Gluten Free Pain D'Épices (Spice Cake)

Gluten Free Pain D’Épices

(Gluten Free Spice Cake)

Adapted by My Little Blue Heron from Les cakes de Laurent sans gluten & sans lait by Laurent Dran

Pain D’Épices is one of my favorites cakes, and since I eliminated gluten from my diet, it’s another It’s traditionally made with rye flour. Now you can enjoy the flavors and texture of this earthy and satisfying cake without gluten. Pain D’Épices is traditionally eaten at New Year’s.

Laurent Dran is a French blogger whose book, referenced above, is available only in French. 

The French home cook doesn’t prepare super-sized cakes. This loaf is smaller than what you’re probably used to baking. The loaf pan you’ll need is 16 x 9 cm (6.3 x 3.5 in inches .. or 6 x 4 should work). You can double the recipe and make one large loaf and a small loaf or some cupcakes. Or go buy some German dark loaf pans that are about this size. Jobber stores like Home Goods often sell great loaf pans from Germany and France. Dark pans bake gluten free stuff much better. I don’t know why, but they do.

I prepped this by hand, but you can do it with an electric mixer. You’ll need the whip attachment.

And you must have a kitchen scale that weighs in grams. If you don’t, they’re so easy to get on Amazon. Here’s a link.

Recipes generally use Xanthan Gum for binding. Dran’s recipes call for Guar Gum (also a binder, but is usually used in products like salad dressings and cold stuff.) Maybe  Xanthan Gum is hard to find in France. I’ve read that they’re interchangeable.  

Oven temperature is 356º F. If you don’t have a digital oven, that’s fine. Set it to 350º F. and the bake may take a little longer.

A truc that Dran recommends it to slit the cake down the middle. He says that a small, quick slit will help to develop a “big bump”, like a madeleine. The batter was a little too thin to do this when I put the cake in to bake, so I made my “petite incision” about 15 minutes into the bake.

MLBH Trucs: Use organic expeller pressed refined coconut oil (Spectrum brand is excellent). Your baked good will taste authentic and won’t taste at all like coconut. Always use SUPERFINE brown rice flour. You won’t get that gritty texture in your baked goods. Vitacost.com is a great source for this (and much more). You can buy the “Tesla” brand of superfine rice flours, which is made by “Authentic Foods”, or try Vitacost’s own brand.

The first go-round, I followed Dran’s spice profile. Julia Child’s recipe calls for equal amounts of cinnamon, cloves and mace. Try earthy honey, like buckwheat (it’ll greet the buckwheat flour with joy!), or try a flowery honey.

During these short days that are cold and fill your apartment or home with warm and fragrant spices.

peace, love and ease,

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jane

Gluten Free Pain D’Épices

Preparation:

Using spray release or a neutral oil, coat the baking pans well.

Preheat the oven to 356º F. (see note above.)  

Ingredients:

50 g. superfine brown rice flour (Authentic Foods brand or Vitacost brand (find it at vitacost.com)

25 g. potato starch

35 g. buckwheat flour

4 g. baking powder (aluminum free is best)

1 gram Guar gum

60 g. brown sugar 

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

½ tsp. ground ginger

½ tsp. ground cardamom (freshly ground is ideal) ...see directly below for another spice combination that I like*
1/4 tsp. Kosher salt 

1 egg, size large (about 50 grams)

110 g. water, room temperature (approx.. ½ c.)

85 g. honey (I used a miscellaneous and buckwheat honey and preferred the buckwheat honey)

55 g. coconut oil (refined is preferred because it won't taste coconuttish) .. and I suggest bringing it to liquid state. You can do this in the microwave at half power (5) for about 15 seconds.

*(for a different spice profile try: 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. ginger, 1/4 tsp. ground cloves, 1/2 tsp. ground mace - closer to Child's cake.)

Procedure:

In a medium sized bowl, whisk together all dry ingredients and set aside.

In another bowl (or if using an electric stand mixer, in that bowl), measure out ingredients, and whisk together for a minute.

Add dry ingredients to wet until combined.

Pour into prepared pan(s) and bake for 30-45 minutes, depending on your pan and your oven. (If you’re making cupcakes, baking time may be less than 30 minutes.)

Remove from oven and cool 10-15 minutes on baking rack before releasing from pans to then cool completely.

