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 
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'.