I haven’t written here in a while, I know. My husband and I were in a ‘brief’ transition that turned into six months while we waited for our visas to the Netherlands. We finally moved and as we approach the end of our first month in this new country, it’s time I update you all about the future of this newsletter.

I got a job as the head chef of a gluten-free café and restaurant so as you might imagine, I’m absolutely stoked to devote myself to learning the ropes in their kitchen and establishing a career in The Netherlands. The thought of making lots of gluten-free food, not worrying about cross-contamination at work, and feeding a bunch of gluten-free/coeliac clients is so thrilling.

I was fully expecting to continue developing recipes, editing reels, and publishing weekly newsletters here on Better Chews. Today I was recording a video of developing a karpatka recipe and I had a realisation: filming, editing, and otherwise monetising my time in my home kitchen really doesn’t sit well with me. My kitchen is where I unwind, experiment, zone out, get stressed, and experience so many of the joys and failures in my life. I like to put on music and calculate the batch size, throw things in the oven and wash the dishes while they bake. Setting up my camera and speaking into a microphone, while maintaining silence in my home for said microphone, and later spending hours editing videos together and adding captions and interacting with comments…these things have nothing to do with why I adore the kitchen so much.

I want to feed people. I got into food because I like to eat food, and serve people food, and discuss dishes with people, and learn things about science and culture and nature through food. The image of food, the art of video editing, the need to grab and maintain attention: I can happily live and die without them.

That is absolutely not to say I am abandoning this newsletter! What I am abandoning—at least for now—is making videos to accompany the recipes I post here, and my promotion of this newsletter more broadly. I am always trying new things and I look forward to sharing them with you, because I still really enjoy writing recipes, discussing technique, and hearing from you all — I just won't be holding myself to any schedule or pressure to produce polished images and videos.

Until further notice, this will be a casual space for me to share my recipes and I will be lifting the paywall on all my posts. If you still feel inclined to be a premium subscriber and thus give me a few euros/pounds/dollars per month, that will mean the world to me. But certainly don’t feel obligated. I want all of us gluten-free people to eat better and be happier, so I hope as many people as possible find these recipes, make them, comment their thoughts, and share them with friends and family.

I’m going to be very busy with my new job, but I am developing a layer cake menu to offer local clients, so I hope to share these tests and new recipes with you soon. And I’ll be all the happier doing it, because I’ll be eating cake in a kitchen filled with music, without a camera in sight, unconcerned about my frowning face or dirty dishes in the background.

Talk to you soon!

Zachary

My husband’s mother, Rosania, taught me how to make pamonha, a speciality of Goiás, the region where she (and my husband João) grew up. João fondly recalls the experience of making pamonha as a family, when everyone would be united and performing their separate tasks, chatting and drinking for hours. It’s quite a lengthy process and it was a fine reward to unwrap the pamonha after boiling and enjoy the fruits of their hard work, gathered around the table.

I’m collecting ideas to develop Brazilian recipes for use in European/North American kitchens and will formalise this recipe once I’ve moved to the Netherlands this summer. So for now, I’m going to give you an overview of the traditional process without specific measurements and without tips/tricks for preparing these without fresh corn husks. If you do have access to fresh corn, you can follow this overview and measure instinctually, as Rosania does.

If you’ve made or eaten tamales before, you’ll notice the process and ingredients are familiar. Whereas tamales are made with masa harina, which is the dried product of corn that has been soaked in limewater, these pamonha are made with fresh grated corn. Tamales are turned into a dough by adding water to the dry ‘flour’, along with water or stock and various seasonings. Pamonha is more like batter, wet enough to be scooped into the corn husks. I draw the comparison because it helped me make sense of the logic and cooking technique. My thinking of pamonha as comparable to tamales led to my eating them with typical tamale companions—beans, tomato salsa, cilantro—much to the confusion of João’s family.

First, we gathered on the patio to cut and shuck the corn. João’s father used what I can only call a machete to remove the bottom ends, then the rest of us removed the outer husks, tucking each ‘leaf’ into the next to save similarly-sized pairs, and placing these aside to become the packets inside which the pamonha would boil.

