, democracy, and the incredible landscape to the Aussie sense of fair go. It is celebrated on the anniversary of the 1788 arrival of the First Fleet which led to Captain Arthur Philip proclaiming British sovereignty. Despite enthusiastic annual celebration, a move to change the date has garnered strong support, preferring a day which did not also represent the cultural oppression of indigenous Australians and the loss of their sovereign rights to land.

How to make Tim Tam Brownies with Vegemite

This recipe is adapted from my Daffodil Brownies – Core Recipe. For further brownie ideas and inspiration, see here.

Line the baking tin:

In order to guarantee soft and fudgy brownies, it is important to use the correct size tin – in this case it is a 20cm/8inch square tin. If your tin is larger the depth of your cake batter will be less and the cake will cook more quickly. Equally if the tin is smaller, your cake batter will be deeper and cook more slowly.

1. Sit the tin on greaseproof paper making sure the paper is large enough to line the tin, come up the sides and have a little overhang.
2. Cut out the corners of the paper so it will fit easily into the tin
3. Fold the paper from corner to corner so the size of the centre of the paper matches the base of the tin. Slot inside the tin.

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Collect all the ingredients together:

• unsalted butter, in cubes
• dark chocolate, 70% cocoa solids, broken into pieces
• soft brown sugar
• caster sugar
• large eggs
• Vegemite
• fine salt
• plain/all-purpose flour, sieved
• cocoa, sieved
• instant coffee powder, sieved
• Tim Tams or Penguin biscuits

Make those Tim Tam Brownies with Vegemite:

1. Chop the butter into squares and place in a microwave safe bowl with the chopped chocolate. Melt in a microwave or a bain marie or and mix until smooth. (See Recipe Notes for details.)
2. Meanwhile put the sugars, eggs and Vegemite in a mixing bowl and whisk with an electric whisk until thick and creamy. This will take around 3 minutes.
3. Pour the chocolate and butter into the eggs and sugar, whilst whisking, and mix thoroughly with the electric whisk until smooth and glossy.
4. Put a sieve over the bowl and add the flour, cocoa and coffee. Sift directly over the cake batter.
5. Fold until completely mixed in but be careful not to over-mix at this stage.
6. Transfer half of the mixture to your baking tin and level the surface, making sure the cake batter goes all the way into the corners.
7. Top with a layer of Tim Tams/Penguin Biscuits
8. Add the remaining brownie mix, level the surface, making sure the cake batter goes all the way into the corners.
9. Cook in the oven for 20 – 25 minutes, depending on how squidgy you like the centre to be. It will carry on cooking when you take it out of the oven so bear this in mind. (I cook mine for 23 minutes in London and 24 minutes in Switzerland.)

This gives me a slightly crispy top but a gorgeous gooey centre. The cake will be slightly risen and cracked around the edges but the centre will feel quite soft.

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Cover with melted chocolate and some salt:

1. When the cake is cool, break up the chocolate and add to a powerful blender. Blitz until it forms a powder-like consistency. If your blender is not very powerful or is small, do this in batches.
2. Transfer the chocolate to a plastic, microwave safe bowl.
3. Blitz for 15 seconds, take out of the microwave and stir well – it probably won’t look much different at this stage.
4. Blitz again for 15 seconds, take out of the microwave and stir again, thoroughly. The chocolate should start clumping together.
5. Next, blitz again for 10 seconds and stir well. Set aside for 1 minute to cool a little before heating again.
6. Stir again, and if necessary, blitz for a further 10 seconds. Stir well. If it is still not ready, blitz for 10 seconds only at a time, stir well and leave for 30 seconds in between each blitz.
7. Spread the melted chocolate over the brownies and sprinkle some sea salt, to taste, where you imagine the centre of each slice will be.
8. Set aside to cool and give the chocolate time to harden and set. You can pop it in the fridge to speed up the process. Cut into 16 squares – or 9 if you have a very sweet tooth!

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Made this recipe?

If you make this recipe, do please tag me on instagram @daffodil_kitchen. You could also leave a comment in the box directly below the recipe.