Peach-Almond Kuchen (GF, or not)

[amalnahurriyeh]

I made this cake for my birthday a few weeks back, and then again at my family reunion. It has the extreme benefit of being so easy to make that I memorized the recipe after making it once. It helps that, in the wheat-containing-to-GF conversion process, I was able to use premixed flour.

This recipe is originally from the Joy of Cooking, 2001 edition, modified by me to be gluten-free and include almonds, because I &hearts almonds.



Ingredients:

1 stick butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup Pamela's Baking Mix*
1/2 tbsp (1.5 tsp) baking powder*
1/2 tsp almond extract*
1 pound frozen sliced peaches
1/4 cup sliced almonds

*NOTE: the gluten-y original recipe called for 1 cup of all-purpose flour, 1 tbsp of baking powder, and a pinch of salt. Pamela's mix contains baking powder and salt already, but 1 tbsp of baking powder to a cup of flour is A LOT of baking powder, so I added more. The cake needs to rise quite a bit.

1. Put peaches out to thaw on counter or in fridge. Obviously you can use fresh peaches, if you feel like peeling and slicing. The recipe called for less than a pound, but I love peaches, so I went with this.

2. Cream butter and sugar with your stand mixer/hand mixer/a whisk. I did this in my stand mixer at home, but did it by hand with a whisk at my family reunion. As long as the butter is very, very soft, it's possible to do it by hand with no major headaches.

3. Beat in the eggs, and beat them for a bit to get some air in. Add almond extract, too.

4. Add flour and baking powder (and salt if you're doing this non-GF). Mix mix mix.

5. Sprinkle sliced almonds on the bottom of a 9-inch cake pan, and spread the batter into an even layer over top. Add the thawed peaches on top, and more almonds.

6. Bake at 350F for ~40 minutes, until it passes the toothpick test.

I served it with almond whipped cream for my birthday. At my family reunion, I didn't have almonds, so just skipped them, and used vanilla instead of almond extract. Still yummy.

Obviously, pretty much any fruit could be subbed in here. The cake rises around the fruit, producing something halfway between an upside-down cake and a fruit muffin in style. Joy classes this with the clafoutis and filled pancakes, which gives a suggestion of where it lies, structurally.

I tried to convert these to muffin-size, and was only semi-successful. They tasted just as yummy, but several rose up too high and exploded all over the place. If I were re-adapting this, I might leave out the added-in baking powder, or cut it in half, and be very sure not to overfill the cups. The ones that didn't explode did get the thumbs-up from my wife's friends at brunch.

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

ZOMG, the peaches are just perfect now and I've been hankering for cake. Thank Thank Thank you!

[magycmyste]

Oh, I am so saving this: I've a coworker with a wheat allergy (well, wheat and dairy - I may have to make a couple more adjustments) - and I had been thinking of something to make for our team that she could eat (or well, feel a lot less guilty about eating and know it wasn't going to come back and haunt her later).

And this sounds absolutely delicious! Thanks for sharing!

[amalnahurriyeh]

Pamela's mix is dairy-containing, but it would be fairly easy to use, instead, an equal mixture of tapioca/corn/potato starch, rice flour, and almond meal. Namaste also makes a pretty good all-purpose GF flour; no almonds, but you can always add some, or, you know, not. Just avoid bean flours; they'd be no good in this recipe.

You'd have to add the baking soda and salt, obvs.

And I've had excellent results using Earth Balance margarine instead of butter in vegan baking.

[magycmyste]

ooh, cool! My coworker cheats a little bit - she'll actually eat a little bit of stuff even if it has wheat and dairy - but I figure it would be nice to bring in something tasty that she doesn't have to worry about it so much.

Thanks for the suggestions!