Vegan St John's cake filled with orange cream and cherries in syrup

Name: Vegan St John's cake filled with orange cream and cherries in syrup
Total time: 240 min
Yield: For 10 servings
Ingredients: 150 ml. soy milk; 270 gr. strong bread flour; 50 gr. whole cane sugar; 35 ml. extra virgin olive oil (Arbequina or royal variety); 20 gr. fresh yeast; zest of 1 lemon; 1 teaspoon orange blossom water; 250 gr. orange vegan pastry cream; 250 gr. cherries in syrup; whole cane sugar; 25 gr. pine nut; candied fruit

2 h*Total time

DifficultDifficulty

10Servings

* Plus 2 and a half hours of rest

With the arrival of the summer solstice comes the Sant Joan (St John's Eve) festival, celebrated on 23 June with bonfires (to pay tribute to the sun, to fight the few hours of darkness of the shortest night and to purify sins) and with the traditional coca de Sant Joan, which we are going to show you how to make in this recipe.

Etymologically speaking, the name ‘coca’ (originally ‘cóc’) is believed to come from the Latin verb ‘coquere’, meaning to cook, although it is also said that it could come from the same verb in its Germanic version (cook in English, koch in German, kok in Dutch, kock in Swedish…), from which terms such as ‘cake’ and ‘Kuchen’ (the English and German words for cake, respectively) are in turn derived. This lack of consensus about its etymological origin could be due to the massive migrations of the Germanic peoples towards the rest of Europe, which gave rise to the current diversity of the Germanic languages through contact with Latin.

As for its shape, although the coca de Sant Joan was initially round to represent the sun at the summer solstice, over the years it began to be made oval, and that is how it has come down to the present day.

To decorate

Notes

You can replace the soy milk with any other plant-based drink.

Check that the cherries in syrup do not have the additive E-120, since it is of animal origin (cochineal).

When it comes to kneading, try not to flour too much so that the coca is fluffy and does not become caked.

Tap on the steps to mark them as done

Step 1
Grated lemon peel and mixed with sugar.
Step 2
In a bowl, we mix the soy milk, the oil and the orange blossom water. We remove and add the yeast, mixing until it dissolves.
Step 3
In another bowl, sift the flour and add the mixture of sugar and lemon zest, stirring everything to be well mixed.

Step 4
Gradually pour the liquid mixture into the bowl where we have the flour with the sugar and lemon zest and we are kneading.
Step 5
When we see that the dough no longer sticks in the hands, we put a little flour on the surface where we are going to work and we continue kneading it until we see that there is a thin and elastic mass. We make a ball, put it in a greased container, cover it with transparent film and let it rest for 2 hours.
Step 6
After this time, preheat the oven to 180 °C. While it's preheating, remove the dough from the bowl (you'll see it has risen considerably) and gently roll it back into a ball. Place parchment paper on your work surface, divide the dough in two (one piece slightly larger than the other), and roll out the larger half into an oval shape.
Step 7
With the help of a spatula or spoon, we toss half of the orange cream on the dough, cover with the cherries cut in half without leaving many gaps between them (leaving a free margin to be able to seal well later) and we throw a little more than cream on top.

Piece of larger dough spread and covered with cream and cherries (before putting back more cream)
Step 8
We knead the other half of the dough with an oval shape, roll it into it to transport it and place it very carefully on the other half of the cream and cherries.
Step 9
We press the edges of the two halves against each other to seal them well and let rest half an hour.

Coca filled, covered and sealed
Step 10
After this time, decorate the coca with the candied fruit, pine nuts, and sugar. Then put it in the oven and bake for 15 minutes at 180 °C watching carefully to make sure it doesn't burn.
Step 11
We take out of the oven and let it cool to room temperature.