Here’s one of the easy traybake recipes we are so fond of in Northern Ireland. They are known as Ovaltine Creams, or Ovaltine Squares and were a firm favorite of my maternal Grandma’s in the late 1970s. Granny Sophia did not have a name for them but she always had a tin full of them lined up in neat rows in her kitchen and were made using her favorite drink.
Ingredients:
Base
225g / 8oz / 2.75 US cups Rich Tea biscuits, broken
115 g / 4 oz / 0.5 US cups firm baking margarine
115g / 4 oz / 0.6 US cups Soft Brown Sugar
2 level tablespoons Ovaltine Chocolate malt drink powder
80g / 3 oz / 1 US cup dessicated coconut
80 g / 3 oz / 0.5 US cups Glacé Cherries, halved
1 egg, beaten
Topping
250g / 10 oz / 1.65 US cups sieved icing sugar
50g / 2 oz / ¼ US cup butter or margarine
2 tablespoons sieved Custard Powder –
Boiling Water – a little, to mix
And a little more chocolate malt drink powder to sprinkle overtopping
Instructions:
Melt margarine, sugar, and chocolate malt powder in a saucepan, or in a large bowl in the microwave.
Add coconut and cherries, mix well.
Add beaten egg, mix all and return to heat for a few minutes, stirring well as the egg cooks out (this works best in the microwave).
Stir in broken biscuits and spread mixture evenly into a swiss roll tin.
Cream together margarine, icing sugar, custard powder, and a little boiling water to bind.
Spread topping over the biscuit base, mark lines across with a fork, and sprinkle or sieve a little chocolate malt powder overtopping. Cut into squares when set.
