Right Outta The Box, Just in Time For Party Season. Gluten Free Pear Almond Cake

   For someone who is not gluten intolerant I seem to do a lot of gluten-free cooking and baking. One reason is that Indian food, which is what I'm cooking around here 99% of the time, is a very easy cuisine for gluten free people to eat (not to mention vegans and vegetarians) without any change in recipes.  I also happen to have a lot of friends who are either themselves celiacs, or who have kids with gluten intolerance. Since we do a lot of entertaining at our house it's always easier to kill two birds with one gluten-free stone. Rather than making two desserts, one with and one without, I love to make one dessert that no matter what one's dietary requirement, every diner can enjoy. That means making desserts gluten-free.
  
   One of my favorite food guinea pig is one of our closest friends The Notorious Mr X.

Every year without fail, he seems to receive a box of Harry and David Pears. Sometimes he's in Kerala when they arrive, sending us photos while the pears moulder on his doorstep.

This year he was at home, and so he delivered a box of lovely pears to me with a request that I whip something up with them.

   The pears arrived just in time for a movie night at our house. Several of the guests are gluten intolerant and so I wanted to use them to make a holiday dessert. I wanted something gluten free but I didn't want to use one of my recipes. I was looking for something I'd never made before. So of course I went googling to USA Pears which is sort of the mother of all pear websites. I discovered that December is national Pear Month (who knew). I also discovered this amazing Gluten Free Pear and Almond Cake recipe courtesy of Carol Kicinski of Simply Gluten Free.
 One look at this, and I couldn't resist. I seemed to be the perfect dessert for our after the movie chai, and boy was it. It was also very simple to prepare which is a must for a weeknight. All you need are 4 pears and you're good to go.
 

Gluten Free Pear and Almond Cake

Here's What You Need:
4 pears. Ripe, but not too ripe. Keep things on the firm side.
1 and 3/4 cup of sugar plus 2 tsp of sugar
1 Tbs lemon juice
3 and 1/4 cups Almond meal (almond flour)
8 eggs, at room temperature
1 and 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbs honey
1 Tbs neutral flavored oil, (grapeseed, canola)
1/2 cup sliced almonds

Here's What To Do:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place a baking rack in the dead center of the oven
Lightly grease a 9 or 10 inch springform pan.

Place a circle of parchment paper in the bottom of the pan.
Lightly grease the parchment paper also.
In a food processor or stand mixer, mix together 3 and 1/4 cup of almond meal 1 and 3/4 cup of sugar.

Blend the almond meal and the sugar together lightly using your paddle attachment.
Set it aside.
Peel and core the pears.
Take 3 of the pears and chunk them up roughly. Set the fourth pear aside.
Take the chunked up pears and put them in a small saucepan. Add in 2 Tsp of sugar.

And 1 Tbs of lemon juice.

Cover the pan of pears and cook them at medium heat for about 10 minutes or until they are soft.
Mash the pears to a coarse puree and set them aside to cool a bit.
Meanwhile, back at the sugar almond meal mixture in your food processor or stand mixer....
Add in the eggs one at a time.

Blend each of the eggs in well.

Once the pears have cooled enough, add the pear puree to the eggs and flour and sugar.

Add in 1 tsp of vanilla extract.

When all the batter is mixed together, pour it into the prepared spring form pan.

Set it aside.
Take the fourth pear and slice it into 1/4 inch wide pieces.
In a small skillet heat the oil and the honey.
When they're warm and blended together add in the sliced pears.

Turn the pears over a few times in the honey oil mixture to coat them.
Take the pan off the heat and stir in 1/2 tsp of vanilla.
Make sure the pears are well coated.
Sprinkle the 1/2 cup of sliced almonds over the top of the cake.

Arrange the warmed pear slices in a pinwheel shape on top of the cake.

Drizzle the juices in the bottom of the skillet over the top of the cake and the  pear slices.

Pop the cake on a rack placed in the middle of the oven. Bake for 55 to 65 minutes (depending on your oven).
Check your cake after 35 minutes and if you find it's getting too brown on top. You can put a bit of foil over it. I didn't need to do this.
When a toothpick is inserted in the center of the cake and comes out clean, it's done.


Put the cake pan on a cooling rack and let the cake rest for about 30 minutes in the spring form pan. After that you can remove the sides of the pan and put the cake on a serving plate.
You can remove the parchment paper before serving just in case some guest might get carried away. After all we're not goats.
Cut it up and enjoy.

   There it is, a cake that every gluten free guest can enjoy, and any non celiacs will never miss the gluten. It's definitely going into my permanent file.

   Coming up next, I'm cooking Christmas dinner and going old school Italian. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

Figs Lemon and Olive Oil, The Perfect Cake For Whatever You're Celebrating. Plus Another OXO Giveaway!

