Fluffy Friends

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Gluten free anyone?




Gluten Free Apple Cake, it's better than you think!
 
 
Wow, it's been a long time since I've had a chance to blog. So long in fact that I had to try 8 different email/password combinations! It's terrible when you can't remember that important information isn't it?
 
 
No, I haven't been diagnosed with Celiacs disease or anything, but I've decided to change a few minor eating habits that I have. Don't get me wrong, I love all the processed food and I LOVE bread, cakes, cookies, you name it. If it tastes really good and fattening, I probably like it! However, for a long time now I've been thinking and sometimes talking out loud about how I need to change how I eat and how I need to start weeding out processed food from my daily life. Right now I can't imagine giving it up my entire life, or at least not completely, but it needs to happen a lot less often than it does currently. My love of McDonald's is well known to those that know me and I plan on trying to not go there very often. Believe it or not, the burgers are completely gluten free if you leave off the bun.
 
 
I bought some almond flour, coconut flour and some Bob's Red Mill All-Purpose flour months ago and tried my hand at winging some cookies and cake, but can you say DISASTER and a huge waste of money? They sucked big time. So now I have learned that right now, in the beginning stages that I cannot just wing baking the way that I do now with regular wheat flour. 1) because it's super expensive 2) because there are many before me that have already spent a lot of money perfecting recipes, so I will be a follower for once.
 
So that being said, I was nosing around the Internet the other day and ran across a website called gluten-free Goddess recipes. I must say she had a large wealth of information there that was awesome. I wanted to start out with something fairly simple where I already had most of the ingredients. So that is where this recipe originated from. I did change a couple things but the essence of the recipe is the same.
 
Since I had never made this before I decided to only do half a recipe just in case it turned out terrible and inedible. :) Then since I didn't have all of the different flours on hand, I substituted the Bob's Red Mill All-Purpose flour in place of all of the other ones. I had read somewhere that you could use the new Bisquick Gluten Free in place of wheat flour, measure for measure, so I thought this other flour would be the same and let me tell you, it turned out great!
 
 
Sour Cream Apple Cake
 
5 Medium Apples, room temperature, peeled, cored and sliced.
Toss with a small amount of lemon juice
 
3 large-organic free-range eggs
1 cup packed organic light brown sugar
1/2 cup organic cane sugar
2 t.vanilla
3T extra light olive oil
1/4 cup sour cream
 
2 cups almond flour
1/4 rice or sorghum flour
1/2 cup potato starch or tapioca starch
1-1/2 t baking powder
1t baking soda
1t apple pie spice
1t ground cinnamon
1/2 t fine sea salt
1/2 c pecan or walnut halves
 
I mixed the eggs, sugars, vanilla, olive oil and sour cream together at medium speed in mixing bowl. Then added all the dry ingredients. Once everything is combined, stir in apples and nuts. Spray a spring form pan with gluten free spray and cover the bottom with parchment/wax paper.  Bake at 350 in a pre-heated oven for about 50 minutes. Let cool in pan for about 10 minutes then remove outer ring. Turn upside down on cake plate and remove the bottom.
 
Cake serves 8-10 people. Slice and wrap individually, then freeze. Serve cake at room temperature or warm.
 
This recipe is for the full cake. However, even half the recipe made a nice sized cake, about 1 1/2 inch thick. It would be even more awesome if you made a little cream cheese frosting on it. lol  Not diet food by any stretch of the imagination, but if you are trying to live without gluten and just have to have something sweet, this will fit the bill. I couldn't even tell it was gluten free!
 
I did take some to my mom and she had no idea it was gluten free until I told her and she really liked it. I've talked enough that she is going to try and cut way back on gluten, then try going gluten free for at least 3 weeks to see how she feels.
 
No worries though! I'm not giving up my baking by any means. Just trying to clean up my life a little bit and maybe lose some weight in the process.
 
I hope if you try this cake you will agree that it's pretty tasty :)
 
 
Tammy
Fluffybutt Cookies