The Journey

There are several food magazines I like reading, but the one that best suits my personality is Cook?s Illustrated. The recipes always work, there are no ads and I find the recipe-development chronicles fascinating. I am a recipe-development geek. For me, the baking/cooking journey is as exciting as the destination, and Cook?s Illustrated celebrates this.

When I set about working on a new recipe, it rarely goes the way I envision on the first try. I have to be able to throw out everything about the first version, re-envision how it?s supposed to look and taste and begin again from scratch?sometimes repeating this procedure several times. There?s a lot of math and chemistry involved, and when I?m baking I can add mixed fractions in my head. Ask me to do the same when there?s not a batch of cookies at stake, and I will stand before you mumbling and drooling.

Coming up with an idea about how something should taste and look and actually bringing that thing into existence with your vision intact is an extremely cool adventure. Whether you bake, grout bath tubs or write code, I salute all of you who create something out of nothing. Regardless of what you do for a living, I know there?s a little bit of artist in you. It?s true, isn?t it? Yeah, I thought so.

Orange-Pistachio Breakfast Cake
Gluten-free
Makes 9 servings

I recently read a cake recipe that had polenta in it, and I thought, Hey, why not? But after the first version of this cake caused me to spend the better part of an afternoon disengaging the polenta from my molars, I decided to scrap it. After that, the current incarnation of this breakfast cake took four more attempts before I got the crumb and taste the way I envisioned it. I was flush with oranges from my CSA, so I probably could have made a few more cakes?as well as some juice.

I really wanted to make a vegan cake, but I am facing heady challenges with vegan g-f baking. If you want to try subbing applesauce for the eggs and nondairy margarine for the butter and your cake passes muster, please let me know. My vegan version of this cake was craptacular, so I?d be very encouraged to know a good vegan version is possible.

Canola oil spray
1 cup blanched almond flour
? cup GF Classical Blend flour, or your favorite gluten-free flour, sifted
? cup coconut flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon xanthan gum
½ teaspoon sea salt
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted
¾ cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
¾ cup unsweetened almond milk
Grated peel from 1 large navel orange
1 teaspoon almond extract
½ cup pistachios, coarsely chopped
Confectioners? sugar for garnish

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray 8x8 baking pan with canola oil. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder, xanthan gum and sea salt.

2. In another large mixing bowl, whisk together butter, sugar, eggs, almond milk, grated orange peel and almond extract.

3. Stir the flour mixture into the butter-sugar mixture until combined. Stir in the pistachios.

4. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Cool cake in pan for about 10 minutes then turn out onto wire rack to cool completely.

5. Sift a bit of confectioners? sugar over cake, slice and serve. Store leftovers in an airtight container for up to 2 days. After that the powdered sugar melts into the cake and it starts to resemble the shiny, preservative-laden snack cakes I used to eat in junior high. Not the good ones, either.