Gluten Free Goodness

“Honey, I think these are the best pancakes I’ve ever had”, said DH. Under other circumstances, I might have gotten all warm and fuzzy. He doesn’t give compliments lightly.  However, I was (in theory) making éclairs for the August Daring Baker challenge, and so I must admit I was less than delighted.

Some things are meant to be, others not so much. I have been very lucky that I tend to have a knack for adapting recipes to be gluten free, vegan, sugar free and more. They’re usually not perfect first time around, but usually at least I’ve gotten them in the ballpark.  The last DB challenges I did exceeded my expectations!!  It’s pretty ironic that when I finally decide to follow a recipe fairly faithfully that I had so much difficulty.

The first time around, I followed the Daring Baker recipe and just switched to a GF flour blend and a pinch of ground chia as the binder. Those darlins’ are hubbies new fave pancakes. Then I tried a recipe from the GF Delphi forums. They puffed up, then fell. Despite still looking pretty (or at least prettier), they were a tad raw on the inside.  At least I was on the right track with those.

My appetite for round 3 was non existent, largely because I can’t eat them due to allergies, DH doesn’t really care for cream puffs, and the rest of my GF tasting squad isn’t really into éclairs either. Aside from my pride, there didn’t seem to be a good reason to try them again. So éclairs2, Cheryl 0, and for the time being, puff pastry, I’ll let you claim this match. But next time…watch out!

I made a chocolate cherry filling, made of coconut milk, cocoa powder, cherries, powdered chia and agave. The filling was quite nice, and gluten, dairy, egg, corn, soy and sugar free (i.e. safe for me). I love using fruits as a sweetener, and the cherries paired quite yummily with the chocolate. Though it was tasty, the proportions still need more work, though if I get it down, I’d be happy to share the recipe in the future.

I wouldn’t call it a total loss.  DH had a HUGE plate of pancakes to celebrate his 30th birthday.  It wasn’t quite what I was going for, though.  Please go see what other Daring bakers have done with their éclairs…I’m sure they look a lot better!  Many thanks to this month’s hosts, Meeta of What’s for Lunch Honey? and Tony Tahhan.

Ah well.  I can’t wait until next month!

Or, more accurately, 2 yummy chocolate hazelnut cakes

Each time I see the new Daring baker challenges, I think, can I REALLY make this gluten free, dairy free, egg free, soy free, corn free, sugar free and vegan AND have an amazing taste, too? *gulp*
But that’s the fun of being a Daring Baker. It even went more smoothly than I anticipated. This month’s Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Chris of Mele Cotte. The recipe is for the Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream from Great Cakes by Carol Walte.

This was a blast. I was pretty excited about doing this, because I haven’t really piped icing in years, and the spirit of the recipe seemed very adaptable to me. I’m not a huge decorator, and I appreciate needing to do thing differently than I normally would. Although it took a long time, I really enjoyed both the process and, of course, the cake!

I did two versions, both gluten free, egg free, dairy free, and vegan.  However, one cake had sugar, soy and alcohol, because I don’t have any burning desire to enforce my restrictions on other people. The two variations were:

• Hazelnut cake, hazelnut cream with fresh apricots and a dark chocolate frosting (second picture)

and

• Hazelnut cake, raspberry glaze, praline buttercream and chocolate ganache with praline buttercream on top (top picture)

I used an adapted version of my hazelnut cake from the May DB challenge. The cake had a mild flavor, which was a perfect complement to all of the other flavors in the final production. Rather than making a thicker cake and cutting them in half, I just made very short cakes.  The filling was a  variant of the PB buttercream recipe from Vegan Cupcakes take over the world for the buttercream. Per a suggestion from VeganNoodle, I used 1/2 the powdered sugar and used Darifree instead, which worked perfectly.
I brought the cakes to a dinner party, which was quite lovely, and they were promptly gobbled.  Most of the people there were glutenovores, and people used to a “normal” diet, so I was delighted to get such positive feedback! Sometimes I get a little nervous, especially when I don’t know how things will turn out, but it was delightful. Not only that, but the cakes were enjoyed equally and the sugar free one disappeared the fastest. Yahoo!

