Almond Chocolate Cake: A Gluten-Free Delicious Treat

My daughter bought me a beautiful cookbook last Christmas, Stéphane Raynaud's 365 good reasons to sit down and eat, that included this wonderful gluten-free almond chocolate cake.

When she was about five years old, I asked my daughter what kind of cake she'd like for her birthday party. Without hesitation, she announced that she wanted a flour-less chocolate torte. Very clear where she was taking her food cues from, even at that early stage.

I hadn't yet changed my diet to gluten-free, but always loved the rich, dense quality of a good flour-less torte. I guess I made it often enough that Isabella came to think of this as the norm. Eight years later, she still loves this type of cake. When we were going through the book, and found this recipe, I knew it would be the first thing I made.

It has taken me three-qaurters of a year to get to baking this cake. It was so much fun to try my hand at a completely different version of the flour-less torte than I had ever made before.  The ground almonds (which I didn't grind quite as fine as I should have) keep the cake together and make the cake taste nutty and delicious.

This gluten-free treat takes some time. Do not rush, you have to whip the egg whites and then the yolks, melt the chocolate and the butter, grind the nuts...all the steps should be done at a leisurely pace. Otherwise, you end up like me: running back and forth between the stove and the mixer, dropping ground almond all over the floor, and getting egg yolks on your camera. OK, maybe not the camera part, because I'm assuming that most of you are not shooting each step as you go. But, I think you get my drift. Enjoy the ride.

Up to this point, I've never considered myself much of a baker, but I'm beginning to warm up to it. I love the scientific nature of putting all the right ingredients in the mix and then magically getting a wonderful treat at the end. My favorite part was watching the egg whites froth up into foamy peaks and then settle into this nice soft mounds.

The cake turned out a little soft. I don't think it was baked wrong, or mixed incorrectly. I do think I should have gone with my first instinct and used a springform pan, or a tart pan with a removable bottom. That way, the cake bottom would have been supported the whole time, instead of trying to transfer it to a plate for serving on it's own.

A wonderful dessert for Fall, especially if you serve it with a nice berry jam (that maybe you made back in the summer) and a hot cup of tea.

Chocolate Fondant Cake

from Stéphan Reynaud's 365 good reasons to sit down to eat

Ingredients:

• 9 oz good-quality dark chocolate
• 9 oz butter
• 4 eggs, separated
• 3 1/2 oz sugar
• 1 cup gorund almonds
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 315 degrees F.
2. Melt the chocolate with the butter in a double boiler.
3. Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks.
4. Whisk the yolks with the sugar until they become pale and frothy.
5. Add the chocolate mixture, ground almonds and cornstarch.
6. Gently fold in the egg whites with a spatula.
7. Butter and flour a tin (note: I lined a nine inch round pan with waxed paper).
8. Pour in the chocolate mixture, cook in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes.

Baked Eggs with Fennel and Shitake Mushrooms

 The first time I had baked eggs was in Paris. A large Le Creuset-style saucepan showed up at the table, pipping hot, filled with at least 4 eggs, half a pound of bacon, potatoes and lots of cream. It was delicious.

I vowed to make them at home, which I finally got around to this week. In the two years since the baked eggs of Paris, I've stopped eating dairy. I didn't have any bacon in the house (which rarely happens around here), so I had to think of other mix-ins that would elevate my baked eggs to those I had in Paris.

  Instead of creating a cream-based dish, I went for a mix of sautéed shitake mushrooms and grated fennel with sage. The flavors combined perfectly with the egg, and the texture was great.

 Make sure to

Sage added a nice earthy tone to the mix. I was also going to add my much loved black truffle oil to the eggs, but thought that might be going overboard, flavor wise.

As I write this, I've come up with my next version of this dish: baked eggs with mushrooms, bacon, black truffle oil and sage. Anything you'd add into an omelette will work here, too. Just experiment, watch that the eggs don't cook too long and enjoy!