Rosania explained that the fresher, paler corn cobs were ideal for pamonha because they contain more moisture and less starch, becoming softer and creamier in their final form. The more deeply coloured, harder, mature cobs were kept aside to turn into curau, a porridge-like warm pudding, and bolo de milho (corn cake), both of which I’ll tell you more about soon.

Only the largest and most flawless husk layers are kept for filling and the rest can be discarded. Then we washed the corn cobs and blanched the husks in boiling water to sanitise them. Rosania then showed me how to grate the corn on a large metal grater that her husband made. This is one of the key steps I will later test with cheese graters and food processors so you all can achieve a similar batter texture at home. After grating, Rosania pressed and slid the dull edge of a knife along each cob to extract any remaining juice and corn flesh.

Now that we had our bowl of juicy, grated corn, all Rosania added was salt (to taste) and very hot oil until the texture became more homogenous and the mixture tasted just slightly cooked. Now the crafty part began, when we folded, filled and tied each pamonha to prepare them for boiling.

Each husk layer pair was shaped around our hands then folded upwards to create a cup into which the pamonha batter was scooped. A generous portion of queijo fresco (a salty, fresh cheese typical of Goiás) was added to each. I had sautéed some mushrooms the day before and added some of those to my pamonha, which turned out delicious. Then an additional husk layer is added, orientated the opposite direction, and folded over the rest to create a seal. We tied rubber bands around each to keep everything together. Once a large pot of water was simmering, all the pamonha were added at once and weighed down with the spent corn cobs to keep them from bobbing to the surface. Rosania checked one after 25 minutes and decided to cook them for five minutes more and then all were removed.

Some of the batter was kept aside and Rosania added sugar to this and we proceeded to make a second batch of sweet pamonha—still with cheese of course, a Brazilian wouldn’t fathom a pamonha without cheese.

Then we ate! Each of us unwrapped a pamonha, still steaming inside the husk, and topped it with a spoonful of margarine. The texture is pretty similar to a tamale but the flavour is totally distinct: sweet, somewhat fresh or ‘green’ from the corn, but still deeply savoury from the added salt and cheese. This is when I added tomato salsa and black beans to mine, which the family found mildly offensive, but I stand by the addition. Corn and beans are natural siblings, both in flavour and nutritionally (each provide amino acids the other lacks, forming complete protein when eaten together). And tomato salsa brightens it all beautifully.

The sweet ones were also delicious with an afternoon cup of black coffee. I’m so excited to test pamonha at home, developing some savoury additions and flavouring options as well as exploring how to transform the sweet pamonha (like…couldn’t this batter be the filling for a tart? hmmm).

This is what you can expect from Better Chews for the next month or two while João and I await our visas to The Netherlands. We’re travelling through Rio, Goiás, Bahia and Minas Gerais, collecting regional home-style recipes for a cookbook proposal I’m developing. I’m excited to write up these experiences for you all as we travel so you can get a taste of gluten-free foods in Brazil, and hopefully inspire you to consider incorporating these ingredients and techniques in your home.

Follow me on Instagram for videos of my recipes and subscribe below to receive premium-only recipes, as well as the full archive. Feel free to comment, DM me, or email me at zak@better-chews.com

Subscribe now

Today we’re covering a classic. Lemon loaf is a type of pound cake, which has been around since the 18th-century, and relies on the very pleasing ratio of equal parts butter:sugar:eggs:flour. At some point, some diva added lemon juice and a crunchy, lemony glaze when the loaf was still hot from the oven. Later, people started adding chemical leaveners to the batter to achieve a lighter, airier texture. A couple years ago, Nicola Lamb added chopped segments of lemon to her recipe—genius.

Now, I’ve tinkered with this classic to ensure the butter quantity can properly tenderise the gluten-free flours (because they’re less capable of absorbing fat), developing a custom flour blend that results in the ideal flavour and crumb, and adjusting the leavening to achieve a gloriously level top (essential here because the crunchy lemon topping needs to spread and soak into the cake evenly) and airy interior.

