THE WOFFLA

The good old Aussie ‘Polly Waffle’ — a marshmallow-filled, chocolate-covered wafer tube — has taken its turn at Sweet Envy and has become The Woffla: sheets of wafer brushed with local honey, stuffed with soft chewy marshmallow and dipped in chocolate. It all came about because an election was coming up, and the word in the shop was that there was a whole bunch of ‘waffle’ going on…

MAKES 12 BARS

WAFER

50 g (1¾ oz) butter

50 g (1¾ oz) mildly fragrant honey (we use Tasmanian prickly box honey)

4 wafer sheets, about A4 size

Preheat the oven to 180ºC (350ºC/Gas 4). Line a baking tray with baking paper.

Melt the butter and honey in a small saucepan. Using a pastry brush, lightly brush the mixture over both sides of each wafer sheet.

Place the wafer sheets on the baking tray. Sit a sheet of baking paper on top, then another baking tray, so the wafers are sandwiched between the two trays.

Bake for 10–15 minutes, or until the wafer is golden brown and the honey has caramelised. Remove from the oven and cool on the tray.

Using a sharp serrated bread knife, cut the wafer into oblongs measuring about 3 x 10 cm (1¼ x 4 inches).

MARSHMALLOW

270 g (9½ oz) caster (superfine) sugar

180 g (6 oz) liquid glucose

15 g (½ oz) powdered gelatine

Put the sugar and glucose in a heavy-based saucepan with 70 ml (2¼ fl oz) of water. Bring to the boil and cook to the soft-ball stage (118ºC/245ºF on a sugar thermometer). Leave to cool to 100ºC (212ºF).

Put the gelatine in a heatproof bowl with 90 ml (3 fl oz) of cold water. After about 5 minutes, once the gelatine has soaked up all the water, place the bowl over a saucepan of hot water to melt the mixture briefly, then add it to the hot sugar syrup. Use hand-held electric beaters or a stand mixer with a whisk attachment to beat the marshmallow until light, fluffy and cool.

TO ASSEMBLE

300 g (10½ oz) dark chocolate, chopped

15 ml (½ fl oz) vegetable oil

Pipe the marshmallow onto half the wafers, then pop the wafer lids on top. Allow to firm for about 10 minutes.

Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of just simmering water, ensuring the base of the bowl doesn’t touch the water. Add the oil and mix until fully emulsified.

One at a time, submerge the bottom half of each biscuit into the melted chocolate, so the marshmallow won’t stick to everything. Drain off any excess chocolate before placing onto a lined tray to set.

These biscuits are best eaten the next day, as the marshmallow gets a nice chewy stickiness to it.