RSS Feed

Posts Tagged ‘cookies’

  1. Gluten-Free Primal Jaffa Cakes

    March 19, 2013 by Tali

    The other day I had a major hankering for some Jaffa cakes. The magical combination of light sponge, zesty orange jelly topped with a coating of dark chocolate.

    Biting into one is a true sensory experience – as you bite down, your teeth crack through the delicate snap of tempered dark chocolate into the squidgy Jaffa orange jelly, finishing off with a comforting bounce of delicate sponge cake.

    And the flavours…. well who can argue with the truly exquisite combination of orange and dark chocolate?

    No one I know!

    This snack item is quite deceptive. They are so light and moreish – before you know it – you’ve gobbled up half the pack. And so the only option is to destroy the evidence!

    There is another problem with the humble Jaffa Cake. It contains wheat flour (gluten – nasty stuff), refined sugars, and preservatives. We don’t need or want these things in our food. So I took it upon myself to re-invent the Jaffa Cake, making it gluten-free, refined sugar-free and preservative free!

    I bet you’re thinking ‘yeah, alright, but I bet it’s also taste-free too!’

    Well, you would be wrong!

    These babies are truly epic. You get the same flavour burst and texture combination that makes for a totally immense sensory experience – without any of that yucky business.

    How did you manage that? – you ask!?

    Well just take a wee look!

    Gluten-Free Primal Jaffa Cakes

    Makes: 12   Takes: 40mins

    Ingredients:
    2 large free range eggs
    50g(1.76oz) raw coconut palm sugar
    50g(1.76oz) ground almonds

    2 large oranges (preferably Jaffa)
    1 Tbsp orange marmalade (optional)
    1 (11g/0.38oz) sachet gelatine OR 4 leaves of gelatine sheets (soaked)

    150g (5.5oz) dark chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa solids)

    Make the sponge

    • Pre-heat oven to 180 C/350 F. Grease a 12 hole cupcake/muffin tin
    • Place the eggs and coconut palm sugar in a heat resistant bowl. Place on top of a pan of simmering water making sure the bowl doesn’t touch the water
    • Whisk the eggs and sugar (by hand or using an electric hand beater) until it reaches the ribbon stage. This should take 4-5 minutes with an electric beater, and 5-10 minutes by hand
    • Add the ground almonds and mix to combine
    • Divide the mixture evenly between the 12 muffin holes. I found it useful to use my medium sized scoop to portion these out evenly
    • Place in the middle of the oven and bake for 8-10mins. They should spring back when gently pressed
    • Gently remove out of the baking pan, and leave to cool on a wire rack

    While the sponge is baking, make the jelly

    • Line a square brownie tin with plastic wrap – allow excess over-hang
    • Zest 1 orange, and place the zest in a saucepan. Juice the 2 oranges (you should hopefully get around 150-200ml of juice – that’s just over 1/2 cup-3/4 cup) place this into the saucepan along with the (optional) tablespoon of marmalade
    • Heat the mixture up until the marmalade has dissolved. Make sure the mixture doesn’t boil
    • Once the mixture has heated up, sprinkle the gelatine onto the surface and whisk briskly until the gelatin is thoroughly dissolved and incorporated into the mix
    • Gently pour the liquid into the tin and fold over the excess plastic wrap to touch the surface
    • Allow this to cool to room temperature before placing in the fridge to set properly.

    Putting the Jaffa cakes together and chocolate coating them

    • Take your jelly out the fridge, making sure it has set fully. Then cut 12 rounds slightly smaller than the tops of the sponge cakes
    • Place the jelly on top of the sponge
    • Chop your dark chocolate and put it into a microwavable bowl
    • Warm up your chocolate at half power in 30 second bursts mixing gently between each 30-second burst
    • Be patient and make sure not to over-heat your chocolate. You want to keep that chocolate tempered to ensure a nice crisp shell (for that full sensory experience!)
    • Once the chocolate is ready, using a silicone pastry brush – any of these will do – brush the chocolate over the top of the jelly allowing it to coat the sides and just onto the surface of the sponge
    • Leave them to set on a wire rack
    • Arrange them on a pretty plate and serve to guests – OR – devour and repeat recipe, then serve!

    The recipe does look long and a little overwhelming but it’s really not so difficult and it’s worth the effort! It may be wordy but I just wanted to make sure you get all the steps right!

    If you are just after the gluten-free (and aren’t so worried about the refined sugar) feel free to use the jelly recipe from here to fill your Jaffa cakes. I tested this recipe but actually found that the flavour of the orange jelly using the fresh orange juice produced a more authentic Jaffa cake taste.

    True story!

