Gluten-Free Christmas

[The Old Foodie]

I know I have been very absent from e-Gullet for ages ... but ... I am back ...

My daughter-in-law is seriously gluten intolerant, and I know it is a common problem, so I thought I'd post this recipe for a G-F Christmas fruit cake.

I havent cut it yet (it is still hot from the oven), so perhaps I am being a little premature in posting it, but it looks and smells good - no doubt due to the large amount of booze in it. The recipe is a sort of amalgam of boiled fruit cakes I have made over the years, plus some ideas from other G-F recipes.

Gluten-Free Fruitcake.

I kg dried fruit (about 100 gm glace cherries for colour, the rest made up of approximately equal amounts of raisins, sultanas, currants, and prunes.

1 bottle wine (I used muscat - had a bottle of nondescript brand languishing at the back of the cupboard; I guess any wine or mixture would work well)

125 gm brown sugar

150 gm unsalted butter

150 gm walnuts, broken up into largish chunks

1 teas allspice

1 teas ground ginger

1 ½ teas cinnamon

¾ cup ground almonds

1 teas baking powder

2 large eggs

180 gm GF flour (a bit more or less)

Mix the fruit, wine, sugar and spices in a pan; bring to the boil. Take off the heat, stir in the butter, ground almonds, baking powder. Add the beaten eggs and stir well. Add sufficient flour to give the right texture (difficult to be exact, because all G-F flours are different).

Bake.

I did mine at 160 deg Celsius, fan off. Took about an hour – one standard size loaf tin and one small – I put the larger one back in the oven (switched off) for another 15 mins as I was not certain it was cooked.

Any other ideas for G-F Christmas goodies out there?

Janet

[helenjp]

Very timely - but can you give me some idea of home-made gluten-free flour combinations that work well with fruitcake? A gluten-intolerant friend is coming to stay...I'm eyeing my bag of purple sweet potato flour and wondering how she'd feel about purple fruit cake.).

[The Old Foodie]

I think that any GF flour that is mostly cornflour would work - I'd mix the purple sweet potato flour with at least 50% cornflour. A fruit cake is not "light" so it doesnt matter so much.

[Eden]

Very timely - but can you give me some idea of home-made gluten-free flour combinations that work well with fruitcake? A gluten-intolerant friend is coming to stay...I'm eyeing my bag of purple sweet potato flour  and wondering how she'd feel about purple fruit cake.).

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This is the mix I use when cooking for my GF friends.

Let us know how the fruit cake came out please. I have a couple friends who would enjoy it...

[The Old Foodie]

The fruit cake turned out beautifully - sorry I dont have a pic.

I may have very slightly overcooked it, so will give it 5-10 mins less next time.

Maybe I should just pour some more muscat over it!

I am thinking that ground hazelnuts would work too - and chopped hazelnuts instead of walnuts.

[annarborfoodie]

They're not Christmas-specific, but I tried this gluten-free adaptation of Alice Medrich's brownie recipe and the results were outstanding. I used all brown rice flour, because I had it on hand and didn't want to go buy something else.

[The Old Foodie]

The fruit cake has been tasted and pronounced very good, and apparently I did not over-cook it at all, it was very moist and a great flavour (must be all that booze) and great texture. No-one would be aware that it is gluten free.

annarborfoodie: my son (whose wife is the one who is gluten-intolerant) says he prefers my brownie recipe when I make it GF - and funnily enough a few other friends who have eaten them (not knowing they were GF) have said they were particularly good. I think the denser fudgier texture of brownies is improved somehow? i dont know why that is.

I usually use a blend of GF flours, but am just on my way out to shop, so I'll buy some brown rice flour and try it out in my standard recipes (both brown and blond) and I'll also try Alice Medrich's recipe. Thanks.