Blueberry Un-Blues: Blueberry Tea Cake

Blueberry Un-Blues: Blueberry Tea Cake

Part I of III on Blueberry Recipes

After buying a case of blueberries, ya think I haven't cooked with them? I made blueberry raw cheezecake, smoothies out to Kalamazoo, cornbread, and tea cake.

Yes, finally, success with the tea cake. Its predecessors ended up as this: Cookie Recycling and Transformation.

And here is more history of this bread:

Berry Berry Go Kickass

I kicked its ass this time, though. Behold a bread that tastes of animal crackers and has no refined sugar. I didn't share it, as was originally intended. It tastes quite sweet to the sugar-free, but I am not sure about those used to the sugar content of their baked goods dialed up to eleven.

No, I have not seen This is Spinal Tap. Yet. It's on my cinematic homework.

Blueberry Tea Cake

Deconstructed and rebuilt from "Blueberry Tea Loaf," http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,173,146183-229201,00.html

1 cup GF oat flour

1/2 cup brown rice flour

1/2 cup sorghum flour

1/2 cup quinoa flour OR teff flour

1 teaspoon xanthan gum

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground mace

6 dates, soaked overnight

1/4 cup date-soaking water

2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted 

1/2 cup coconut sugar (coconut palm crystals)

2 teaspoons chia seeds

1/2 cup warm water

1/2 c. vegan sour kream/nayonnaise (I used Earth Balance original

zest of 1 lemon OR 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup chopped walnuts, toasted (optional)

1 cup frozen or fresh blueberries +1 tablespoon tapioca starch (for the frozeldies)

Nota bene: defrost your frozen berries (and still toss them with tapioca or arrowroot or cornstarch) before using.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a 9*4*4-inch loaf pan and set aside.

Toss the frozen/defrosted berries with tapioca starch in a small bowl and set aside.

In a food processor or blender, blitz the dates, soaking water, oil, nayo, chias, more water, coconut sugar, and zest/extracts until uniformly combined.

In a large bowl, sift then whisk together the flours, xanthan gum, leavening, and spices. Add wet to dry, stir briefly, and fold in the berries. Mix well. You may need to add a little water (up to 1/4 cup, tablespoon by tablespoon) if using teff flour as it is a thirsty flour. It will be a fairly stiff dough. Transfer to the pan and fuss at it to make it even (tap the pan and hack at the surface of the dough to make it reach the edges).

Bake for 45-50 minutes or until it passes the toothpick test, the top has cracked, the edges have browned and pulled away from the sides of the pan, and the top springs back when touched. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes before turning out onto a rack to cool completely.

This stuff is worth all the previous research. I was going to say earlier that I kicked this recipe's ass this time and then worked it off while doing butt-kicks (calf work!) in INSANITY, but that is erred thinking. Food is fuel. It is not a reward or something to be worked off (then why did you eat it, one asks?) or anything else guilt-inducing. It's also an artistic medium. We bring guilt and other emotional condiments to the table and we are free not to sprinkle or slather such on our sustenance. 

This was dandy dessert and wonderful pre- and post-workout fuel. 

You may thank iPad publishing for the brevity of this post. We are due for storms tomorrow and I don't want a power outage to be the reason for no Thursday blog postage.