I’ve included the recipes for the original parts of the cakes, but not the ones I used from other sources. I have not shared my recipe for the hazelnut praline, because trust me, you don’t want it. It took a heck of a lot of fussing and redoing and undoing to get a workable paste, but my initial efforts bombed in a big way.   Enough said!

I did do a raspberry glaze in lieu of the apricot, as I realized that our jam was gluten contaminated. Phooey. It couldn’t have been simpler, just a bit of boiling water and jam, strained.

Hazelnut cake For 4 thin layers (makes 2 6-inch cakes)
1 cup finely ground hazelnut meal (from lightly roasted and peeled nuts)
1 ¾ cup sorghum flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
1 cup apricot nectar
1/3 cup apple sauce
1/3 cup agave nectar + 1 teaspoon honey or all agave for vegan version
1/3 cup coconut milk
1/3 oil
¼ teaspoon cardamom
½ teaspoon hazelnut (or vanilla) extract

Hazelnut filling (for two 6-inch cakes):
1/2 cup agave nectar
2/3 coconut milk
2 Tablespoons sweet rice
2 small apricots
3 Tablespoons hazelnut butter

Chocolate frosting (for 1 6 inch cake, you can double for both cakes):
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup agave nectar
1 teaspoon hazelnut butter (optional)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla or other extract (optional)

or, Chocolate Ganache (for 1 6 inch cake, can double for both cakes)
4 oz chocolate, melted
1/3 cup coconut milk (may need 1-2 teaspoons more)
1 teaspoon frangelico, hazelnut extract, etc.

Preheat oven to 350.
Line the bottoms of round 6 inch cake pans with parchment or wax paper (or for a non-opera cake, use an 8X8 square pan) Grease sides of the pans.

Combine dry ingredients and wet ingredients in separate bowls. Mix until just combined and put in preheated oven for 40 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean. You may need to cover the cakes if they brown too much on top.

Cool on wire rack for 5-10 minutes and turn out onto a plate.

Hazelnut filling:
Blend coconut milk and apricots. Heat in a small saucepan and whisk in agave, sweet rice and nut butter. Stir over medium high heat, whisking, until thickened. Add in extract if desired. Chill before using.

Chocolate frosting:
Whip together coconut oil and agave, add in cocoa powder. Thin with coconut milk until desired consistency.

Chocolate ganache:
Melt chocolate. I tend to do it in the microwave in a glass bowl, stirring at 30 second intervals. Add in the coconut milk until the desired consistency, then pour over cake.

Assembly:
Bake cakes, let them cool. Glaze with raspberry glaze if desired. Use chilled hazelnut cream (with or without fresh apricots) for the next layer, or you can do the praline buttercream instead. Chill briefly in the fridge. Top with either the chocolate frosting or ganache while they are still warm. Pipe remaining praline buttercream on top. or just decorate with chopped or glazed hazelnuts.

Enjoy! I love these Daring Baker challenges.

~from Cheryl’s kitchen ©2008

I’m officially a daring baker!
I’m extremely proud of this cake. It’s more than a cake to me, it’s a milestone.

I’ve loved to bake since I was a little kid, but only really got into it in college. Due to a variety of medical issues, I was far too exhausted to cook or bake for the last 3 or 4 years, and I had so many allergies and intolerances that it seemed impossible to bake treats worth eating.

Slowly, things have changed, and I’ve gotten back to baking. Even when I can’t eat everything I make, I still have the joy of creating something new, the opportunity to experiment and the delight of returning to the things I love to do. And so here’s my cake, a beautiful gluten, dairy, egg, soy, corn and sugar* free creation. If you do agave instead of honey, it’s vegan, too. Not only was I able to do it, but it was delicious, too. It’s the start of things to come, and I’m grateful for one of many new beginnings. And we even got to have it for my birthday!

