How do you transform a Jaffa Cake into a thoughtful gift? Make it yourself. And make it French.
This recipe brings together soft cookies and marmalade, topped with crispy chocolate. Wherever you rock up with a tin of these, you’re sure to be well received.
Makes about 20
170g orange marmalade
Pinch of agar* powder
3 large free-range eggs
75g caster sugar
75g plain flour
1 tsp sunflower oil
200g/7oz dark chocolate
1 In a saucepan, mix the marmalade with 4 tsp of water, bring to a boil, sprinkle with the agar and mix vigorously. Let the marmalade simmer for 2 mins.
2 Put a tsp marmalade into each cup of a 20-cup mini muffin pan and let it cool to room temperature. Refrigerate for an hour.
3 Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160C/350F. Separate the eggs and, with an electric mixer, whisk the whites with a pinch of salt until stiff.
4 Sprinkle the sugar over the egg whites and whisk for another minute. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, whisking all the time, and then beat in the flour. Finally, add the oil and mix gently.
5 Pour the batter onto a baking sheet lined with baking parchment. Spread it to an even thickness to cover the baking sheet. Bake for about 10 mins and then let cool.
6 With a cookie cutter, cut circles about 5cm in diameter, wasting as little as possible. Set the cut-out circles on the same lined baking skeet and bake for about 5 mins to dry the cookies.
7 Spread each cookie with a little of the refrigerated marmalade mixture and
then arrange on a baking sheet and freeze for an hour.
8 Melt the chocolate in a bain marie (a heatproof bowl set just above a pan
of boiling water).
9 Remove the cookies from the freezer and, using a soft spatula, coat each one with a thin layer of melted chocolate. The difference in temperature will cause the chocolate to solidify almost instantly into a crisp layer.
10 Transfer the cookies to a rack as soon as they’re finished to let the chocolate harden completely before eating. The cookies keep for up to five days in an airtight tin.
*Agar is a kind of vegetarian gelatin, available in the baking section at big supermarkets.
Recipe taken from Better Made at Home by Estérelle Payany. Photography: Guillaume Czerw (Black Dog & Leventhal, £12.99).
More recipes!
Got a taste for shop-bought treats made by hand? Us too. Follow our Pinterest board for recipes for classics such as jammie dodgers, hobnobs, custard creams, fondant fancies, and even the chocolate teacake.
Compiled by Lottie Storey