With this world wide global marketplace in which we now live, it seems we have available anything we want from anywhere at anytime. Teas from China … cotton sheets from Egypt … woolen scarves from Scotland … wild salmon from Alaska … it’s all there in the stores. But, when you want some Jaffa Cakes, where can you find them? I realize, of course, most everything you can think of is available through Amazon (at an exorbitant price, I might add), but we were hoping to find these inexpensive and delectable little nuggets of deliciousness in the International food aisle from at least one of the big supermarket chains, and not have to wait for the delivery man to walk down the driveway in two or three days. 
For those of you who don’t know what a Jaffa Cake is, it’s a small not overly sweet, cake-like cookie with an orange-flavored gelatinous disc in the center, topped with dark chocolate. They’re inexpensive, sold in packages and are available everywhere in the U.K., from supermarkets to convenience stores, and loved by everyone. And, yes, they were a baking challenge on one of the earlier Great British Bake Off programs.
Well, if I can’t buy them, then here’s another baking challenge – Jaffa Cakes. As always I begin by doing a little online research. It astonishes me that you can see the exact same recipe on a dozen different ‘home baker’s’ sites. Do they just copy and paste from one to another?
From the web, I printed a couple of recipes and then took out my British cookbooks. Now which recipe to try? The first recipe was Mary Berry‘s, which was confusing because it said to ‘break the jelly into pieces’. Wasn’t sure what that meant. Next was Paul Hollywood‘s recipe which also called for me to ‘break the jelly into cubes’. Apparently, this is an ingredient we either don’t have here in the U.S., or we call it something else. I decided to make my own orange filling with gelatin, orange juice and sugar. It didn’t really work. Okay then, why not use orange flavored JELL-O? Which I did and it worked perfectly. After many tries and fails, converting grams to cups, and wondering why all British recipes call for “free range” eggs, here’s my recipe. I hope you like it!!
JAFFA CAKES
Bake at 350°. Makes 12 – 2″ cookies. Equipment needed: muffin tin and/or whoopie pie tin
2 large eggs, room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
pinch salt
1 3 oz. package orange-flavored JELL-O
1/3 cup boiling water
1-1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
butter for greasing tins
Make the filling first by dissolving a packet of orange-flavored gelatin into 1/3 cup of boiling water. Spray or grease a 12 count muffin tin. Into the bottom of each cup put a tablespoon of the gelatin. Put the tin into the refrigerator for the gelatin to set. When the gelatin has set completely, remove each disc from the muffin tin and place on a dish. Place the dish back into the refrigerator until its time to assemble.
Using a stand mixer or hand mixer, beat the eggs and sugar together for at least 5 minutes until delicate, pale and frothy. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Carefully fold the dry ingredients into the egg mixture. Be careful not to deflate the eggs. Put 2 tablespoons of batter into the bottom of each of the greased muffin cups and bake at 350° for 7 to 8 minutes or until pale but baked through.
Remove the muffin pan from the oven and let cool for a few minutes. Then remove each cake/cookie and let them cool completely on a wire rack. Meanwhile, over a bowl of very hot water, melt the chocolate chips, stirring as necessary until smooth and shiny. Let cool a bit.
To assemble: take a cake/cookie and place an orange disc on top and quickly place a spoonful of the chocolate on top of the disc. Using the back of a spoon, spread the chocolate, sealing in the orange wafer. Place the cookie back onto the rack. When they are all assembled, using the tines of a fork, gently make a criss-cross pattern on each of them*.
They may not be as pretty as Mary Berry’s Jaffa Cakes, but they taste pretty darn good. Tasty little cakes with an orange filling and chocolate frosting. If you wanted to make these ahead, I’m sure they’d probably last a few days, but definitely not in our house!
*As you can see, I tried … but failed miserably at this.
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Puff Pastry has layers of butter incorporated within the pastry, which when baked, causes pockets of steam to form in the dough. The dough then separates into flaky layers. Phyllo needs oil or melted butter brushed onto each pastry layer before baking, usually requiring three or more layers, it then becomes tender and flaky.
Spread the chocolate (or Nutella or even peanut butter, if you’d like) over the entire sheet of pastry. Sprinkle evenly with chopped nuts.
Now its time to preheat the oven to 400°. Take the rolled pastry out of the refrigerator and place it onto a cutting board. Cut into slices about 1/4″ to 1/2″ thick. It’s entirely up to you. The thicker the slices, the longer they will take to bake. Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until they are golden and cooked through. Cool on a wire rack.
You can make a quick glaze using confectioners sugar and milk to drizzle over the top (or not).
Put the butter in a bowl, melt it and then let it cool. In another bowl, sift the flour, baking powder and salt together, Then set aside. In a third bowl, beat the eggs and sugar on high til thick and pale yellow (about 3 to 4 mins). Beat in the vanilla (or whatever flavoring you’d like to use). Slowly add the sifted dry ingredients, being careful not to over beat.
Then take a spoonful of the batter and mix it into the melted, cool butter. This is important to break down the butter so it can be incorporated into the batter without breaking it down. After the butter mixture has lightened, fold it back into the batter. Be sure to scrape the sides and fold everything in well. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes (or up to two days in the refrigerator).
Take a teaspoon of the batter and put it into the shell mold. Only fill the mold about 3/4 of the way – no more. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes until the edges begin to brown. Take the pan out of the oven and immediately turn the cookies out onto a cooling rack. Regrease the mold pan and continue baking until you’ve used all the batter.