So easy, apple almond dessert
- Celiac Chef Oonagh Williams
- Mar 16, 2018
- 3 min read
One of my March 2018 recipes for Beyond Celiac (formerly National Foundation for Celiac Awareness). Samples of Almond cake topping during my demo at Boston Flower show on Saturday 17 March, 2018.
Watch my time lapse of the almond cake. I made this almond cake as part of my talk and demo for the April 2017 Boston Celiac Symposium.
CÉAD MILE FÁILTE
APPLE ALMOND PUDDING 8x8 dish. In England and Ireland, pudding means dessert not jello.
I have a very English accent (think Julie Andrews not Jamie Oliver) but both my parents were born in Southern Ireland and I have more family there than anywhere.
This is a very simple recipe that we would make with apples from the farm garden.
You can taste this during my demo on St. Patrick's Day 17 March 2018 as featured chef at multi day Boston Flower Show.
Note: The apples (8lbs of apples) for recent talk were peeled, cored and sliced incredibly fast on my Kitchen Aid spiralizer so thin slices. You could use Pampered Chef APCS. I cooked them in the microwave first in the 8x8 and then topped them with almond mix. To be lazy I tried putting raw apples in pan with sugar and cinnamon and topping with almond mix. The apples due to shorter cooking time were still crisp and cake was drier since it hadn’t absorbed some of the apple juices from pre cooking apples.
topped with honey sweetened sour cream.
4 large Gala (Fuji, Braeburn apples, from Cox's orange pippin rootstock) ( about 2 lbs), peeled, cored, quartered and then quartered again.
1/4 c (2oz)light brown sugar, not packed. If you use Granny Smith’s increase sugar to ½ c
1 tsp (5ml) cinnamon mixed with sugar. More if you want.
Topping:
1/2 stick of very soft butter (2oz). I have made this with melted coconut oil for dairy free.
1/2 c (4 oz) ordinary sugar
2 eggs
1 c (4oz) ground almonds/almond flour (made from ordinary, skinless almonds ground in processor with the sugar to fine breadcrumbs ( Blue Diamond, Bob’s Red Mill, King Arthur for gf. Costco also frequently carries certified gluten free almond flour.)
1 tsp (5ml) baking powder
1 tsp gf almond essence - optional
¼ - ½ c (1-2 oz) sliced almonds – optional, but makes it look prettier and gives contrasting crunch to dessert. powdered sugar or sour cream mixed with honey to taste. (~2 tbsp honey to 1 pt container of sour cream)
1. Place the apples in an 8x8 (20x20 cm) pyrex dish with the brown sugar, cinnamon and 1 tbsp water. Microwave for about 5 minutes until softened. It is necessary to soften apples as otherwise they would collapse down once the cake mix is on top. This is too much quantity for a 9” pie plate. The apples will look as if they are swimming in liquid after microwaving. You can do this in a pan on the stove but that dirties another dish.
2. Place all of the topping ingredients in a 4c mixing bowl and beat with electric mixer for 2 minutes until well blended.
3. Gently spread filling on top of apples to cover completely. It will start melting slightly on top of par cooked apples and doesn’t look like much quantity. Sprinkle sliced almonds on top if you want and bake in 350* oven for about 30-40 minutes until golden brown throughout. The texture should be similar to rolls of almond paste when cut, not really a cake, but should appear cooked throughout.
4. Remove from oven, sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve warm or cold with cream. Or with sour cream mixed with honey to taste or even mixed with sugar to taste. Actually, lite sour cream is less calories than heavy cream.
Watch my time lapse of the almond cake. I made this almond cake as part of my talk and demo for the April 2017 Boston Celiac Symposium.
In Ireland and England we would serve it with Bird's custard (made from egg free custard powder.
I created a homemade version since there is confusion whether Bird's is gf)
My husband thinks he's died and gone to Heaven with this pudding and custard.
custard with individual gluten free caramel apple cakes.
Home made Bird's custard, egg free, gluten free, can be dairy free -use dairy free milk you prefer.
2 generous portions
1/2 c, 120 ml fat free milk
¼ c, 60 ml single cream (or ¾ c, 180 ml full fat milk in total. Tasteless with just fat free milk)
2 tbsp, 30 ml soft brown sugar
1 tsp, 5 ml gf vanilla essence
1 tbsp , 15 ml gf cornstarch (cornflour in England/Ireland), for runny custard
pinch of salt,
some yellow food coloring
heat milk, cream, sugar, color and vanilla until sugar melts.
Mix cornflour with 15 ml water, add to hot milk mix,
bring to a boil and cook until thickened.
