The other night I brought dessert to a family dinner, as I often do, and as usual I hoped it would taste okay. I'm not so confidant about my desserts. On tasting her piece, my seven-year-old granddaughter, Miss E, declared that I was the best dessert maker in the whole wide world. Hahaha, imagine that. Then she said I should write a cookbook with only desserts. And send it to the President!
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't thrilled to have her approval of my baking skills, but the downside is that now I have to maintain my reputation. :D
So what did I bake to earn such an enthusiastic endorsement? It was an easy-to-throw-together blueberry/strawberry lemon cake that has appeared on these pages before. But since it got such a high approval rating, I thought I'd reprise it. It's basically the same as the cake in this post except I added a flax egg and a blueberry glaze, and baked it in a round cake pan instead of a square one. It rose so beautifully and had such a pleasant taste and texture, I'm going to make it more often.
Berry-lemon quick bread
based on a recipe from Fire and Earth Kitchen for
blueberry breakfast bread
bake in a 9"x9x2" square pan or a 9 x 3" round pan.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed plus 3 Tbsp cold water
- 1-1/2 cups Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free All Purpose Flour (or similar GF flour blend)
- 1/2 cup almond meal
- 1/4 cup oat flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- pinch of salt (1/4 teaspoon or less)
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 small organic lemon, seeds removed, plus enough almond (or other) milk to equal 1 cup OR juice and zest from 1/2 small lemon plus enough almond milk to equal 1 cup (I used a high speed Vitamix. If your blender can't handle the intact lemon, use the juice/zest option)
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 1/3 cup oil (I used avocado oil)
- 1.5 cups fresh blueberries or 1 cup blueberries plus 1/2 cup strawberries cut similar size to blueberries. The strawberries amp up the flavor.
Directions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly oil pan and line the bottom with parchment paper cut to size.
- Place the flax meal in a 1-cup glass measuring cup and add the water. Let sit while you measure the dry ingredients.
- Add the GF flour, almond meal, oat flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon to a large mixing bowl. Whisk together all the dry ingredients until thoroughly mixed.
- Beat the flax with a fork until gluey. Add the (cut-up) lemon to the cup. Add almond milk to make one cup. Mix together.
- Add the flax- lemon-almond milk mixture to the blender. Add the vanilla, maple syrup and oil to the blender and blend until smooth. (I used a high speed Vitamix.)
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry, scrapping out the blender to retrieve all the batter. Beat with a spoon or an electric hand mixer until the dry ingredients are well incorporated.
- Add half the berries and fold in.
- Place the batter into the greased pan and spread the remaining berries evenly over the top. Press in gently, so they still show on top.
- Bake for 20 to 30 minutes, or until the top is golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan about 15 minutes before removing from the pan by inverting onto a rack then turning right side up onto a second rack. Let cool completely before transferring to a serving plate.
