When I decided to become a personal trainer a couple years ago, I started researching ways of indulging that wouldn’t throw me off completely. Of course eating a donut once in a while wouldn’t do that to you, but the baker in me was also longing for something more than banana pancakes and home made granola (which are delicious too) on a daily basis. My first attempts to healthier deserts were uncomplicated and while they weren’t bad they were also unmoving. Most of the time I would simply replace the sugar with sweeteners like erythritol and the flour with a gluten free mix and that simply wasn’t cutting it. So I searched the internet with three requirements: I wanted the cake to be gluten free, sugar free (as in no refined sugar) and free of sweeteners (which always left that fermented aftertaste in my mouth and my stomach wondering what I had just eaten). And what do you know? Philippe Conticini, one of France most renowned pastry chefs wrote a whole book (actually several) about healthier deserts including one entirely ‘sugar free’.
The book is only available in French but have you recognized it? The front cover is that marble cake we are making today! I have changed some of the ingredients to make it gluten free. This cake is absolutely delicious. It is not like a typical marble cake and I don’t think it was intended to be. You can taste a little bit of the apple sweetness and the hazelnut butter is fabulous in this. Even the kids loved it! It is honestly a cake I make from time to time, a real pleasure regardless of its sugar content. And to top it all off, like most travel cakes, it will keep easily for a week, possibly two but I never got a chance to find out…
Healthy marble cake : gluten free, sweetener free, and with no added sugar… And you won’t even be able to tell (neither will the kids)
Difficulty: Easy12
slices30
minutes40
minutes7
daysKeep the screen of your device on
Ingredients
130 grams 130 of almond powder
190 grams 190 of apple juice reduction (from 1 liter of apple juice)
6 6 egg whites
2 2 egg yolks
22 grams 22 of hazelnut flour
50 grams 50 of gluten free flour
10 grams 10 of baking powder
120 grams 120 of unsalted butter
4 4 vanilla beans
6 grams 6 of unsweetened cocoa powder
Notes
- In the original recipe, there is a vanilla batter and a chocolate batter with slightly different weighing (for example, 25g of flour for the vanilla batter and 24g for the chocolate one). For the sake of simplicity and in the interest of time, I have combined everything into one single batter. We will separate the batter into two before adding the whisked egg whites and cocoa powder.
Marble cake
In a large saucepan, start by reducing 1L (2.2lb) of unsweetened apple juice (preferably organic but at least 100% pressed juice not from concentrate). Leave the saucepan on the stove on high for 25 to 30 minutes. When time is up, you should be left with about 200g (7oz.) of apple juice reduction.
In another saucepan over the stove on medium, brown 120g of butter. The butter is ready when it stops ‘singing’. I kid you not, this is a legitimate thing even among professionals. The moment the butter goes silent is the moment you remove it from the heat source.
You will see little brown specs in the butter that is normal. Using a small mesh stainer, filter the butter and leave to cool down at room temperature.
Meanwhile, in a large enough bowl, mix all of the dry ingredients: 130g of almond powder, 22g of hazelnut flour, 49g of flour and 10g of baking powder.
Add the wet ingredients: 150g of apple juice reduction, 1 egg white, 2 egg yolks and the vanilla beans (in my case vanilla powder) and whisk. Add 120g of browned butter and whisk some more.
Start whisking up the 5 remaining egg whites until they foam up slightly.
Leaving the stand mixer on medium speed, pour 40g of cooled apple juice reduction and whisk slightly past the soft peaks point.
Separate the cake batter in two equal parts (you should have around 500g of mass meaning 250g for the vanilla batter and 250g for the chocolate one). In one, add 6g of cocoa powder and whisk. Add the whisked egg whites in equal amounts in both batters.
Transfer the batters in two pipping bags with no tips and send to the fridge while we butter and flour the cake pans.
Pipe in your prepared cake pans alternating between the chocolate and the vanilla batter. I decided to make two mini cakes but with these quantities you can also make one large cake (about 12 x 3 inch).
Optionally you can make a cone out of parchment paper, soften some butter and using the cone, pipe the butter along the cake. This will help the cake explode and form that crevasse on top (which I personally find very very veryyyyy sexy) but as usual it is up to you!
Smaller cakes will bake for shorter amounts of time in a sliglty warmer oven (30 minutes in a 350F) while bigger cakes will bake for longer (1 hour) at a lower temperature (320F). Check the doneness of your cake by poking it with a knife, the blade should come out perfectly dry. Let cool down slightly then unmold the cakes and leave on a cooling rack.
