ODE TO ITALIA: Almond Orange Olive Oil Cake

Roughly a week ago I took a screenshot of a sweet friend in Italy’s instastory with a recipe for Pan d’Arancio (orange bread). It looked SO AMAZING and I knew I needed to prioritize it for my quarantine kitchen recipe list. While the original recipe is filled with regular flour, sugar, and eggs, I’ve been adapting baked goods for over a decade to be vegan, gluten-free, processed sugar free, so I made a few swaps and gave it a go. And I think it’s pretty close to perfect, but I’ll probably keep tweaking and learning a few tricks as I make this again (which I definitely will be doing). I think this will be an amazing addition to our baked good offerings at Superfresh! as well when we’re able to reopen the doors. Until then, here’s the recipe for you to enjoy in your own home!

A few notes on how and why I chose the ingredients I did to swap from the original recipe:

Changing sugar to a liquid sweetener like maple syrup takes making a couple adjustments… first off, 1 cup sugar = 3/4 cup maple syrup AND secondly, you’ll need to reduce the liquid content by about 3 tbsp somewhere else in the recipe so there isn’t too much moisture content.

When I decided I wanted to use almond meal as the main flour of choice (partially for flavor) I knew that it’d be best blended with another flour that isn’t as dense (coconut flour wouldn’t do because they both have a tendency to make things way too heavy). And I generally avoid rice, while as it is super delicious, we often get so much rice other places in our diet and mixing things up is very important to vary our nutrients and reduce possible intolerance build ups (we can develop intolerances from overconsumption). Rice is also high on the glycemic index and turns to sugar very quickly in the body and many folks with gluten issues also have issues with switching to flours and starches that are high glycemic. I wanted to keep it on the ancient grain / seed line of things for a cleaner profile. Millet is one of my favorite go to’s.

When baking I almost always swap eggs for flax “eggs”. 1 egg = 1 tbsp flax meal + 3 tbsp warm water.

You could use any vegetable oil instead of olive… my second recommendation would be melted coconut oil. I don’t often use any other oils. And I really wanted the olive oil essence and flavor to come through, especially as an ode to Italia.

Almond Orange Olive Oil Cake

1, 9” round (8-16 slices)

INGREDIENTS

100g (about 3/4 cup) millet flour

260g (about 2 cups) almond meal

3 tbsp flax meal + 9 tbsp warm water for “flax egg”

2/3 cup maple syrup*

1 organic orange

1 tbsp raw honey

6 tbsp olive or coconut oi

l

2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (1 packet)

pinch salt (I use pink Himalayan fine ground)

*You can use 3/4 cup + 2 tbsp coconut sugar (or raw cane sugar) instead of maple syrup. If you use sugar instead of a liquid sweetener, add an additional 2 tbsp of olive or coconut oil.

DIRECTIONS

Whisk flax meal and 9 tbsp warm water together in a small bowl and set aside to thicken

Thoroughly wash the orange, cut off the top, cut into pieces and blend it in its entirety (even the peel!) in a blender until it becomes a purée

In a larger mixing bowl, whisk the flax “egg” with the maple syrup

Add the remaining oil, honey, salt, and yeast and incorporate, continuing to whisk

Slowly incorporate flour about 1 cup at a time, whisking away any clumps

Add the orange purée and whisk

Well coat a 9” cake round with coconut oil

Pour batter into the cake pan

Bake at 340 degrees F (171 degrees C) for 50 minutes

Check with a fork to confirm it is cooked through

Allow cake to cool to room temp before removing it from pan

Store in fridge, sealed to retain the moisture (can cover with Saran Wrap or bees wrap or cut into pieces in Tupperware)

ENJOY!!

Feel free to make this in a square pan instead. This will be a wonderful breakfast treat with a nice strong coffee!