When I saw the Daring Baker Challenge, my first thought was to make a cake for other people. There were too many eggs, so much sugar, butter, cream…where to even begin to adapt it? Then I remembered Susan O’ Brien’s Almond torte from Sugar free, gluten free cooking (great book!!). I ended up changing most of the flavors, proportions, leaveners, shape, size, etc., but it reminded me that this mission was, indeed, possible.

My final creation was a Hazelnut Opéra cake, with layers of rosewater/honey “buttercream” and fresh apricots topped with a hazelnut white chocolate glaze. Obviously, due to my many restrictions, I ventured quite a bit from the recipe, though I kept the spirit as well as I could. The cake itself was marvelous, though I will reduce the liquid slightly when I make it next, as I have listed in the recipe below. The buttercream worked in the end, but oh my. I had to work and rework it so many times that I don’t quite know WHAT was in the final version. The base was coconut milk, with some honey, and rosewater, and it was thickened with sweet rice flour, coconut flour, chestnut flour, coconut oil and cocoa butter. Many thanks to Sheltie girl at Gluten a go go for her coaching.

The cake and buttercream were sugar free, but the glaze was not due to the fact that my hot bowl of cocoa butter took an impromptu flying leap across the kitchen. (I must say, btw, cocoa butter is surprisingly hard to clean off cabinets.) So I did use decorating chips, but I have no doubt that the cocoa butter glaze would have worked just as well.

I wanted to use blanched hazelnuts, so I roasted them. However, I discovered very quickly that hazels turn to butter very quickly…and now have a jar of super yummy hazelnut butter, so no complaints here. It’s probably much easier to use raw hazel meal or you have to be extremely careful and chill the nuts before grinding.

To see more gorgeous cakes from this amazing group of bakers, check out the Daring Baker Blogroll . And, of course, thanks to this month’s hosts Lis and Ivonne,for a great challenge.

Hazelnut cake
1 cup finely ground hazelnut meal (I used half roasted, half raw)
1 ¾ cup sorghum flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
1 cup apricot nectar
1/2 cup apple sauce
1/4 cup agave nectar + 1 T honey or all agave for vegan version
1/3 cup hazel nut milk
1/4 oil
1 teaspoon rosewater
¼ teaspoon cardamom
½ teaspoon hazelnut (or vanilla) extract

Buttercream:
Coconut milk, sweet rice flour, rosewater, coconut flour, coconut oil, cocoa butter. That’s about as much as I can tell ya.

Glaze:
.5 oz cocoa butter
¼ cup decorator (dairy free, but like white chocolate) chips*
A few drops of hazelnut extract
* these do have sugar, I would imagine cocoa butter with a little agave would work just as well.

Preheat oven to 350.

Line the bottoms of round 6 inch cake pans with parchment or wax paper (or for a non-opera cake, use an 8X8 square pan) Grease sides of the pans.

Combine dry ingredients and wet ingredients in separate bowls. Mix until just combined and put in preheated oven for 40 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean. You may need to cover the cakes if they brown too much on top.

Cool on wire rack for 5-10 minutes and turn out onto a plate. Cut the cakes in half for your layers (you will have one left over for snacking)

Make the buttercream: I can’t give great advice on this one, but allow your frosting to chill completely before figuring out if it’ll work for you. My original batch would have been fine if I was just patient…not one of my strengths.

Assemble the cake: first cake, then buttercream, then apricots, and repeat! I would not recommend putting the buttercream on top of the top layer, I did, and it ran a little.

Hazelnut glaze: Melt the cocoa butter and chips in the microwave for 30 second intervals, stirring each time. It should be melted in 1 minute or 1 and a half minutes. Add in extract of you choice. When slightly cooled, pour on the cake.

Enjoy!