ISO Flourless almond cake

[atcake]

I have a client that is gluten allergic. She has requested a flourless almond cake. Does anyone here have something I can use for her? I'm gluten-free ignorant.

Thanks!!

[chezcherie]

here's one we use in my cooking school. it's pretty fool-proof, and tasty, too:

Valencia Almond Cake

8 oz. blanched almonds

1/2 cup sugar, divided

4 eggs, separated

zest of 2 oranges

2 tablespoons Amontillado Sherry

pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 375. Butter a 9” cake pan.

Place the almonds in a food processor with 2 tablespoons of the sugar. Pulse until the almonds are finely ground.

With an electric mixer, beat the yolks with another 2 tablespoons of sugar. Add the orange zest and the pinch of salt, and beat 2 minutes. Stir the sherry into the ground almonds, then combine this mixture with the yolk mixture.

With an electric mixer, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Sprinkle in the remaining 4 tablespoons sugar, a tablespoon at a time, until incorporated.

Add half the egg whites to the almond/yolk mixture and stir to combine. Add the rest of the whites and fold gently to combine. Spoon into the prepared cake pan, and bake 30-35 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes before removing from pan.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar. We serve the almond cake with vanilla ice cream mixed with sherry, and fresh blueberries.

[The Old Foodie]

This is my take on the standard "boil two oranges" recipe; has chocolate in it of course.

CHOCOLATE ORANGE CAKE.

INGREDIENTS

2 oranges

6 eggs, separated

300 gm ground almonds

¼ cup good quality cocoa (Callebaut choc powder is very good)

1 cup castor sugar

150 gm dark chocolate, melted and cooled (70% cocoa is good)

1 and 1/4 teas baking powder

METHOD

Boil the oranges about 1 hour, cool, de-seed (easier to use Navel oranges!) and chop in the blender (not too smooth!) Mix with egg yolks and other ingredients.

Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

Greased and lined springform tin (mine is 26 cm), moderate oven 1 ¼ hours.

[atcake]

You guys are awesome! Thanks!!!

[Aphra]

Here are two cakes I make all the time, they are both from Claudia Roden's "Book of Middle Eastern Food", but because I've been asked for the recipes a lot, I've rewritten both recipes to reflect my own practic, so I think they're OK as far as copyright goes.

I've specified flour for the pans, lately I've been using oil spray which works just as well, so the flour isn't necessary. I've also used a little caster sugar instead of flour (I'm not sure what caster sugar is in American terminology, it's fine sugar in the grade between powdered sugar and ordinary sugar).

I've done a rough translation of these amounts from lbs and ozs to metric, but it's not a cake where exactness matters hugely.

250g good quality dark chocolate

2 tablespoons milk

125g ground almonds (I like to buy raw almonds with skin and grind them myself in the food processor. The final result is a bit coarser than if you buy ready ground almonds, but you get a nice almondy flavour because the almonds tast fresher. Or you can buy ready ground almond meal.)

6 tablespoons sugar

6 eggs, separated

butter, flour for the pan.

Melt the chocolate with the milk. I like to separate the eggs, beat the whites until stiff, and then beat the yolks separately with the sugar until they are white and fluffy. I think this makes for a cake with a bit lighter texture, but you don't have to do this is you're short of time. Just beat the whites until stiff.

Mix the melted chocolate with the ground almonds, sugar and egg yolks. Fold the stiffened egg whites through.

I've found that the easiest thing to make this cake in is one of those cake tins with the detachable bottoms, ring tins? But whatever you use, you need a reasonable sized one, since the cake rises more than you would expect. Grease the cake tin with butter and sprinke with flour.

Bake in a moderate oven (about 230-250 I suppose) for 3/4 to 1 hour. It's cooked when it's just set in the middle, but a bit of time more or less doesn't make a lot of difference. It's supposed to be a bit squidgy.

The cake will rise a lot, but as it cools it will slump, that's part of the deal. You can get it to slump less if you turn the oven off, open the door and leave the cake to cool slowly. You can sprinkle it with caster sugar, but I prefer cocoa.

It's great hot, or cool, served with cream or raspberry puree. It keeps for days, it freezes well and it's just yummy. It's hard to get wrong really. I've made it so many times that the page in the book is all covered in chocolate blobs and you can't read some bits of the recipe.

Here's another one which is just as easy and just as good to eat. From the same book...you'll get this in groovy restaurants in Melbourne a lot..but it's dead simple to make, you just have to allow more time.

Orange almond cake

2 large or 4 small oranges

6 eggs

250g ground almonds

250g sugar

1 teaspoon baking power

although this is not in the recipe, I add about a tablespoon full of orange flower water, but no big deal if you don't have it.

flour and butter for the cake tin.

Wash, then boil the unpeeled oranges in some water for about 2 hours, or until they've gone very soft. Put the whole oranges through a sieve or something, (to get rid of the pips, although I'm so lazy I just whack them in the food processor and whizz them up pips and all).

Beat the eggs and sugar in a bowl, add the almonds and orange pulp and then cook as above. Same deal with the tin. This cake will take a bit longer to cook, so about an hour, but again, it's very squidgy and heavy. It looks a bit peculiar, but it tastes wonderful.

