Where's the wheat? Gluten free almond fruit cake

Annalena knows that when her readership members have friends who have dietary issues, they work to try to address them, and cook for them.  Some are easy:  if a friend doesn't drink alcohol, then you simply make non -alcoholic beverages available.  Vegetarian?  Ragazzi, if you can't find a vegetarian recipe in this collection, you're not looking hard enough.  Vegan? Harder, but it can be done.    And so on and so forth.   Annalena wishes to make clear one of her guiding lights on these issues, however:  whether it is a health issue, an issue of choice, etc,  she does not stand for, nor does she preach, on issues of dietary choice.  With one exception.  Veal.  See, there certainly is an issue with "those poor calves" being treated badly, locked up in pens where they can't walk, and so forth. Annalena agrees. The same issue plagues EVERY type of protein we eat. Chicken and veal get the most press, but ragazzi, the farming of animals or birds on an industrial scale is horrific. Know your farms.    Interestingly enough, Annalena's ragazzi ed amici seem to accept that she does her homework on these things. EXCEPT for veal.  Even if the farm raises the animals humanely, many of those who sit at Annalena's table cannot get past the idea of "those poor calves."  Well, if you can't, we'll move on; however, do know that half of all calves are born male.  Of that half, 95% are destined for slaughter, and pet food, or food for other farm animals, etc.  It is true, ragazzi.   And unless you are going to give up ALL animal products (which many do) it is simply a "false economics" of your philosophy if you do not eat veal.

Ok, preaching over.  Now we go to the recipe.   Annalena has a very good friend who is allergic to gluten.  Her dear, and much missed friend Ginny, was also gluten intolerant, as she learned late in life.  And she is aware of others, including children of friends, who are wheat allergic.  Dealing with this issue, is more difficult than you may imagine.  There is wheat in most soy sauces, for example:  did you know that?  Most breads, even if not billed as wheat, have wheat in them.  They have to, to rise properly.  And for many sufferers of this condition, cooking non-wheat products in, for example, oil, which has been used to fry wheat products, is problematic.  It is NOT  an easy road to hoe.  Hence, when Annalena spotted a recipe that seemed to be readily adaptable to being gluten free, she tried it.  And it works.  And it is wonderful. And easy. And it is a cake.  A true cake.

The recipe started with one of Annalena's favorite chefs, David Tanis, who works at Chez Panisse, and writes a column for the NY Times, which Annalena never misses.  Late last week, she was stealing a look at the on line version of the Times, which prints recipes before they appear in the "paper" version of the paper.  The recipe that Chef Tanis presented, was for a fig and almond cake.  Now, this unites two of Annalena's favorite things in the world, and as she prepares for her annual sojourn to her friends Kevin and Chuck's house, she is putting together her dessert bar. She studied the recipe.

The original called for .25 cups of flour.    Yes, that is right:  .25 cups.   Well,  that does sound like very little,  but a little is as much as a lot for Celiac's sufferers, and even that .25 could spell the difference between a cake working or not, because cakes need "lift," and "lift" is provided by gluten.  Annalena's thinking, as she read through the recipe, however, was that substituting out the wheat flour would be ok, because there are a lot of eggs in the recipe. There is also baking powder:  enough to give "lift" even when the flour is gone.  And because cooked eggs are strong, there is structure here.

So, she took out the wheat flour, and added potato flour.  Would this work without the addition?  She does not know but is skeptical.  There is always a need for structure, and the potato flour seemed to do so.  

Ok, let's get our selves together here, and make a gluten free cake.

We start by melting a half stick of unsalted butter, while we preheat our ovens to 375.     Meanwhile, you will need either a cup of almond flour (which is ground almonds), or a cup of unsalted almonds  which you are going to grind.  The original recipe called for "natural, unblanched, raw almonds."    Fine, but Annalena likes toasted almonds, and used toasted almond flour.  Use what you like.  If you do start with whole nuts, grind them in a food processor, pulsing them.  You pulse because the nuts will release oil if you work them too hard.  You can also add .25 cup of sugar to the nuts while you're grinding them, to help avoid this.  If you use pre-made nut flour, just stir in the sugar.    Then add your .25 cup of potato flour, a half teaspoon of baking powder, and a pinch of salt.

Next, let's beat three large eggs, and add the butter to them. Now, drizzle in a couple of tablespoons of honey.  Eyeball this, ragazzi,  there's not a lot of sweet in this recipe, so if you went overboard, it would be ok. You will get a browner cake though, because honey browns in a way sugar does not.

Take this wet mixture, and stir it into the dry one.  You are going to have a very thick, heavy batter on your hands, which did not pour, as the recipe said.  So spoon it into a GREASED pan.  Annalena liked using her tart pan with a removable bottom, thinking all the time that there are occasions where she wishes she could remove HER bottom, but such is life.  Anyhow, get this into the  pan.

You are ALMOST  done.  You now add fruit.  The original called for figs, and indeed, this is a good combination. Cut the stems off of the figs, cut them in half, lengthwise, and put the halves, cut side up, all over the cake, pushing down gently.  Annalena had a whole lot of apricots which were giving her the stinkeye, so she made two cakes, and used apricots in the other one.  Again, lengthwise cutting, and cut side up.  After you have festooned the cake with the fruit of your choice, sprinkle about a quarter cup of sugar over it all.    Then, into the oven, for 30 minutes.

Wanna see what they look like? Ok, the fig:



And now, the apricot:




Do they not look spectacular ragazzi?  And were they hard to make?   Annalena thinks not. So, even if you  do not have problems with gluten, try these.  Use the fruit you have around.  Keep in mind that cherries, peaches, nectarines, plums and apricots are all related to almonds, so this may be a hint.  Play with the recipe.  If someone makes it with NO replacement for the flour at all, please let Annalena know how it works out.  Or if you use something else.  Please share with us.  We all want to know.