a better gluten free coffee and walnut cake

Yesterday's test coffee and walnut cake turned out to be too sweet and a bit too greasy.  Today's version has less fat and sugar and more walnuts.  It produces a light cake that is perhaps too walnutty for some, I just finished the packet so I let that urge overwhelm my first instincts on proportions.  Just reduce the walnuts if you want to, you don't need to change anything else.

This made two 8inch/20cm cakes.  I made a tiny test cake in a ramekin and it came out of the dish without any trouble, but if this is for a special event I recommend lining the tins with baking parchment.

250g flour (40%urid, 40% tapioca, 20% cornmeal)
5tsp baking powder (cut this down if you want a denser cake)
200 g butter, soft
200g sugar
2 tbsp instant coffee, dissolved in
2 dstp water
1 tbsp vegetable oil ( I find this helps keep a cake moist)
130g walnuts, finely chopped or whizzed in a blender (use 100g for a less intense flavour)
6 medium eggs

Beat sugar and fat together until light and creamy.  Add oil and eggs and beat.  Whisk flours and baking powder together, add chopped/ground walnuts and add to mixture.  Add coffee.  As this is a gluten free mixture you don't need to worry about over beating.

Spoon into prepared tins, level and bake at 170C (fan) for 30 minutes.  Turn out on to cooling rack.  Ice as desired when cold.

I will ice this with a thin layer of coffee butter cream in the middle and a glace icing on top for contrast.

Coffee and Walnut cake

Busy making cakes for my brother-in-law's big birthday bash this weekend.  His favourite is coffee and walnut, so got to test that.  Found a great looking recipe from Italy, but thought probably safer to go with Delia Smith's basic coffee and walnut sponge.

To make this I had to grind some lentils for the first time in this flat.  Wondering why I bought my cornmeal in a 5kg bag last time.  Was I expecting a great rush on cakes?  Maybe it was so I could take flour to the teaching I am scheduled to do at the Yorkshire Wold Cookery School next month, since my flour is still not available via Shipton Mill in the stores.  A 5kg bag seem immense when it has to be lifted down from a high shelf.

So, Delia suggests the usual matching weights of flour, sugar, fat, eggs, and baking powder, instant coffee, water and finely chopped walnuts.

My recipe is (for a smallish test cake in a 9inch square pan, all that has made it out of storage so far)

110g flour (40%urid, 40%tapioca, 20%cornmeal)
1.5tsp baking powder
110g caster sugar
110g soft butter/soft margarine-
3 small eggs (Delia said 2 large, but my organic eggs come in mixed sizes and there was only one large egg)
50g finely chopped walnuts
1 tbs instant coffee - I use the excellent Kenco Millicano wholebean instant
1 dessertspoon hot water to mix

Cream fat and sugar till light and fluffy.  Mix in beaten eggs a little at a time.  Mix flour and baking powder well; add to batter mixture.  Add walnuts and coffee.


Spoon into a prepared cake tin, bake at 170C for about 30 minutes.

Cool on a baking rack, ice as wanted.  I used a simple butter cream ( 75g butter, 150g icing sugar) whipped together until fluffy, and added some very strong coffee until I thought the flavour was good.  I also added a few drops of vanilla.

This cake is sweeter than my taste.  Delia suggests making a mouselline icing, which would be less sweet ( sugar syrup and egg yolk) but I don't want to try a new icing type at this stage as I need the cake for Saturday, and the cake has to travel for several hours.  There isn't anyone else around to give an opinion at the moment. I prefer it without the icing, where it leaves a warmly coffee flavoured cake with a bit of crunch from the walnuts.

The Italian recipe 'Torta Rustica di Moci al Caffe', from my ancient 'The Good Cook Cakes and Pastries' is:

10-15cl strong coffee
200g shelled walnuts, very finely chopped
100g butter, softened
300g castor sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
200g flour, sieved with 1 tbsp (yes, tablespoon) of baking powder

Cream butter and sugar, add eggs, add flour alternatively with coffee, add nuts, bake for about1 hour at 180C. Makes one 20cm/8inch cake.