You’ll need to supreme some lemons to combine into the batter, which is worth the hassle because they add so much textural interest and beautifully balance the sweetness of the cake. I’ve included a short video below the recipe in case you need a visual guide. If this is your first time supreming citrus: you can use this same technique to include pith-less oranges in a dessert or add grapefruit to a salad etc. You need a very sharp paring knife to supreme safely, so if you don’t have one, a small serrated knife works well instead.

Overview

Zest and supreme the lemons, then chop the segments into pieces. Prepare the batter, beat in the flour blend and lemons, and bake. After removing from the oven, mix the lemon glaze together and pour all over the cake. Allow to cool before serving.

Recipe

Makes one standard loaf cake (tin size ~ 8.5 x 4.5 inches or 22 x 12 cm)

Lemon Cake Batter

• 175g butter, softened

• 30g neutral oil (like avocado, rapeseed, etc.)

• 180g caster sugar (granulated is fine if necessary)

• 1 tsp vanilla paste or extract

• 200g eggs, room temperature (about 4)

• 190g GF flour blend (Tip 1)

  • 60g white rice flour (Tip 2)

  • 35g corn starch

  • 32g brown rice flour

  • 30g tapioca starch

  • 25g milk powder

  • 5g potato starch (or substitute with 5g corn starch if you can’t be fussed)

  • 3g (1 tsp packed) xanthan gum

• 10g (2 tsp) baking powder

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 50g milk, room temperature

• about 300g lemons (2 large, 3 small), seedless will make your life easier

Crunchy Lemon Glaze

• 50g lemon juice (of about 1 lemon)

• 125g sugar

• pinch of salt

• 1/2 tsp vanilla paste (optional)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 160°C (325°F) conventional. If your oven only has a fan/convection setting, preheat to 150°C (300°F). Cakes—particularly gluten-free cakes—bake far better in a conventional oven, because the absence of a fan keeps the interior moist and allows the cake to bake slowly and more evenly.

2. Weigh your lemons: you should have around 300g. Zest all of the skin into the bowl of a stand mixer. (Tip 3)

3. Supreme the lemons using a very sharp paring knife or otherwise with a small serrated knife.

   1. Cut off the top and bottom of each lemon. Place it flat onto a cutting board and slice strips off the sides, maintaining the curve of the lemon and removing as little flesh as possible. After going all the way around, pick up the lemon, hold it firmly in one hand, and remove the remainder of the pith. You should be left with a shiny, skinless and pith-less lemon.

   2. Holding the lemon in one hand, slice into each segment just inside the membrane that separates each segment. Create a V-shape with each cut so that the segments fall out of the lemon. Rotate the lemon as you go and continue slicing until you are left with only membrane in your hand and all of the lemon flesh in the bowl or plate beneath. If using seeded lemons, remove all of the seeds and discard.

   3. You should have about 100g of lemon segments. Supreme another lemon if necessary, but about 300g of whole lemons has always worked out well for me.

4. Transfer all of the segments to a cutting board and roughly chop so that each segment becomes about 4 or 5 pieces. Set these aside in a bowl and squeeze the leftover lemon membranes into the bowl to extract the juice.

5. To prepare the batter, cream on medium speed the lemon zest with 175g softened butter, 30g neutral oil, 180g caster sugar, and 1 tsp vanilla paste or extract. Cream until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture resembles buttercream (if using granulated sugar, stop when the mixture looks correct—if you keep creaming until the sugar dissolves, you will have over-aerated). Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat to combine.

6. Slowly add the 200g of eggs while beating on medium, allowing each egg to emulsify into the mixture before continuing with the next. After adding all eggs, diligently scrape down the paddle and bowl to ensure there are no chunks of butter hiding and beat again on medium-low until everything is homogenous.

