Sunday, March 16, 2008

Cranberry Apple Orange Amaranth Coffeecake

Cranberry Apple Orange Amaranth Coffeecake

Today was my second day of spring break, and I'm mostly over my jealousy of my friends who've taken off for Rio, Barbados and Palm Springs. Instead I'm focusing on the fact that J & I spent two thrilling undergrad spring breaks exploring New York, and I've constructed a packed agenda for the next week, with stops in Queens, Brooklyn, and....drumroll please...Trader Joe's. I'm also looking forward to reading the paper and baking as much as possible. This morning I'm off to a good start--this low-fat bread paired well with the Sunday New York Times (something white people like).

Note: Amaranth flour is ground from amaranth grain, a staple of pre-Columbian Aztec diets. It contains no gluten, so needs to be paired with a wheat flour for recipes with leaveners. It's high in protein and calcium; I first read about it in Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Cooking. Bob's Red Mill makes the flour, which can often be found at natural food stores. Anson Mills is another good source for hard to find New World grains.

Cranberry Apple Orange Amaranth Coffeecake
(adapted from Joy of Cooking)

1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 c. amaranth flour
2/3 c. sugar
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. salt
1/3 c. low-fat yogurt
1/3 cup orange juice
3 tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 apple, chopped
1/2 c. cranberries, chopped

Preheat oven to 350. Grease an 8 x 2 inch round pan, or a loaf pan like I did. Whisk together flours, sugar, baking soda, spices and salt in large bowl. In another bowl, combine yogurt, orange juice, olive oil and vanilla. Pour wet mixture over dry mixture and stir until dry ingredients are just moistened. Gently stir in apples and cranberries.

Scrape mixture into your pan. Bake until a toothpick in the center comes out clean. For the round pan this will be approximately 25-30 minutes. For a loaf pan it will be closer to 45-50 minutes. Let cool in pan for a few minutes, then remove to rack.

1 comment:

Kalyn Denny said...

I bet I can make you feel a bit better about the lack of spring break travels. This year my school district decided to give us ONE DAY off for spring break. Doesn't that just stink. Anyway, have fun relaxing.