Wrapped well, this will keep for a couple of days at room temperature. You can refrigerate it and bring it to room temperature before serving. You can toast it and serve it with butter or jam or both.

The loaf will freeze well for several months.

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Sweet Potato Flour Spice Cookies, Gluten Free and Flavor Full

Buckwheat and Sweet Potato Flour Spice Cookies

My Little Blue Heron

Fragrant, aromatic spices combine with earthy buckwheat flour, Peruvian sweet potato flour, brown sugar and pecans for a perfect nibble. 

Vanilla powder is, for serious d'Gluties, a reliable go-to vanilla source. (I like Baldwin's Vanilla Extract from West Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Find them online, but I think you still have to call them to order: (413) 232-7785).

You can form these into rolls and slice and bake them, even freezing the rolls in parchment or waxed paper. Or you can form the cookies and freeze them on sheets and bake them off when you want some. 

Be happy, healthy, peaceful and feel at ease in and out of your kitchen.

xojane

Dry ingredients (whisk together in a bowl and set aside):

100 g. buckwheat flour (Arrowhead Mills is a good choice)

45 g. sweet potato flour (mine's from Peru) Find on Amazon.com

¼ tsp. vanilla powder (you can add 1 tsp. liquid vanilla extract to the butter/sugar/egg mixture if you  

        don't have vanilla powder.) I buy mine at vitacost.com

1 ½ tsp. ground cinnamon 

¼ tsp. ground cloves (freshly ground, if you can)

¼ tsp. ground nutmeg (freshly ground only)

¼ tsp. mace (easy to find at Indian grocers)

1 tsp. Kosher salt

½ tsp. baking soda

Make the Vanilla Browned Butter:

Render 12 oz. unsalted butter to make ‘ghee’, melting over medium heat in a small saucepan, with 3 vanilla beans, scraped, including the pods. Skim the foam that rises to the top and continue to gently boil the butter until it stops making any bubbling noise. This is when it begins to brown. Swirl the butter fairly often so the it browns evenly and doesn’t burn. When the butter reaches a nutty brown color and scent, remove from burner and pour through a fine sieve into a container (glass is best). Set aside to cool. Do this before you make the cookies. You can make a big batch of this. It will keep indefinitely and is great to use in so many recipes.

Remaining Ingredients:

113 g. vanilla browned butter

1 egg, size large, pasture eggs are lovely, but whatever you've got at home is fine, at room temperature

100 g. dark brown sugar

112 grams of pecans, toasted, cooled and chopped coarsely (substitute your favorite nut)

Optional 10X (powdered) sugar, sifted for coating cookies. 

Procedure:

In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, cream together 113 g. vanilla browned butter (weigh it!) with brown sugar and egg until light and fluffy.

Dump in dry ingredients and mix on low until incorporated. Increase speed and mix until well-combined. Just before mix is completely combined, add pecans and finish mixing.

One method: Remove bowl and roll batter into logs, approximately 1 ½” in circumference. You can do this in waxed paper or parchment paper. Twist the ends to ‘close’ the logs and chill until firm (at least a few hours or overnight.) You can freeze the rolls, too. If you freeze them, when you remove them from the freezer, slice them and bake them frozen. You’ll add on a few minutes to the baking time.

Another good method: Using a small cookie scoop, or two teaspoons, drop the cookies on parchment linked baking sheets, leaving room between the scoops. Using the tines of a fork, press down, turn the fork at a 45-degree angle and press again (like making peanut butter cookies.) If the batter is too sticky, you can refrigerate it, or dampen the tines. Sprinkle a little Turbinado sugar on each cookie and bake. (Truc: If you like 'salty-sweet', combine some coarse salt, like Maldon Salt with the sugar, to taste, and sprinkle on top of your cookies.)

The Bake:

Preheat oven to 350º F. and line a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper. Set oven racks to upper and lower third of oven.

Slice cookies about ¼” thin (if you like very thin wafers like I do.)

Or drop method (see above.)

Bake in preheated oven until brown, taking care to not burn them. Transfer top to bottom, back to front after about 5 minutes (or half way through the bake, depending on your method and cookie-largeness. 

Cool on racks. Optional coating with 10X.

Play around: Make sandwiches with apricot or raspberry jam. Add some melted dark chocolate. Omit the jam and sandwich with chocolate or dip in chocolate if that's your jam. 
xojane