I think we have quite a healthy lifestyle at home, despite any assumptions you may have made from the recipes I publish here. If you pay enough attention to detail I am sure you would have noticed I post recipes only once every few weeks, meaning the rest of the week we are ‘well-behaved’. Nevertheless, it’s inevitably for a cooking aficionado not to try following the trend of using alternatives to traditional ingredients, in order to save the planet and our souls, from the ‘evil damages’ of sugar and gluten consumption!
The truth is that if we restrict everything from the grocery shopping list then we risk becoming a highly anxious foodie, and we all know that anxious foodies don’t genuinely earn that title, as being a foodie should arise from a place of enjoyment and pleasure instead of one of worry and preoccupation. Balance should always be the key, rather than extremism.
This is quite a versatile bake tray though- with cornmeal as the main base and only a few grams of regular flour -not for the sake of causing dispute alone but because the original recipe calls for it and maybe I am too anxious myself this week to experiment without it. Having said that, if you are feeling 'green' enough you can substitute plain flour for any chosen kind - but let me know how it works out. And if those grams of gluten weren’t enough then you’ll have sugar there as well to deal with.. not Muscovado, not coconut or Demerara but plain, sinful, white sugar, to give us the necessary energy to ruminate whilst enjoying a richly delicious piece of cake!
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| © The Teaspoon |
Ingredients
115 g unsalted butter at room temperature
100 g granulated sugar
2 eggs, slightly bitten
70 g almond flour
100 g cornmeal
35 g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp maple syrup
100 g almonds in flakes (plus a few gs extra to top the cake before baking).
40 g dried barberries - optional but you may use natural blueberries or raspberries instead.
Method
Preheat the oven to 180C/356F.
Line a baking dish with parchment paper and set aside.
In a bowl use an electric mixer to cream the butter and the sugar. Add the eggs and then incorporate the rest of the ingredients. The batter won’t be your usual cake batter. It will be thicker so you will have to spread it in your prepared baking dish. Top with flaked almonds and fruit if using. Then gently use the palm of your hands to push the toppings slightly so they stick to the batter as otherwise when you bake the cake they will fall off. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 min or until the middle of the cake is cooked.
Allow to cool down completely, cut into squares and enjoy it!
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| © The Teaspoon |
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| © The Teaspoon |
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