Cruel and Unusual Geography

With half of our household on a gluten-free regime we can’t use “proper” (i.e. wheat) flour for baking cakes and biscuits as we’d like. We’ve tried a number of commercial alternative flour mixes with variable results, and have come back to making our own. Here’s what I use:

For each cup of flour in the recipe, use ⅓ cup tapioca flour, ⅔ cup rice flour, and 1 teaspoon of Xanthan gum.

I prefer the brown rice flour. It handles and tastes the same, but has more fibre and vitamins.

The secret ingredient is really the Xanthan gum. It may seem expensive, but you only use a little at a time and it really does make all the difference. Without it gluten-free flours are sticky and unpleasant to handle, biscuits run out flat, and breads are dry and crumbly. While Xanthan gum won’t make the gluten-free flour behave or taste exactly like wheat flour, it brings it close enough to make recipes work.

Important tip: mix the Xanthan gum with the other flours before adding to any wet ingredients, or it just won’t mix in properly.

Here’s a spectacular flourless chocolate cake that’s suitable for all sorts of allergies. This is obviously no good for dairy-free or egg-free diets, but almost any other allergy can be accommodated by choosing appropriate chocolate. We tend to use Kinnerton for its nut-free guarantee, but also have enjoyed Trade Aid chocolate in the past.

It’s great to come across a recipe where we have all the ingredients, it’s not too complicated, it’s allergy-friendly, and it is just so decadently rich!

Chocolate Valentino by Chef Wan from his book, Sweet Treats

450 grams of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
140 grams butter
5 eggs, separated

Melt chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Stir until smooth. Cool.
Grease a 22cm springform pan. Beat egg yolks and stir into cooled chocolate.
Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Gently fold a quarter of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture. Fold in remaining egg whites.
Pour batter into a pan and bake for 25 minutes at 190°C or until done. Cool.

Note: The Valentino is a heart-shaped version of this cake. Bake a Valentino in a heart-shaped pan. This is a very dense chocolate cake.

If, like me, you don’t have kitchen scales, 140g is about half-way between a quarter and a third of a 500g block of butter, or just a tad less than the third 50g mark on the packet.