Baked Eggs with Fennel and Shitake Mushrooms

INGREDIENTS

• 2 eggs
• ¼ cup shredded fennel
• 8 to 10 shitake mushrooms, tips removed and sliced
• 4 teaspoons olive oil
• 3 sage leaves, minced, or 1 twig tarragon, stem removed, leaves minced
• Salt and pepper to taste

PREPARATION

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Heat a small sauté pan, add 2 teaspoons of the olive oil to the pan and the fennel shitake mushrooms and half of the herbs.
3. Cook for 2 minutes on medium heat until the fennel softens and the shitake mushrooms brown.
4. Oil two ramekins with the remaining olive oil and crack an egg into each.
5. Split the fennel and mushroom mixture evenly between the ramekins, spooning it over the egg. Add salt, pepper and fresh herbs.
6. Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes, until you see the white hardening around the edge of the ramekin.
7. Serve while still warm.

Serves 2. Prep time, 5 minutes; cook time 12 minutes.

PS: Here's the baked eggs they served me in Paris. Whoa! So awesome....

Baked Camembert with Asian Pears

Make a baked Camembert to impress your guests. They'll never guess how easy this is to prepare.

My sister, here husband and their friends love cheese. I added Asian pears (which I knew as apple-pears growing up) and got a nice walnut baguette to serve it with. It disappeared quickly.

Even though I stay away from gluten and dairy, I did try a few slices of this wonderful treat. Let me tell you, the melted cheese, the sweet Asian pear and the crunch of the walnuts makes a divine combination. I think some good quality salami would be wonderful with this, too.

At my parents' house, there are always many appetizers to chose from. Quite a spread appears, seemingly out of nowhere, as soon as they know someone is on their way over. Not sure how she does it, but Gran Fran usually gets some homemade focaccia bread in the oven, pulls together some roasted hot peppers and an assortment of salami.

Since most of the entertaining I do involves going to friends' houses, I try to bring along a few great side dishes or appetizers. This baked Camembert will go into regular rotation!

Baked Camembert with Asian Pears and Baguette

INGREDIENTS

• 1 wheel good quality Camembert cheese, placed in a baking dish
• 2 Asian pears washed and sliced
• 1 baguette, sliced

PREPARATION

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
2. Place the baking dish with the cheese in it in the oven and bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until you see it starting to brown on top and soften.
3. Serve with the Asian pear spread on toasted baguette.

Breakfast for Dinner: Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Pancakes

We had gluten free chocolate chip pancakes for dinner tonight.

 Working all day, cooking two to three meals a day and making sure my teenage daughter is taken care of is a huge amount of responsibility. I love all of it, but sometimes, I just have to give in to a nice and easy dinner: gluten-free almond milk chocolate chip pancakes (way more words in that name than the actual effort took to make them).

This is another installment of my cook the book project with these lovely ladies: Rachel, Aimee, Emily, Sammy and Claudie. We are cooking our way through Marion Cunnignham's The Breakfast Book. Chapter six is all about pancakes!

My daughter was thrilled with the choice. I didn't have any bacon, so she had roasted chicken and  cauliflower alongside her pancakes. Sort of like she ate dessert at the same time as dinner.

Look at that batter. The warm milk and butter mixture melted the chocolate chips into delicious strips of chocolatey goodness.

I made them with almond milk and gluten-free flour so I could eat them, too. So yummy!

Plain Pancakes

adapted from Marion Cunnigham’s The Breakfast Book, Copyright 1987, Alfred A. Knopf

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 5 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup almond milk
• 1 1/4 cups gluten-free flour (make your own or use this one from Gluten-Free Pantry)
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt

Method:

• Beat the eggs in a mixing bowl until they are thoroughly blended. Put the butter and the milk in a small saucepan and warm over low heat until the butter has melted.
• Set aside and allow to cool a little –you don't want to add this mixture to the eggs while it is very hot or it will cook the eggs. Stir the butter mixture into the eggs and mix well.
• Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt into a bowl and stir with a fork until well mixed.
• Pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture and stir only until the dry ingredients are well moistened. Don't over mix.
• Heat a griddle or skillet until a few drops of water dance on it, then lightly film with grease.
• Drop 2 or 3 tablespoons of batter for each pancake onto the griddle (a 12-inch girdler will hold 4 pancakes) and cook until bubbles break on the surface.
• Turn the pancake over and cook another 30 seconds, or until the bottom is lightly browned. Serve the pancakes hot.