    Category Paleo/Primal, Primal Snacks, Sweet Treats | Tags: ,,,,,,,,,,, | 6 Comments

  2. Double Chocolate Crisps (Havreflarn)

    February 5, 2012 by Tali

    errrrrr…… you said what now!?

    So, quite a few months ago – maybe even a year ago, Mo’s mom had bought a box of these strange looking biscuits/cookies.

    (Mo is my fiance for those that are interested)

    The box called them ‘double chocolate crisps’. I was intrigued, but not overly excited.

    I don’t tend to get all that excited about biscuits and the like.

    One bite of these babies and I was hooked! I could have eaten the entire box! Thankfully I was in company, and totally lacking in chutzpah.

    They were incredibly crisp, totally delicious, oat-ey with and almost nutty flavour (although no nuts are mentioned in the recipe) and a generous amount of chocolate adhering the 2 halves together make them rich and totally decadent, the perfect partner to a cup of tea or coffee.

    It was on that day, I decided that these were my favourite of all store bought biscuit/cookie confections.

    Being the lover of baking that I am, I finally decided to take it upon myself to attempt to recreate these gems!

    I knew (from the packaging) that these were a Swedish biscuit. But I had no idea what the Swedes called these, or how to find a genuine recipe.

    I was largely helped along, by Clotilde of Chocolate & Zucchini who started off a search for a recipe (in 2004) by asking her readers if they knew of any. The contributions range from 2004 up until 2011 and there were a few different suggestions mentioned.

    What I found largely beneficial, was discovering the Swedish name for them, HAVREFLARN,  which allowed me to search further for an appropriate recipe.

    It comes as no surprise to me that there was a vast array of recipes online. Some were similar, some identical and some quite strange.

    My first attempt used one of the more simple recipes (including syrup in the mix). It produced a very tasty, but highly textured cookie whereas the boxed version has a lot less texture.

    I then decided to try processing the oats – with disastrous results! They turned out crumbly and dry.

    I then attempted an alternative recipe whose ingredients better matched up to those noted on the box – minus all the added preservatives…

    I decided to try a half recipe, see how it turned out, and in my rushed attempt to throw the mixture together,  I made a few little errors.

    Firstly, the whole recipe calls for 1 egg, instead of using half an egg I threw in a whole one, making the mix rather wet. Secondly, I also failed to use half the amount of sugar. I’ve never claimed to be a genius!

    I spooned a few dollops onto a baking tray anyway, and was quite pleased with my results! They didn’t look quite as refined as the boxed cookies, but they had a similar crunch, just not quite as nutty in flavour. Maybe the people over at GILLE toast their oats?

    So in some ways, I guess I developed my own recipe, and despite the doubling of sugar, they weren’t overly sweet. Woohoo!

    Double Chocolate Crisps / Havreflarn

    Makes: 10 double cookies   Time: 40-45 mins

    Ingredients

    50g Butter, melted
    120g Oats
    1 whole Egg
    130g Caster Sugar
    1 Tbsp Plain Flour
    1 tsp Baking Powder

    150g good quality dark chocolate

    Preheat oven to 175 C/ 347 F

    • Combine oats, sugar, egg and melted butter.
    • Sift in flour and baking powder, and mix through.
    • Take teaspoon sized amounts of mixture, roll into balls, and space generously onto a lined baking tray. (You should have approx 20 pieces to make 10 biscuits)
    • Wet the back of a teaspoon and gently flatten the balls, they will spread, but this should allow them to spread evenly, reducing a dome in the centre.
    • Place trays in preheated oven and bake for 7mins, then turn trays, and bake for a further 3-4mins.
    • They should be a nice even golden brown so you may have to adjust your timing to suit your oven.
    • Once ready, place onto a cooling rack.
    • Chop chocolate finely, and melt either over a bain marie, or very gently in the microwave.
    • Once biscuits are cool, and chocolate is melted, dip the underside of once, and then place another underside onto the chocolate, adhering the two together, leave to set. If you are impatient like me, stick them in the fridge to set.
    • Pour yourself a cold glass of milk, or pop the kettle on and make yourself a brew.
    • Eat and thoroughly enjoy!

    When I made this batch pictured, I was feeling a little experimental, and decided to try some with milk chocolate.

    They were good, but I think part of the charm of these biscuits is the intensity of the rich dark chocolate, paired with the warm nuttiness of the crisp, oat-ey biscuit.

    I feel like maybe I could have refined this recipe a little further, but I’ll leave that to another day.

    I’m pretty certain this is a recipe I’ll come back to!

    Hmm… Think I’ll go get myself that glass of milk – these things aren’t gonna eat themselves!

    Category Sweet Treats | Tags: ,,,,,, | 15 Comments