7. Whisk all of the flour blend ingredients, baking powder and salt together in a bowl. Pour this over the batter and beat on the lowest speed until just combined. Add the milk and reserved lemon segments and juice. Beat again until just combined and homogenous. Be mindful of over-mixing: though you can’t develop gluten as in a glutinous cake, you can still overdevelop the xanthan gum and create gumminess.

8. Grease and line the loaf tin with kitchen paper (parchment). Pour batter into the tin and smooth the surface, ensuring the batter rests snuggly in the corners.

9. Bake in the centre of the oven for 40 minutes and check: the surface should be golden and an inserted skewer should come out damp and mostly clean. I usually bake for another 10 minutes, so 50 minutes total. Remove the cake and set aside.

10. Mix together the lemon glaze ingredients in a small bowl. I like to include the vanilla paste for some added flavour, and the specks are beautiful, but feel free to exclude. The sugar should not dissolve, so stop mixing once just combined.

11. Pour the lemon glaze all over the cake and spread with a spoon or spatula to evenly distribute. You can pull the paper away from the cake to encourage the glaze to fall down the sides.

12. Allow the cake to cool completely in the tin. Once cool, the glaze will have formed a yummy crunchy layer all across the surface.

13. Cut into thick slices and, if desired, toast in a pan with or without butter until the surface is caramelised.

Storage: Lemon loaf cake will last 4-5 days, sealed, at room temperature, if kept as a whole loaf. Individual slices will last 1 day, wrapped.

Serving suggestion: Toasted, as described above. Chantilly, vanilla ice cream, and/or lemon curd are all lovely additions if serving as dessert.

Tip 1: You can use a commercial flour blend if desired, but this custom blend is absolutely ideal for tender cakes and has a more balanced starch:rice ratio than any blend I’ve tried. A commercial blend may need more moisture if it’s higher in starch, so take notes and adjust for making again in the future. The crumb should be noticeably moist and not at all crumbly or grainy.

Tip 2: It is very important that the rice flours are superfine. The trademark ‘graininess’ that people complain of when tasting gluten-free baked goods is very often the result of rice flour that has been too coarsely milled. I’m in the US now and have been using the Anthony’s brand fine rice flours, and they have worked beautifully, though they are not prominently labelled as ‘fine’ or ‘superfine’. When shopping for rice flours, read reviews to see if others have said they are fine or coarse.

Tip 3: I’ve seen many people go too far when zesting. Only zest the very exterior and do not go any deeper, otherwise you will introduce bitterness into the zest.

Notes for Nerds:

I recommend purchasing a scale that detects tenths of grams, because xanthan gum is both very ‘packable’ (ie the quantity can change significantly if compressed or if scooped while fluffy) and very potent, meaning small differences in quantity can impact your bakes. I use a JSR-150 for weighing gum/salt/baking powder/etc. but any scale accurate to 0.1 g will work.

Zest is essential in this recipe, because though the juice contains all of the acidity, the zest contains the vast majority of the aroma of lemon, ensuring the cake tastes and smells distinctly of the fruit. The zest is creamed with the butter and sugar because the sugar crystals grind against the zest, extracting and releasing the fragrant oils.

In bakeries, lemon loaves are often served with an icing sugar-based opaque glaze. The crunchy glaze here is way more texturally interesting and flavour-balancing, in my opinion. If you feel the translucent glaze looks too homemade for your offering, add additional lemon wedges and/or lemon zest on top, after the cake has cooled.

Vanilla is unusual in a lemon cake like this one, but I believe if you taste this with and without vanilla, you’ll agree it rounds and deepens the flavour.

A little oil is included alongside the butter to increase the perceived tenderness of the cake and retain moisture as the cake sits. This happens because oil coats flour very effectively, which creates lightness, and oil is liquid at room temperature, unlike butter, which contributes to perceived moisture.

I hope you give this loaf cake a try! It’s such a pleasure to have on the counter for a few slices throughout the day, and toasting and serving it with a little whipped cream and/or fruit takes it into sublime dessert territory.