 
   These are busy days. Cooking, shopping, working, cleaning, getting ready for relatives/company. No matter what holiday/holidays you may celebrate, one thing is universal. This is the time of the year when people gather. This is the time of year when people eat. A lot. Almost continuously some might say. It's a time when I'd rather be trapped on the 405 Freeway near the interchange with the 10 then in the meat aisle of the Sonoma Market, and after years of living in LA you can only imagine how I feel about freeways.

   So I've been looking for easy, simple crowd-pleaser recipes for all the big and little get-togethers that seem to come about this time of year. For instance, take yesterday. A friend said why not come over for a dinner and movie night? He made the dinner. I got dessert. It was the perfect chance to try out another recipe from Maria Specks Ancient Grains For Modern Meals a cookbook I've been finding damn handy this last month.

   Flipping through the book I came across what seemed like a perfect recipe for a casual get together. Lemon-Scented Olive Oil Cake With Plumped Figs. She had me at plumped figs. Who can resist figs this time of year? Remember all that stuff about figgy puddings? Why not a figgy cake? Huh? Why not indeed! A figgy cake is just what Maria Speck delivers with this recipe.

   I was able to start making this cake around 4:15 in the afternoon, and had it in the car on the way to our friends house by 7:00, and a lot of that time it was just cooling! Coincidentally the other great thing about this recipe is that I'll betcha that all of the ingredients are already in your kitchen. They were in mine and I'm not even talking about anything weird or exotic. I'm talking figs, and milk, and honey, and some olive oil, and a shot of Grand Marnier if you've  got it. If you don't, no worries. Orange juice works just as well. Want this delicious cake? If you've got an hour...

Fig, Lemon, and Olive Oil Cake

Here's What You'll Need:

8 oz of finely chopped and stemmed dried figs, (Turkish or Greek if you can get them) 8 oz if you don't have a scale is about 1 and 1/2 cups.

 3 Tbs of freshly squeezed orange juice
 3 Tbs of Grand Marnier (or 3 more Tbs of orange juice)
 1 and 1/2 cups of whole wheat pastry flour
 3/4 tsp of baking powder
 1/4 tsp of sea salt
 1 large egg at room temperature
 1/2 cup of honey
 1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil
 1/2 cup of whole milk
 1 Tbs of grated lemon zest
 powdered sugar for dusting

Here's What to Do:

 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
 Brush a 9  inch tart pan with a removable bottom with olive oil. Set it on a cookie sheet.
 Mix the chopped figs, orange juice, Grand Marnier, or more orange juice together in a small bowl. Let the figs sit in the juice mixture for about 20 minutes while everything else is put together.

Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together in a big bowl. Set it aside.
In a medium bowl, lightly whisk the egg until it's blended together.

 Gently whisk in the honey.

Add in the olive oil.

The milk and lemon zest.

Pour the egg mixture into the center of the dry mixture carefully.

Use a dough whisk or a rubber spatula to blend it all together until everything is just combined. You don't want to over-mix!
Drain the figs if you need to and then fold them into everything else.

Pour the batter into the tart pan evenly.

Smooth it out gently.

Bake it for about 25 to 30 minutes. Poke a toothpick into the center. When it comes out clean, you're money.
Place the tart pan on a wire rack tp cool and unmold it. (We don't show that part because it's too scary.)

   The great thing about this lemon olive oil cake is that it screams  "Holiday Dessert!" with the fragrant combo of lemons, oranges, grassy olive oil, the pungent Grand Marnier and rich figs. Mixing it is a celebration in a bowl. Add in the milk and honey and it's practically biblical! No matter what you're celebrating, it fits right in.

   Once you've got it on your plate, dust it with powdered sugar. But wait, there's more!
 Top it with some softly whipped cream. Aaaaaaand.......

 ....you can do it with your brand new OXO Hand Cranked Beater!

That is if you're the lucky winner. The generous people at OXO have given me one of their great new beaters to take for a test whirl and also to share with one lucky winner.

I love this beater! It took me right back to the days of watching my grandmother whip up meringues and whipped cream, and fighting over who got to lick the beater afterward.
Look at this action, comfy in the hand.

Smoooooooth baby, smooth!

   Don't get me wrong, I love my mixer, but there is something nice about not having the roar of an electric mixer in the background when people are enjoying after dinner conversation. Or so I've heard... or rather not heard cause it's always awful loud in there.

   So  use the hand beater and don't miss a minute of the party. Cut a piece of cake, and hit it with your best shot of whipped cream.

 
 Pretty nifty, I'd like to see my electric mixer top that topping.
 
If you'd like that OXO Beater for your very own, here's what to do.

To win the beater, all you have to do is leave a comment at the bottom of this post and let me know what you'll whip up with this cool OXO Beater
For an extra entry :
Follow @OXO on Twitter
Follow @kathygori on Twitter
And let me know that you have.

   I'll be choosing the winner on Dec 30th at 12:00 noon.PST via random.org  Because of shipping rules, winner must  be resident in the US.
 Coming up next, more holiday fa la la, when cousins and old pals from LA get together. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori