Chestnut vegan cake with cherry salsa

Chestnut is a wonderful flour to use, albeit expensive, I know.  Using the flour in baking, it makes cakes and brownies wonderfully moist, the same way two or three egg yolks would do it.  This cake is gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, soy-free and sugar-free, being sweetened with grape and apple juice instead.

Ingredients:

20 dried cherries, halved / ½ cup dried cranberries

4 tbsp good quality dark red grape juice

1½ cups (240 g) chestnut flour

1 tbsp corn starch

3 tbsp vegan carob chips

1 tsp baking soda

pinch of salt

½ cup walnuts, chopped, toasted in the oven, then ground finely

1 tbsp hazelnut / macadamia nut butter

2 tsp + 5 tsp walnut oil

2 – 3 tbsp maple syrup, warmed 

1¼ cups apple juice

12 walnut halves

1½ cups chopped fresh black cherries

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 430°F (220°C).  Brush a heatproof ceramic pie dish (square or round) with walnut oil, or use a silicone baking dish.
2. Soak the dried cherries or cranberries in the grape juice for an hour, or preferably overnight.
3. Place the chestnut flour, corn starch, carob chips, baking soda and salt in a bowl and stir to mix.  Add the fine walnuts.
4. Add the nut butter and 2 tsp of walnut oil and the apple juice to the flour and stir until combined.  This is a runny, cream-like dough.
5. Drain the dried fruit and discard the soaking liquid (or drink it).  Stir the dried fruit into the batter.  Pour the batter into the baking dish.  Place the walnut halves on the cake and pour the remaining 5 tsp of walnut oil over the batter.
6. Bake in the oven on the middle shelf for 25 – 27 minutes until firm.  It is normal for the cake to crack all over the surface.  Place a sheet of tin foil over the cake for the last 10 minutes if it is becoming too dark.
7. Remove the cake from the oven.  Pour the warm maple syrup over the cake so that it can be absorbed.
8. For the salsa:  Blend ½ cup of the cherries in a liquidizer to a purée.  Stir in the rest of the cherries.
9. Serve the cake warm, or at room temperature.  Cut the cake into slices or squares and serve with the cherry salsa on the side.

Makes enough for 8 generous portions.

Hint:  By changing the dried fruit and fruit juice in the recipe, one achieves a completely different taste to this versatile cake recipe.  Try for instance chopped fresh pineapple with cinnamon and coconut milk; or white grape juice with halved black grapes and vanilla powder.

Recipe from: BENESSERE well-being: vegan & sugar-free eating for a healthy life-style, by Laurinda Erasmus. Physical book from Quinoa Publishing and e-book from Apple iBookstore for the iPad.

www.veganwellbeing.net