Gluten-Free Mango and Peach Tea Cakes
If you’ve been passing by the yummy looking dried mango in the bins at the store, you have an excuse now to buy some. It’s delicious. I’ve also always loved the taste of dried peaches. The first time I baked with them was to add them to banana bread. That was years ago before I was paying attention to nutrition and the additives in food. Much of the dried fruit that you find out there have sulfites added to preserve them, keeping them from losing flavor and turning dark brown. Sulfites have been used for centuries to preserve food, and they also occur naturally in fermented foods like wine, but there is a lot more found in dried fruit than any other kind of food.
During this week’s visit to the farmers market I asked a farmer about sulfites and he said that his company was putting a lot less sulfites in his fruit so if I bought his colorful and flavorful dried fruit, it would be this year’s crop, recently dried, and it would stay colorful and flavorful for a short time. Another farmer said that they sulfites in their dried fruit came from being dried over volcanic material. More “natural” he said.
Both of these options may be a lot better than what you buy at the store but then I tasted samples from a farm near San Francisco. Frog Hollow Farm (http://froghollow.myshopify.com, a great online gift store) sells organic and sulfur-free dried fruit. The peaches were very fresh and amazing. There store has great gift ideas.
Gluten-Free Mango and Peach Tea Cakes
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup dried peaches, cut in to small pieces
- 1/2 cup dried mangos, cut into small pieces
- 3/4 cup honey
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/2 cup avocado or light olive oil
- 5 large or 4 jumbo eggs
- 1 cup canned coconut milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon almond flavoring
- 1/4 cup chia seeds
- 1 cup coconut flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
Put dried fruit, honey and water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil, turn down heat and let simmer 15 minutes. Remove from heat and cool. Butter a muffin tin and set aside. Mix flour, baking soda and salt and set aside. Whisk the oil, eggs, milk and flavorings together. Whisk the eggs, oil, dried fruit mixture, coconut milk and flavorings together. Mix both mixtures together along with the chia seeds. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25 minutes or until tops springs back when you touch them with your finger. Let cakes rest a few minutes in the pan. Then loosen the sides with a rubber knife and remove from pan and cool on a wire rack.
Gluten-Free Peach and Mango Spice Tea Cakes
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup chopped dried peaches
- 1/2 cup chopped dried mango
- 2/3 cup honey
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/3 cup coconut oil
- 3/4 cup coconut milk
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3/4 cup brown rice flour
- 3/4 cup oat flour
- 1/2 cup oat bran
- 2 tablespoons coconut flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 12 blanched almonds
Instructions
Put dried fruit, honey and water in a saucepan and heat until mixture begins to boil. Turn heat down and simmer 15 minutes. Remove from heat and cool.
Butter a muffin pan and set aside. Whisk all dry ingredients together. Whisk all wet ingredients together. Pour both mixtures into a large bowl and mix together. Pour into the muffin pan and top each muffin with an almond. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 23 minutes or until brown around the edges and the middle springs back when you press it with your finger. Let the muffins rest a few minutes in the pan. Then loosen the sides with a rubber knife, remove from the pan and cool on a wire rack.