Thank you so much for being a subscriber! Follow me on Instagram for videos of my recipes. Feel free to comment, DM me, or email me at zak@better-chews.com

I’m so thrilled to have finally perfected this recipe. This dough is so delicious that even when I blind-baked it and ate it on its own, it was a lovely, salty, buttery snack that was begging for any sort of sweet or savoury filling.

On the main newsletter, I showed you how to make a gorgeous apple crumble pie, and this dough will serve you well whether you’re making any sort of baked or cold-set pie. The only slight downside is this recipe requires a blend of flours/starches, rather than a commercial blend. If you can’t be bothered to buy the seven ingredients needed for the blend, I get it…but I swear I would not ask you to do so if I didn’t think it was worth it. The blend I formulated here is high in tapioca and potato starches and will not resemble any commercial blend. This is because I prioritised elasticity and resilience so that rolling it out is possible without constant cracking and tearing, and also allowed me to keep the xanthan gum low so that the final texture isn’t at all gummy.

Overview

Combine all the dry ingredients and sugar in a large bowl, then add the sour cream and ice-cold water. Mix with a fork until evenly hydrated and beginning to clump. Add all the butter, cutting it into sheets and chunks as you add it to the bowl. Massage the dough gently until it comes together, then transfer the dough to the bench and roll it out and perform 3-4 simple folds. Form into a disc, wrap with plastic/paper, and freeze for 15 minutes, then transfer to the fridge for at least 15 minutes and up to 2 days. Remove the dough from the fridge, gently massage or roll to warm it up, then roll the dough between two sheets of paper until it is 2-3 inches (5-7.5 cm) larger than the diameter of the pie plate. Transfer to the pie plate, fold in the edges, crimp or shape as desired, and freeze for 20 minutes. Dock, fill, and/or blind-bake according to your pie recipe’s instructions.

Recipe

Makes enough for one deep-dish 9-inch (~23 cm) pie plate. Double if making a top crust (or, for minimal waste, multiply x1.8)

Ingredients:

• 95g superfine white rice flour (Tip 1)

• 45g superfine brown rice flour, plus extra for dusting

• 30g cornstarch

• 90g tapioca starch

• 15g powdered milk

• 30g potato starch

• 2g (~0.5 tsp) xanthan gum

• 5g (~heaping 1/2 tsp) salt

• 12g sugar

• 160g unsalted butter, cold, (or use salted and slightly reduce added salt), preferably a ‘European-style’ butter that is cultured and ~82% butterfat (Tip 2)

• 45g sour cream

• 130g ice-cold water

Method:

1. Weigh all of the dry ingredients and the sugar into a large bowl, then whisk to combine. Add 45g sour cream and 130g of ice-cold water (I put ice into a small bowl, then top it up with water and let it sit for a few minutes before using). Whisk with a fork until the sour cream has incorporated and the texture of everything is consistent. It will still be crumbly.

2. With the bowl on a scale, slice thin sheets of cold butter directly into the bowl until the total reaches 160g. Gently massage butter with the dough (I use gloves here), separating the butter pieces from each other and allowing some sheets to break into smaller pieces, until the dough starts to hydrate. Focus on the dry bits and massage that portion until everything feels evenly hydrated (Tip 3). If the butter is feeling soft at all, transfer this to the fridge for 20 minutes to firm up. I continue without refrigerating when I’m in a cool kitchen.

3. Now we will laminate the dough. Dust the bench with brown rice flour, transfer the dough to the bench, dust the top with a bit of flour, and roll the dough into a long rectangle. Perform a simple fold (fold the bottom third up, then the top third over it, like a letter). Repeat this roll-and-fold 2 more times (3 total). If large butter pieces remain visible, repeat once more for a total of 4 folds. Dust with brown rice flour as you go to prevent sticking. Shape the dough into a disc and wrap in plastic or paper. Freeze for 15 minutes, then transfer to the fridge and chill for at least 15 minutes more, or up to 2 days.

