tray bakes
Scottish Sweeties Part 4: Tray Bakes & Banoffee Pie
In order to further your understanding of British desserts, I present you with three different kinds of tray bakes and the famous banoffee pie:
Millionaire’s shortbread consists of three layers: shortbread (a very buttery, crusty cookie), a mix of toffee & dulce de leche, and chocolate. It’s obviously quite sweet, so I love it.Â
Tiffin is traditionally made up of cocoa, Golden Syrup (light molasses), stale biscuits and whatever else you need to use up around the house, like raisins & nuts (Scottish people are a frugal lot).  It often has a layer of melted chocolate on top and requires no baking. Just mix it up and pop it in the fridge. I have no idea what the relation this kind of tiffin has, if any, to the similarly-named Indian lunch. Unless, of course, people would eat this dessert for lunch, which I can totally get behind.
I have a confession to make: I don’t like dates. They look like roaches whole, they look like roaches squished, and their flavor is meh. In the interest of cultural anthropology, I must report on the ubiquitous date square in Scotland. It tastes like you think it will.
Banoffee (banana & toffee) pie, however, is wonderful, if you get a good one. It consists of a layer of a pie shell filled with sliced bananas, toffee & dulce de leche, and whipped cream. What’s not to like?