Anyone trying this second recipe let me know what it is like.  It seems to me that it would be a denser more walnutty flavoured cake, with some of the characteristics of a cake made with almond flour - moist, keeps well.

chocolate chip cookies - gluten and dairy free

I made chocolate chip cookies for a writing group based on a recipe by Anthony Worrel Thompson.  I kept them dairy free as well as gluten free.  Simply substituting my flour for ordinary flour and soft vegetable margarine for butter led to a crisp flat cookie with no chewiness, so it needs a bit more flour.  It also meant that the mixture was of soft dropping consistency rather than one that could be rolled out.  Part way through the batch I added ground almonds to make a firmer batter and stirred in some flaked almonds.  This made the cookie thicker, crisp and chewy.   I also added a teaspoon of coffee granules as Ina Garten says adding coffee to chocolate recipes makes them taste chocolatier..thought it worth a try.  Note I have listed both flour options - pick one.

This recipe made 65 mid-sized cookies.

400g flour (40% urid, 40% tapioca, 20% cornmeal)
or   350g flour (ditto), 50g ground almonds, 25g flaked almonds
1 tsp bicarb of soda
225g dairy free baking margarine
175g caster sugar
175g soft brown sugar
2 eggs
35g chocolate chips ( I used Callebaut 53.8% cocoa solids - these say 'may contain milk', so not suitable for those with extreme milk allergy, but ok for lactose intolerant))
1 tsp instant coffee

Mix flours and baking soda - whisk or sieve together
Cream margarine and sugars together, then add eggs and coffee granules.  Mix to a smooth batter.  Stir in chocolate chips and flaked almonds if using.

Place on lined tins and bake at 170C for about ten minutes, until tinged golden.  Only put about five on a tray at a time as they spread a lot.  Cool for a few minutes before attempting to move them so that they harden a little and the chocolate is less runny.  I find that it is easier if I move the lining paper/silicon sheet onto the cooling rack while I dollop out more cookie dough onto the sheet.

• 
  

And I thought I had it bad - gluten in coffee

I am very sensitive to gluten and am very careful about what I eat.  Before I had a citron presse in a cafe yesterday I checked that they squeezed the lemons and limes away from the place they made the food, and ordered one when they said the fruit was squeezed at the bar upstairs first thing in the morning and the food was prepared downstairs in the kitchen.  I also ordered a coffee.  No flavoured syrups because it is a nuisance having to ask to read the bottle.


Today a web group I am a member of published a query.  Since you might not be able to access it I have copied it here.  I hope the writer doesn't mind, but it illustrates a significant issue I hadn't thought of (Poster, if you see this and you want to take out the quote let me know).


coffee query
"Two and a half weeks ago I had scrambled eggs and a mug of machine coffee in a small cafe, next day I was bad and covered in my rash which did extend to my big toe, this was repeated for several days then I had a break of several days then returned having the coffeee and eggs.The rash got worse so I cut out the eggs, no change so then cut out the coffee and started to improve who would believe it, so went back yesterday had my eggs and a pot of tea, no problems."


I did my usual search.  I found quite a bit of discussion of the dangers of having coffee where flavoured coffees are ground or dispensed from the same machinery  This is referring to those coffees where the flavour is added to the whole bean.  Some of these have gluten in, so once they are used in a coffee machine that machine is then contaminated.  


There is more on this at gluten in coffee


Of course, coffee means different things to different people.  I've never been obsessed by it; I come from a family who mostly can't handle coffee, and I mostly use it as an emergency treatment when I know a migraine is arriving.  A double espresso at the first hint of a migraine and it changes the way the blood vessels in the head operate and almost always the migraine doesn't develop.


If you want to envy a truly great coffee experience read this glutenfreegirl- be patient, imagine yourself there, and who wouldn't want the chance to drink coffee like this.