”Inspired by many discussions about making a vegan jelly ear Jaffa cake with @queer.as.funghi I thought I’d give it a go. It was a fair amount of work but I made quite a few so was totally worth it in the end. Especially with the high praise received.
GeorgeFlavour Fred
Jelly Ear mushrooms are out in force right now (Auricularia auricula-judae) and it’s best to look on dead elder. I look out for elders with their rough papery bark that comes away easily. Then I search the fallen branches around them but checking that it’s elder, near enough avoids many other jelly fungus it might be.
Often used in Asian dishes especially raw in a salad with chilli, garlic, seasame oil & vinegar which I’ve had in a few Vietnamese places, and in many broths/soups in Chinese dishes along with many more varieties. I thought I’d try making the Jelly Ear Jaffa Cake that we so often talk about.
After dehydrating the jelly ears I poured the quince syrup on top. After which I made a sponge using the following ingredients by getting all wet ingredients and mixing with the dry before baking for 25minutes at 180 degrees
WET INGREDIENTS
400 ml soya milk
40 ml cider vinegar
150 ml oil (other fats can be used)
4 tsp vanilla extract
DRY INGREDIENTS
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
400 g self raising flour
200 g caster sugar
pinch of salt
Once baked I placed the Japanese quince re-hydrated jelly ear on top and covered with melted chocolate and grated chocolate.
For flavour I gathered some fallen Japanese quince (Chaenomeles Japonica) which is a non-native shrub used for ornamental purposes on many houses as it has a beautiful flower and a great fruit know as Kusa-boke in Japanese. The flavour is just like quince but I feel more perfume and tannins exist. I cited them and poached for a few hours with sugar (1L water, 250g sugar (25%)).