4. Cut two sheets of kitchen paper (baking parchment) large enough that the dough can be rolled to about 2–3 inches wider than your pie plate. Remove the dough from the fridge and gently press for a few minutes to bring up the temperature of the butter slightly. Remove from the plastic/paper, transfer to a bench dusted with brown rice flour and gently, slowly roll the dough into a circle. If you see any butter cracking or splitting, wait for a few minutes until the butter has warmed slightly. Transfer the dough to the kitchen paper and cover the top with the second sheet, dusting both sides with a little rice flour. Continue rolling the dough, always pressing from the centre and toward an edge, rotating as you go, until the dough has reached all four edges of the paper. It does not need to fill out the corners. Imagine a circle connecting each of the four edges, and if your dough is covering this circle, you’re done. Flip the dough upside down and back as you roll, and periodically lift the paper off the dough to dust any sections that stick.

5. Lift one of the papers off the dough. Beginning at the midway of one of the edges, use a paring knife or pastry wheel and draw a circle that connects the midway of each edge. You will have a large circle and excess dough at the edges. Push these cut-off pieces away and reserve them for later (if you’re blind-baking, these pieces can be used to patch up the dough if you get cracks or holes). If the dough feels flimsy at all, freeze or refrigerate just long enough to firm up without becoming rigid (10-15 min). Bring your pie plate to you. Grab the edges of the paper and confidently invert the paper, with the dough on top, over the pie plate. Lift and shift the dough so that it is centred in the plate, which you can do by feeling how much dough is extending past each edge of the plate. Peel off the paper that is now on top of the dough.

6. Gently lift the dough and allow it to fall into the pie plate, guiding it so it is flush with the bottom and all sides. Fold 1-2 inches (2.5-5 cm) of the edges underneath itself and press to seal. Crimp edges or decorate as desired. Dock the dough if the recipe calls for it. Transfer to the freezer while you preheat the oven, or at least 20 minutes.

7. Fill and/or bake according to your pie recipe’s instructions.

   If blind baking:

   • Initial bake: 200°C (400°F) fan / 220°C (425°F) conventional, ~20 min

   • Remove weights

   • Reduce oven to 190°C (375°F) fan / 200°C (400°F) conventional

   • Bake until bottom is golden.

   Follow your recipe’s instructions if they disagree with this, as the writer may have their reasons. When you remove the pie weights, if there are any tears or holes, press in some of the reserved dough from cutting earlier. You can also egg wash near the end of the bake to seal everything so that custards can be poured in without worrying about leaking.

Storage: Dough can be made 2 days in advance or frozen 1 month in advance (though I haven’t tested this myself). Blind-baked pie crust can be made 1 day in advance, but a fresh crust is always better.

Tip 1: It is very important that the rice flours are superfine. The trademark ‘graininess’ that people complain when tasting gluten-free baked goods is very often the result of rice flour that has been too coarsely milled. I’m in the US now and have been using the Anthony’s brand fine rice flours, and they have worked beautifully, though they are not prominently labeled as ‘fine’ or ‘superfine’. When shopping for rice flours, read reviews to see if others have said they are fine or coarse.

Tip 2: Butter that has been cultured and is especially high in butterfat is more pliable, meaning it can be laminated without cracking or smearing. This isn’t as essential as when you’re laminating croissants or puff pastry, so feel free to use a cheaper butter if needed. I have used Kerrygold and Tillamook (which is just as high in butterfat but not cultured and is cheaper) and both have worked well, though Kerrygold is notably easier to laminate with.

Tip 3: This step balances two goals: retaining discrete pieces of butter while smearing just enough to finish hydrating the flours. On one hand, we are relying on the butter for moisture, but we want as many pieces of butter as possible as these will become sandwiched between layers of dough and give our pie flakiness and a pleasant bite. If we evenly distributed the butter into the dough, like in a food processor, we would get something more like tart pastry: homogenous and cookie-like.

I recommend purchasing a scale that detects tenths of grams, because xanthan gum is both very ‘packable’ (ie the quantity can change significantly if compressed or if scooped while fluffy) and very potent, meaning small differences in quantity can impact your bakes. I use a JSR-150 for weighing gum/salt/baking powder/etc. I purchased it from BakeryBits for £17.

