Almond Cake

Sometimes you don't need a reason to make a cake such as this however I can guarantee that you will want to make this more often than not. Feel free to top the cake with whatever fruit you like, apples are what I have on hand at any given time. Moist, crumbly and delicately tender, it is hard to believe it is gluten free.    

Almond Cake

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3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened 

1 cup sugar

4 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups Almond flour

1/2 cup Coconut flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon baking powder

thin slices of fresh apple rings to decorate the top

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease and flour a 9x13 inch cake pan.

In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Add in the eggs one at a time, and beat until well blended. Add the milk and vanilla and mix until combined. 

In a separate bowl, combine the almond and coconut flours, salt and baking powder. Stir the combined dry ingredients into the butter egg mixture and beat until nice and creamy. Spoon the batter into the prepared cake tin and spread batter evenly. Arrange the freshly sliced apple rings on top, how ever you wish. Bake in the preheated oven for about 30 minutes. The cake should have a bit of spring to it and golden in colour. Before serving lightly dust with some icing sugar over the top. 

Notes: If replacing the coconut flour with all purpose flour the cake is no longer gluten free. It tastes just as good, it just won't be gluten free.  

Keeping warm. - JD 

Simple Peanut Butter Cookies

Usually I like measuring and mixing about the list of ingredients of a recipe, makes me feel like a scientist, however I have heard about these simple 3 ingredient recipes and wanted to give one try. Upon my search I found  many similar recipes for peanut butter cookies, like this one, however they were all just slightly different somehow. Offering different measurements for ingredients and baking temperature and times varied as well. I made two batches because I wanted to tweak the recipe here and there. I added ground flax seed and lessened the sugar. I let the taste testers decide and my modified version got the most thumbs up. This is a great recipe if you are pressed for time and low on certain ingredients. Also this recipe is gluten free! 

The original Peanut Butter Cookie recipe:

Mix together:

225 grams of peanut butter

225 grams of casters sugar

1 beaten egg

Mould into "blobs", flatten on a baking tray with a fork then bake in a 225ºC oven for 12 minutes.

Here is my modified version of this recipe: 

Simple Peanut Butter Cookies

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Mix together:

225 grams of natural no salt peanut butter, room temperature

110 grams of casters sugar

1/3 cup ground flax seed

1 beaten egg

Pre-heat the oven to 375ºF. 

Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Set aside. 

I spooned the dough with a dessert teaspoon and then moulded the dough into rounds... no smaller than a walnut however no larger than a golf ball. Gently flattened the rounds with the back of the teaspoon. Bake in the pre-heated 375ºF oven for 9 minutes. 
Remove from oven and gently press the top of each baked cookie with the back of the spatula or fork, this makes the cookies more compact and chewy on the inside when completely cooled. Let the cookies set on the baking tray for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Notes: I baked the first batch for 12 minutes, as the original recipe suggested, and the bottoms burnt therefore I reduced the baking time to 9 minutes and they turned out nicely. Next time, I would like to add some shredded coconut, dried cranberries, dates, apricots, sunflower seeds or oatmeal into the mix. You could refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes before baking, if you prefer. I didn't have to convert the peanut butter and sugar into cups because my lovely husband bought me a great multi weight scale; however in my research I found that 225g approximately equals 8 ounces, 1 cup and 110g approximately equals 4 ounces, 1/2 cup. 

My eye is doing much better. Have a good weekend everyone! - JD