Against your bones / Grain-free jaffa cakes

In Blackwater Woods

Look, the trees
are turning
their own bodies
into pillars

of light,
are giving off the rich
fragrance of cinnamon
and fulfillment,

the long tapers
of cattails
are bursting and floating away over
the blue shoulders

of the ponds,
and every pond,
no matter what its
name is, is

nameless now.
Every year
everything
I have ever learned

in my lifetime
leads back to this: the fires
and the black river of loss
whose other side

is salvation,
whose meaning
none of us will ever know.
To live in this world

you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it

against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.

Mary Oliver in American Primitive, 1983

This post has been sitting on the list for months now. I loved those jaffa cakes and really thought that I should coerce myself and share the recipe with you guys but then when I sat down at my computer and started writing it, I realised that I had lost the directions, more like the quantities, for the jelly.... Then, I found it back in the notes in my phone... 

For the jelly, I basically boiled 2 quinces, strain and then added agar agar powder. You can use whatever fruit juice you have (pear! cranberry!). I know I used a lot of agar agar but I wanted my jelly to be really firm. As you noticed, it turned out pink-ish and I have no idea why (but it looks cool). You can also use jam if you want to (I suspect raspberry would be nice).

I made my own chocolate but of course you can use normal chocolate. The biscuits can also be made on their own (they're gooood).

Quince jaffa cakes

(vegan, grain-free)

For the biscuits:

125 g almond flour | farine d'amande

65 g tigernut flour | farine de souchet

1 flax egg (1 tsp flax meal +2 tsp water) | 1 "oeuf" de lin

80 g coconut oil | huile de coco

25-30 g brown rice syrup | sirop de riz brun

pinch of salt | pincée de sel

vanilla powder | vanille en poudre

Preheat oven to 180°C. In a bowl, combine almond flour and the tigernut flour. Add in the flax egg, coconut oil and brown rice syrup, plus a pinch of salt and some vanilla powder. Combine well. Take a small portion of dough (about 20g) and roll it into a ball. Press in your palm to flaten it and place in a muffin mould (they will keep their shape this way). Create a small curve with your fingers (not too deep, just enough so you can place a bit of jelly inside)

Bake 10 minutes and let cool completely.

Préchauffer le four à 180°C. Dans un saladier, mélanger la farine d'amande et la farine de souchet. Ajouter l'oeuf de lin; l'huile de coco, le sirop de riz et une pincée de sel et de vanille. Mélanger pour former une pâte. Prendre 20 g de pâte et former une boule. L'aplatir dans le creux de la main et la mettre dans un moule à muffin. Appuyer légèrement pour former un creux très peu profond (en laissant une toute petite bordure, cela permet de laisser de la place pour la gelée). Cuire environ 10 minutes et laisser refroidir complètement.

For the jelly:

350 ml quince juice | jus de coing

2 g agar agar powder  |  agar agar en poudre

Start by making the jelly so it has time to set in the fridge. In a saucepan, pour juice and add agar agar powder. Whisk to dissolve. Bring to a boil and let simmer for 2 minutes stirring constantly. Transfer to a tin to set. Cut jelly rounds the size of the biscuits. You can choose to have them thicker or thinner.

Dans une casserole, mélanger au fouet le jus de coing et l'agar agar jusqu'à dissolution complète de ce dernier. Porter à ébullition et laisser frémir 2 minutes. Verser dans un plat et laisser refroidir. Couper des cercles de la taille des biscuits.

For the chocolate:

160 g cocoa paste | pâte de cacao

40g coconut sugar | sucre de coco

20 g cacao butter | beurre de cacao

Melt all ingredients in a bowl placed in a large pot of hot water (it takes a little time). Whisk well to combine.

Faire fondre tous les ingrédients au bain-marie (sans placer sur le feu, mettre simplement un bol dans un autre grand bol d'eau bouillante) et bien mélanger.

To assemble

Once your biscuits are completely cooled, put them back into the muffin moulds and place a jelly round on top of each. our chocolate on top of each making sure you coat them well and the chocolate layer is not too thick.  Let cool and enjoy :)

Une fois les biscuits complètement refroidis (et laissés dans le moule à muffins), mettre un cercle de gelée sur chaque, puis recouvrir de chocolat. Laisser refroidir.

Below Jaffa cakes are with pear jelly. I used 25 g of dough for each biscuits and there are thicker. I also swapped almond flour for almond meal.