Vegan Sant Joan coca with cream, sour cherries and pine nuts

Name: Vegan Sant Joan coca with cream, sour cherries and pine nuts
Total time: 230 min
Yield: For 10 servings
Ingredients: 300 gr. strong bread flour; 25 gr. fresh yeast; 60 gr. whole cane sugar; 50 ml. water (lukewarm); 50 ml. extra virgin olive oil (mild flavor); 3 tablespoons aquafaba; 15 ml. lemon juice; 1/2 teaspoon salt; skin zest of 1 lemon; 1 teaspoon orange blossom water; 230 gr. classic vegan pastry cream; candied cherries; pine nut; whole cane sugar

1 h 30 m*Total time

MediumDifficulty

10Servings

*Plus 2 hours and 20 minutes of resting

As we already told you in the recipes for fruit-topped Sant Joan coca filled with orange pastry cream and cherries in syrup and fruit-topped Sant Joan coca filled with chocolate truffle cream, this sweet is the traditional dessert of Saint John's Eve, eaten especially in Catalonia, the Valencian Community and the Balearic Islands during the bonfire festival, although in some regions of Aragon it also plays a major role.

Saint John's Eve (the night of June 23) is a festival of pagan origin in which tribute was paid to the sun by celebrating the shortest night, during the summer solstice (June 21). For this, bonfires were lit which, it was believed, purified and brought luck, and kept the brightness of the day going until the next morning, on the night with the fewest hours of darkness.

On this very special night, festivals are still held today, and since the 1860s this very tender sweet has been eaten. Although in the beginning it was made in a round shape to represent the sun, over time it began to be made in an oval shape, with standard dimensions of twice as long as wide, to reflect the proportion between day and night at this unique moment of the year.

To decorate

Notes

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

If you cannot find red cherries without the additive E-120 (carmine), you can use green cherries.

Tap on the steps to mark them as done

Step 1
In a small cup or bowl, put the lukewarm water with the fresh yeast, stir until it dissolves well and set aside.
Step 2
In another bowl, put the aquafaba and beat it with a whisk until frothy. Then add the sugar and keep beating until you get a thick, stiff mixture.
Step 3
In a large bowl, sift the flour, add the salt and mix well so the result is fluffier.

Step 4
Make a well in the middle of the flour, add the dissolved yeast and gradually fold the flour from around the edge toward the center until the yeast is completely covered. When the yeast is covered, knead until you get a smooth mixture.
Step 5
Add the aquafaba with the sugar and stir well, with folding motions, until it becomes difficult to keep kneading. Then add the oil, the lemon juice and zest and the orange blossom water, and knead again so that all the ingredients are well combined.
Step 6
Put a little flour on a smooth surface, turn the dough out onto it and knead for 10 minutes, until it no longer sticks to your hands.
Step 7
Once kneaded, shape it into a ball and put it back in the bowl, covered with a cloth, for 20 minutes.
Step 8
After this time, we will shape the dough. Take a piece of baking paper and place it on a flat surface. Put the dough on it and, with a floured rolling pin or a clean glass bottle greased with a little oil, shape it into an elongated, slightly wider shape to form the base of the coca.
Step 9
Let it rest for 1 hour on a baking tray covered with a clean cloth, placed in the switched-off oven so it can rise.
Step 10
After this time, take the tray out of the oven and, with an oiled hand, make diagonal grooves along the coca, first from one side and then from the other, so that a pattern of diamond shapes forms.
Step 11
Put the pastry cream in a piping bag and, with a star nozzle, fill the grooves slowly and carefully. Then place the drained cherries in syrup, cut in half, cover the tray again and put it back in the switched-off oven for 1 more hour.
Step 12
After this time, remove the tray from the oven and preheat it for 15 minutes at 200 °C. Meanwhile, uncover the tray and finish decorating the coca by placing the pine nuts in the diamond shapes left around the cream and sprinkling a little sugar over the entire surface.
Step 13
When the oven is preheated, lower the temperature to 175 °C and put the coca in, letting it cook for 8 to 10 minutes, depending on how golden brown you like it, always watching to make sure it doesn't burn.
Step 14
When the coca is golden, take it out of the oven, wait for it to cool and serve.