Feeling Zesty

In college, I interned for the Marketing Science Institute and my manager brought in a packet of Pim’s. I ate one and was instantly hooked - a soft biscuit topped with an orange jelly, covered in chocolate. Orange and chocolate are two of my favorite combinations.

Throughout the years after my first encounter, I looked for Pim’s in grocery stores and when I found them, I often hesitated to buy them because of their artificial ingredients.

But a couple years ago, I learned about jaffa cakes while watching The Great British Bake Off. I’ve been wanting to make them ever since. I finally committed to making them during the holidays this year and they are, hands-down, the best tasting dessert I’ve ever made. Perfect for Christmas, might I add.

Below, I modified Mary Berry’s recipe a tad. I know, sacrilege! But, I didn’t have white sugar on hand and was too lazy to whisk the egg and sugar first.

My version uses coconut sugar, the zest of two oranges, a blender, and US units of measurement.

Ingredients for the jelly

Juice of 3 large navel oranges

Zest of 2 large navel oranges

2 tablespoons of sugar-free apricot jam (I used Bionaturae)

2 teaspoons of coconut sugar

2 scoops of Vital Proteins gelatin powder

Ingredients for the sponge

Unsalted butter, for greasing the muffin tin

3 large eggs

1 cup of all-purpose flour

1 cup of coconut sugar

1.25 teaspoons of baking powder

1/4 teaspoon of salt

Ingredients for the topping

1.5 cups of semisweet chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Make the jelly at least an hour beforehand by stirring together all the jelly ingredients on low heat. When the gelatin is completely dissolved, pour the mixture into a 9x9 pan. Chill in the fridge until set.

2. For the sponge, blend together all of the sponge ingredients until smooth and airy. This will take a few minutes. Pour evenly into the greased muffin tin (about 2/3 full). Bake in a pre-heated oven at 355 degrees Fahrenheit for 14 minutes. When testing whether the sponge is done, the sponge will slightly stick to the knife even when it’s fully cooked.

3. While the sponge is cooling, melt the chocolate chips in a bowl set over a pot of simmering water. Remove the bowl from the heat just as half the chips are melting. Leave the melted chocolate to cool and thicken slightly.

4. Cut 12 discs from the orange jelly. I used my blender’s lid plug. Place one jelly dish on top of each sponge.

5. Spoon the melted chocolate over the jelly discs.

6. Place the cakes in the fridge for 15 minutes to set.

7. Enjoy! They are beautiful with tea and coffee.

Chickpeas Please

Still on my vegan spree, I made these five-ingredient-chickpea cookie dough balls that were a cinch. The title is longer than the ingredient list, which is:

• 2 cups of chickpeas

• 1 tablespoon of tahini

• 2 tablespoons of maple syrup

• 1 cup of chocolate chips

• 1/2 teaspoon of salt

Blend everything but the chocolate chips with an immersion blender.

Mix in the chocolate chips.

Roll into bite-size balls.

Chill and enjoy!

Takes Two to Mango

Another recipe inspired by Samin Nosrat, this mango pie is a paleo version of the one she recently wrote about in The New York Times. While sitting on the bus home on Friday, I was super pumped for the weekend and excited to cook in the kitchen (weekends are usually the only time I get to do any real cooking). This is V0 of my mango pie. Hopefully I’ll learn to perfect it in years to come :)

Ingredients for the custard

• 2.5 cups of mango puree (about 3-4 mangoes)

• 1 pack of gelatin

• 1 tablespoon of honey

• 2 teaspoons of lemon juice

• 1 egg

• 2 tablespoons of tapioca flour

• Pinch of salt

Ingredients for the crust

• 1/4 cup of honey

• 1/3 cup of coconut oil or ghee

• 1 egg

• 2/3 cup of coconut flour

• 1/4 cup of tapioca flour

• Pinch of salt

Instructions

1. Mix the crust ingredients together. Roll the dough into a ball and freeze.

2. Blend all the custard ingredients together.

3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

4. Roll out the crust and press evenly into a pie tin. Poke holes in the bottom with a fork.

5. Bake the crust for 10-15 min.

6. Lower the oven to 325 degrees F.

7. Pour the custard mix into the pie tin.

8. Bake for another 18-20 min.

9. Let the pie cool and then when it’s room temp, put it in the fridge to set some more.