Moms, I'm going out on a limb here. I want to bake something that uses eggs, cocoa powder, sugar, vanilla, and fruit puree instead of oil. No flour, no dairy, no margerine. I don't have a recipe, just moderate baking expierence. What say you - could I make this work (like a flourless cake without added oil)?
JB asks a good question - my goal is to try to make a healthier treat (I'll be using date paste instead of sugar) that is dairy-free (due to some dietary restrictions). But I don't want to make something that won't turn out well, so if some oil is necessary, I'll add it in.
ETA - ended up making brownies. Had to use 1/2 cup flour, but substituted date paste for the sugar and carrot/sweet potato puree for most of the oil (still used 2 Tbs of olive oil). Came out very dense, but yummy.
ETA again - not trying to go gluten free, just trying to cut down on more processed foods. Hence the date paste - it's not about the calories, but about finding a healthier way to sweeten the food. Stevia is ok, but leaves an after taste. Date paste (just pureed dates with a little water) adds the benefit of the nutritive value of dates, including a lot of fiber, leaving you fuller after the treat.
No. If you're not aerating the egg whites like you would do in a meringue, angel food cake or sponge cake then you need a fat to bind the ingredients together. The fruit puree would just add more sugar. Why no fat? You could use real chocolate instead of cocoa powder and butter instead of fruit puree and have a classic flourless cake
What is your goal in developing this recipe?
It MIGHT. I have done pancakes and muffins with mashed banana or applesauce instead of butter or oil and they have looked and tasted the same.
If it is a special Valentines Day treat, I would probably stick to the recipe this time, though!
Hi HappyMama,
Dates are very high in sugar (mostly fructose and glucose), so don't think you're substituting "healthier" carbohydrates by using them instead of refined "white" sugar (mostly sucrose). If you're using whole, ground dates, at least you're adding in a decent bit of potassium and fiber that you wouldn't be getting from white sugar (which is made from sugar beets), but if you're using date syrup, the potassium remains but the fiber is lost. Calorically, there's really no difference between a gram of fructose and a gram of sucrose. Both deliver approximately 3.9 kCal/gram consumed. If you really want to try cutting down on calorie-rich sweeteners, trying using stevia, or a stevia/sugar blend.(Stevia is not a carbohydrate and is calorie-free.) If your goal is to cut down on fats, however, substitute plain, unsweetened applesauce or mashed bananas for oil, butter, or margarine (these also contain a fair amount of sugar, however).
The recipe you described would give you more of a pudding or a mousse than a cake. You need to add some kind of starch to get the molecular structure achieved with flour. For a higher nutrient value, you can use a whole wheat or amaranth flour, unless your goal is to be gluten free. For gluten-free baking, I use a combination of coconut flour, potato starch, brown rice flour, and tapioca starch. You can also use bean flours, and some people will use sorghum flour or spelt flour (a type of ancient wheat that has a lower gluten content). BTW, true gluten intolerance in the form of celiac disease really only affects no more than 3 - 5 % of the people of middle-Eastern and European descent. Prevalence of gluten intolerance in people of pure Asian or Pacific Islander descent is very low -- almost nonexistant, and in those of Aryan (Indian, as in India) and African descent it's less than 3% percent. It depends on the predominant starch source used during the course of primary evolution. Gluten intolerance is lowest in regions where humans evolved where wheat was not a dietary staple. Most of what you're seeing in the media these days is hype. However, there are other digestive diseases that can often improve if gluten is eliminated (such as Crohn's and ulcerative colitis), and there are also true wheat allergies (which may or may not be caused by gliaden, the protein component in gluten).
Just Google search: "cake recipe with eggs, cocoa powder, sugar, vanilla, fruit puree, no flour, no dairy...."
Or "Vegan cake recipes."
Or "cake recipes with no flour, no dairy, no oil."
Or "flourless cake recipes"
There are many recipes that use applesauce instead of oil. I'd compare this recipe with one for a flourless cake. If there is no flour what gives the case substance? I would not substitute date paste for applesauce. The two have different characteristics. Unsweetened applesauce has no added sugar a ddifferent texture and more volume.
It's been too many years since I studied food science. I suggest you could call a nutritionist or a home economist who could then tell you who to ask. Making recipes is a science.
I also suggest that if the recipe came from a reliable souce that it will likely work. If you got it from a newspaper I'd call the Food Editor to be sure they didn't make an error.