A Little Taste of Home: Onions and Eggs

Gran Fran made me onions and eggs on our most recent visit.

We visited for a little over two weeks, and returned home just before school started. What a good time we had. Tons of good food at every turn, with these onions and eggs as one of my favorite simple meals we were served.

These eggs are great served at room temperature, too. You could easily pack this in a container for a nice hearty lunch. It's also excellent with some cheese added in at the end of cooking, or better yet, some bacon. The little bit of sugar in the mix just heightens  the flavor of the onions.

Make this easy, four ingredient dinner for dinner, serve it alongside a salad and toasted baguette and you've got yourself a great meal.

Onions and Eggs

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds Vidalia onions, thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• Good dose of kosher salt
• Freshly ground pepper to taste
• 8 large eggs, beaten just until blended

Method:

1. Heat large skillet; add olive oil; heat oil over high heat.
2. Add onions; reduce flame to medium; sprinkle with sugar, salt, and pepper.
3. Saute about 20 minutes over low heat---or until golden and reduced by at least half.
4. On medium heat;stir in eggs; allow to set for three minutes or so.
5. Stir and fold eggs until they reach desired consistency; serve.

Sweet Peppers, Oven Roasted

Take the time to make these roasted peppers. Super simple, delicious and versatile, these peppers can served as a side dish or in a salad. I served them on top  broiled salmon and quinoa.

Delish!

Oven Roasted Sweet Peppers

INGREDIENTS

• 3 sweet peppers sliced into rings
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced into small pieces
• Salt to taste

PREPARATION

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Pour the olive oil onto a rimmed baking sheet
3. Place the hot pepper rings onto the baking sheet, turning over on the pan to coat with the olive oil.
4. Throw the garlic cloves into the pan.
5. Sprinkle with coarse salt .
6. Roast in the oven for 15 minutes. Check on them every five minutes or so to ensure that the peppers aren't browning too quickly. If they are, lower the heat to 400 degrees.
7. Remove from oven and pour the rings and oil into a glass jar or bowl.

Excellent in egg dishes, pasta salads or mixed into a green salad with nuts and cheese.

Rice Pasta Salad with Raw Tomato, Walnuts and Raw Garlic

Fresh raw tomato, walnuts and raw garlic mixed with hot pasta creates a perfect late summer dish.

I used to make this dish once a week. It fell out of my repertoire a few years back. When these lovely tomatoes showed up in my weekly fruit and veggie delivery box, I was reminded of this recipe.

If it wasn't already apparent, I love to photograph food. I had a great time working on this pasta salad. Maybe it's my back-to-school attitude, or the changing light now that Fall is around the corner, but something shifted when I was shooting this week.

I've become more confident in what I'm shooting, how I'm shooting it and what is ultimately ending up on this site as final images. It has freed me from worrying whether or not I got the shot because I now know that I need to trust that when I download the photos to the computer, the right images will be there.

This version of Non-Reactive Pan was launched the first week in September of 2011. I had 468 visitors that month. Right now, I'm averaging 1500 visitors a month. It has been a good year. I'm excited to see what this next year will bring and so happy to have found my groove while shooting, cooking and of course eating.

Thanks for visiting!

Rice Pasta with Raw Tomato, Walnuts and Garlic

INGREDIENTS

• 1 to 2 cups tomatoes, cut into chunks
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• ½ cup olive oil
• ¼ cup walnuts
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Red pepper flakes to taste

PREPARATION

1. Place olive oil, tomatoes, roasted peppers, garlic, walnuts, salt and pepper in a large bowl.
2. Prepare enough pasta for two people, drain and pour into the bowl.
3. Mix well, let the mixture sit for five minutes, to help soften the tomatoes and mellow the garlic flavor.

Cook’s Notes: Quinoa, barley or couscous works well with this recipe, instead of pasta.