Gluten free Christmas Fruit Cake

My last cake was Mawa (Koya) Cheese Cake for Diwali, after one and half month Fruit cake for Christmas. I couldn’t believe myself for such a change in my life style but, Christmas can’t be celebrated without a Cake! Hence, mentally prepared myself to cheat from HFLC !! Even during a cheat day I make sure that, I won’t cross 100 grams of carb’s per day and no more gluten :-)

This is my first gluten free cake. Yes, very little flour (no more wheat based) used just to bind the dry fruits. The cake tasted pretty similar to traditional (rum soaked) plum cake with loads of dry fruits in it. Though the ingredient’s list looks longer, the baking procedure is pretty easy and I’m sure you will love the taste and I bet, you can’t stop yourself with a single bite. 

 

 

Ingredients :  ¼ cup chopped  apricot     ;      ¼ cup chopped raisins   ;   ¼ cup chopped   dates ; ¼ cup chopped almonds     ;    ¼ cup chopped prunes   ;     ¼ cup chopped  walnut  ;    ¼ cup of fresh orange juice    ;    ¼ cup of light brown sugar     ;   ½ tsp vanilla essence    ;     ½ tsp of ginger powder    ;    ½ tsp of cinnamon powder     ;    1 ½ tbsp. of coco powder    ;    ½ cup of chocolate chip    ;    a pinch of cardamom powder    ;    1 egg   ;     60 gms of butter    ;   ½ cup of sorghums flour (remove 2 tbsp of flour and add 2 tbsp. tapioca flour or corn flour )    ;   1/4  tsp of baking powder    ;     ¼ tsp of baking soda      ;   ¼ cup of sugar    ;    1 tbsp. of orange zest    ;     melted chocolate for Christmas tree decoration  ;    1 tbsp. of icing sugar for snow effect 

In a bowl add the melted butter and all the dry fruits, orange juice, orange zest, sugar and allow it to boil and remove from the heat (stove) and mix well and allow to cool at room temperature.

In a separate bowl add all dry ingredients like, flour, coco powder, baking powder, baking soda, cardamom powder, cinnamon powder, ginger powder and mix thoroughly and keep aside.

In mixing bowl beat egg with brown sugar and vanilla essence until sugar dissolved. Add the dry fruit mixture, Nuts (almond & walnut) and the flour mixture and blend till all fully combined and cake batter consistency.

Pour the batter in the greased 5½’’ cake pan and bake it in the 180◦c pre heated oven for about 30 minutes. And allow to cool to room temperature.

For Christmas tree, chocolate decoration :  using melted chocolate draw the Christmas tree and transfer to the fridge to set and place them on the cake and sprinkle the icing sugar for snow effect. 

Wishing you all Merry Christmas and wishing you a very happy & prosperous New year. 

Amaranth Flour Bread

After switching the HFLC life style (diet) I pretty much restrict the wheat but, without wheat baking is almost impossible. The only option to continue the passion without compromising this life style is finding substitute to wheat so that I can mix with the wheat based flour in order to avoid the net gluten and calorie value. 

Also, In HFLC magnesium is (a very important mineral) recommended to take as supplement, as it’s not available in the regular food. But, amaranth is the only grain, rich in magnesium.  Without any trial and error, 53 % of all-purpose flour and 46% of amaranth flour, combination worked very well to produce perfect bread by all means.

Ingredient  :   2 cups of all-purpose flour     ;      1 ¾ cup of amaranth flour (rajgira)    ;      1 ¼ cup of warm milk       ;       2 tsp of instant yeast         ;      3 tbsp of sugar   ;     1 tsp of salt      ;   3 tbsp of soft butter     ;      amaranth grain popped for topping ( optional)

In a mixing bowl add warm milk, sugar, yeast mix well and keep aside. Mix well the salt, all-purpose flour and amaranth flour. Pour the yeast mixture into flour mix and knead until you have smooth and elastic dough. Add the soft butter and knead the dough further.

If required, add a little flour depends on the consistency of dough. Shape it into a ball and place it in a well-oiled bowl, turning it around to coat it well. Cover the bowl with damp cloth and allow the dough to rise until double in volume.

Gently deflate the dough and shape the dough into a greased loaf tin and cover the loaf tin with damp cloth for an second rise, allow to raise almost at the edges of your loaf tin. Sprinkle the popped amaranth grain on the top.

Transfer the loaf tine into 180°C pre-heated oven and bake about  40 to 50 minutes or till the bread is nice brown on top and sounds hollow when tapped. Spread the melted butter on the top and let it cool.

Enjoy the freshly baked bread with bone broth in the cold morning is a Divine.