Luke Hines' dark chocolate lamingtons with blueberry–chia jam

Ingredients

• 250 ml (1 cup) coconut oil, melted
• 125 ml (½ cup) maple syrup
• 2 vanilla pods, split and scraped
• 8 eggs
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 130 g (1 cup) arrowroot or tapioca flour
• 200 g (2 cups) almond meal
• 120 g (2 cups) shredded or flaked coconut

Blueberry–chia jam

• 375 g (3 cups) blueberries, fresh or frozen and thawed
• 250 ml (1 cup) maple syrup
• Finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
• 40 g (¼ cup) chia seeds

Dark chocolate and coconut icing

• 200 ml coconut oil, melted
• 150 g (1 ¼ cups) cacao powder
• 2 vanilla pods, split and scraped
• 125 ml (½ cup) coconut cream
• 80 ml (⅓ cup) maple syrup

Method

Preheat the oven to 160°C. Grease and line a 35 x 25 x 5 centimetre baking tray with baking paper.

In a bowl, mix together the coconut oil, maple syrup and vanilla seeds. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs with an electric hand-held whisk for 4 minutes, or until thick and airy. Continuing to whisk, slowly pour the coconut oil mixture into the eggs until incorporated, then gently fold in the baking powder, arrowroot or tapioca flour and almond meal with a spoon, being careful to keep as much air in the batter as possible.

Pour the cake batter into the prepared baking tray and bake for 25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Turn the sponge cake out onto a wire rack and set aside to cool completely.

While the sponge is cooling, get on with the jam and icing. For the blueberry–chia jam, put all the ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat and stir together with a spoon. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat to a simmer and cook for about 20 minutes, or until nice and thick. Set aside. (For a really smooth consistency you can pass the jam through a fine sieve, but I personally like mine a bit rustic, so I keep it as is.)

To make the dark chocolate and coconut icing, combine all the ingredients in a bowl. Whisk everything together for a minute or so until thick and creamy, then set aside until needed.
Now get onto assembling these delicious lamingtons. Neatly trim the edges and top of the cooled sponge cake to form an even rectangle, then cut the rectangle in half horizontally. Spread a thin layer of jam over one of the sponges then sandwich the two sponge layers together. Cut the sandwiched sponge into 15 squares.

To finish, submerge the sponge squares in the chocolate icing, then scatter over the coconut to coat evenly. Set aside on a wire rack for 1 hour for the chocolate icing to firm before serving, or store in the fridge until needed.

Tip: Have heaps of jam left over? Perfect! It’s great to enjoy on all your other bakery items and sweet treats. Store in a sealed, sterilised jar and refrigerate until needed. It’ll keep in the refrigerator for up to three months.

This is an edited extract from Eat Clean by Luke Hines, published by Plum, RRP $39.99