A bag of Bob’s Red Mill almond meal/flour found its way into my shopping cart recently.  I love almonds (almost as much as I love ginger), and the thought of almondy muffins, coffeecakes, and cookies made me look past the $12/lb price tag.  I wanted to tear into it immediately and start baking, except I can’t seem to find any tasty-sounding recipes.

Do a web search for “almond flour recipes” and you’ll be launched into the world of low-carb, gluten-free, and specialty diet baking.  Aside from classic French recipes for almond pastries, I didn’t find almond flour muffin or cake recipes that include almond flour and typical baking ingredients.  I don’t want to use agave syrup or “evaporated cane juice” or bulk Splenda; I like good ol’, grown-and-processed-in-Louisiana granulated cane sugar.  I’m not gluten-sensitive, so I don’t want to use xanthan gum.  I happen to like my locally farmed Smith’s Creamery butter, so I don’t want to use imported coconut oil.  What to do, then, with my aromatic almond flour?

When in doubt, wing it.  I decided to substitute almond flour for a portion of the wheat flour in a proven recipe.  My jumping-off point, Peach Coffeecake, is found on page 69 of Whole Grain Baking, published by King Arthur Flour.  It’s too early for Louisiana peaches, but I did have a package of frozen raspberries on hand, so additional improvisation ruled the day.  The resulting cake perfumed the kitchen as it baked.  Tender and moist, it had a puddingy texture, almost like a raspberry-almond spoonbread.  Perfect for a starring role at breakfast,  it’s pretty enough for dessert, thanks to the raspberry stripes running throughout.

UPDATE:  this coffeecake definitely improved over time.  After the first day, the raspberries’ jammy moisture suffused the cake, reminescent of the best bread pudding.

Raspberry-ginger almond flour coffeecake

• Cake
  • 1-1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 cup all purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup almond meal or flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt (omit if using salted butter)
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 2/3 cup 0% fat greek yogurt
  • 1/3 cup milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1-12 oz package frozen raspberries, thawed & drained
• Streusel
  • 2 T butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 T all purpose flour
  • 1-3 tsp powdered ginger (3 tsp will yield a noticeably hot crumb topping)

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease & flour a 9 by 13 inch baking pan.  In a medium bowl, stir together dry ingredients:  flours, baking soda, and salt (if using).  In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light in color; beat in egg, scraping sides of bowl frequently.  Add dry ingredients to the butter mixture one-third at a time, alternating with the vanilla, milk and yogurt.  Gently fold in the drained raspberries; do not over-stir, or the berries will break apart.  Spread the batter into the prepared pan.  To make the streusel topping, combine butter, sugar, flour, and ginger in a small bowl, stirring until coarse crumbs form.  Sprinkle crumbs evenly atop the batter.  Bake for 50-60 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean and the top is dark golden-brown.   (Baking time will vary according to the amount of liquid in the raspberries.)  Cool slightly before cutting into squares.