[Kayakado]

Here is a website that offers a bunch of recipes that use almond flour for desserts.

Their almond pound cake is a great base for a whole host of wonderful desserts.

http://www.lowcarbluxury.com/lowcarb-desserts.html

[atcake]

Thank you for the additional information. I'll be checking those out.

[danlepard]

almonds...zest of 2 oranges...Amontillado Sherry

sounds excellent.

[gfron1]

The Old Foodie did me right! This was an amazing cake - post #3 above. I ground my own nuts so they were a bit large, but worked fine. Thanks Old Foodie!

[racheld]

This is my take on the standard "boil two oranges" recipe; has chocolate in it of course.

CHOCOLATE ORANGE CAKE.

INGREDIENTS

2 oranges

6 eggs, separated

300 gm ground almonds

¼ cup good quality cocoa (Callebaut choc powder is very good)

1 cup castor sugar

150 gm dark chocolate, melted and cooled (70% cocoa is good)

1 and 1/4 teas baking powder

METHOD

Boil the oranges about 1 hour, cool, de-seed (easier to use Navel oranges!) and chop in the blender (not too smooth!) Mix with egg yolks and other ingredients.

Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

Greased and lined springform tin (mine is 26 cm), moderate oven 1 ¼ hours.

←

I saw Miss Nigella make a cake like this---is there no residual bitterness from using all the pith? I know she LIKES bitter and sour tastes more than I do.

Edited October 10, 2007 by racheld (log)

[gfron1]

I've only made it this once (although I plan to make it again this weekend), but I modified the recipe due to time constraints and peeled the citrus so I had less pith than the original recipe (if you do this you have to add juice back in to get the moisture level correct). I think with the sugar bath as suggested in the recipe it would be fine. I liked the purity of my modification however.

[The Old Foodie]

I am becoming quite a collector of gluten-free recipes since my daughter-in-law was diagnosed with coeliac.

I have made a great flourless cake with ground hazelnuts (and chocolate of course) - not sure where the recipe came from, it might have been a magazine, so I cant post it here because of copyright. If anyone wants it, PM me. Hazelnuts and chocolate do it for me every time.

And no, Rachel, the choc-orange cake is not at all bitter, the long boiling does away with that, and the peel gives a great texture.

[Tri2Cook]

Ok, I'm convinced. I'm giving this one a try. I have oranges (satsumas) tucked away on a back burner boiling right now. I'm breaking one of my own rules (when using someone elses recipe, always do it their way the first time) and baking it as small individual cakes so we'll see how it goes.

EDIT: I lied. I have another project going on that requires individual cakes and, since that one is for a paying customer, it gets priority. So time constraints sent the boiled orange cake to a springform after all.

Edited October 11, 2007 by Tri2Cook (log)

[Tri2Cook]

This is a really good cake, I'll definitely make it again. I topped mine with a thin layer of milk chocolate and orange ganache before I glazed it. Thanks to The Old Foodie for the recipe and to Rob for making it and inspiring me to give it a try.

Sorry about the springform bottom, this one was just for everybody to munch so I didn't bother trying to pretty up the presentation.

[Jmahl]

This is a wonderful Cake - Just eliminate the wheat flour.

Torta de Santiago

Almond sponge cake

This cake is a specialty of Galicia. The top of the cake is traditionally decorated with a cross in confectioner’s sugar, in honor of Saint James, Spain’s patron saint.

1 lb. (500 g) blanched almonds (about 3 cups)

2 ¼ cups (18 oz/560 g) granulated sugar (used two cups)

¾ cup (6 oz/180 g) (one stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

7 eggs (used 6 jumbo eggs)

1/3-cup (2 oz/60 g) all-purpose flour

Grated zest and juice of 1 large lemon

Confectioner’s sugar

Pinch salt

Preheat oven 350 degree (180 C) Butter a 9-inch (23-cm) spring form pan

Grind blanched almonds fine

Beat sugar and butter until fluffy – add eggs one at a time

Add almond flour, all-purpose flour, pinch salt and lemon zest

Pour into pan – bake one hour until a toothpick comes out clean

Remove from oven to cool – add lemon juice to pricked top.

When cool and ready to serve – dust top with confectioner’s sugar – decorate with a cross.

Serves 8-10

“Savoring Spain & Portugal”

by Joyce Goldstein

Williams-Sonoma

2000

Jmahl

[gfron1]

Tri2Cook - see the difference in our guts? I used Valrhona which is so dark - what did you use? I wonder what the taste difference is?

[Tri2Cook]

Yeah, I noticed that and was a bit disappointed that mine wasn't nice and dark like that. I used Schokinag 64% and Callebaut cocoa. I'm guessing the chocolate makes its presence known better with yours based on the intensity of color. Nobody complained but I do plan to try something a little more intense next time. I also used very finely ground almonds, almost almond flour consistency, so that may have made a difference in the color as well. Not really sure. Overall I was happy with it but there are a few little tweaks I intend to try just for fun. My glaze didn't turn out as nice and dark and shiny as yours either and I followed the recipe you posted to the letter other than the brand of cocoa so I'd say that was possibly a factor in the cake as well.

Edited October 13, 2007 by Tri2Cook (log)