I am confident this dough will become your go-to recipe and I can’t wait for you to give it a go and let me know what you think.

Follow me on Instagram for videos of my recipes and subscribe below to receive weekly, premium-only recipes. Feel free to comment, DM me, or email me at zak@better-chews.com

Subscribe now

For The Chew Crew, I am thrilled to introduce my pie dough recipe which I believe will knock any other GF pie dough out of the water. Trust me: I’ve been around the block testing so many pie recipes and they all disappointed me. But this one is a keeper: resilient, elastic, very buttery, and the picture perfect package for your gorgeous apples.

What’s The Chew Crew? It’s the members’ lounge of Better Chews — €5/month or €50/year. Members get double the recipes, one-on-one guidance, and full access to the archive. Free posts become paywalled after a few months, so subscribing means you never lose a recipe. This financial support means I can focus on recipe development and consistently providing you all with high-quality newsletters. Come on in!

Subscribe now

Overview

Prepare the pie dough (I recommend using my recipe here) and line your pie plate with it, then freeze while you prepare everything else. Mix all the crumble ingredients together and refrigerate. Peel and slice the apples and combine them with the sugar, starch, cinnamon, etc. Add the apples to the pie plate, dot with cold butter, cover with the crumble, and bake. Let cool before serving.

Recipe

Makes one, deep-dish 9-inch (~23 cm) pie

Crumble

• 150g GF flour blend. A commercial blend is fine but this custom blend is superior:

  • 46g superfine white rice flour

  • 26g superfine brown rice flour

  • 27g cornstarch

  • 22g tapioca starch

  • 5g potato starch

  • 21g powdered milk

  • 2g (~1/2 tsp) xanthan gum

• 113g GF old fashioned oats

• 80g light brown sugar

• 1 tsp ground cinnamon

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 175g butter, cold

Method:

1. In a medium bowl, mix all ingredients except the butter until combined. Add butter and rub into the mixture with your hands (I use gloves here) until the butter slightly softens and hydrates the mixture. It will begin to form clumps.

   1. This can tire your hands and cause cramping. If your hands often give you trouble, feel free to use a food processor or a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Stop as soon as it begins clumping, as you don’t want the mixture to be totally homogenous.

2. Cover and refrigerate.

Apple Filling

• ~1.2kg Granny Smith and Honeycrisp apples (or your favorite baking apples; I normally use 3 Granny Smith and 2 Honeycrisp in this recipe)

• 110g light brown sugar

• 3 tbsp (21g) cornstarch

• 2 tsp ground cinnamon

• 2 tsp apple cider vinegar

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

1. Slice the tops and bottoms from the apples and peel. Place each apple on a cutting board and cut off all four sides, leaving only the core, which you can discard.

2. Slice the apple segments into 1/2-inch thick (1.25 cm) wedges. Don’t worry too much about uniformity here: it’s nice to have pieces that are more cooked and less cooked throughout the pie to create textural variety.

3. Add all other ingredients to a large bowl with the apple wedges and toss to combine, ensuring each wedge is coated in the mixture and that there are no clumps of cornstarch.

Assembly and Baking

• Pie plate lined with laminated and crimped pie dough

• 2 tbsp butter

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F) fan or 220°C (425°F) conventional and arrange a rack in the centre of the oven. Do not continue until oven is totally preheated.

2. Remove lined pie plate from freezer and pour the apple mixture inside. Gently squash apples so that they fill the plate snugly. Cut 2 tbsp butter into chunks and scatter around the surface of the apples. This butter will melt as the pie bakes and create little nuggets of buttery goodness.

3. Remove crumble from fridge and scatter all over the apples, squeezing some of the crumble as you apply to create larger chunks. Gently press the crumble to seal in all the apples, creating a dome shape.

4. Place pie in oven and bake for 20 minutes. Take a look: if the crumble and edges of pie dough are already deeply golden (as mine normally is), cover the entire pie loosely with foil. If it is still pale, continue baking at this temperature until deeply golden.

5. Lower oven temperature to 160°C (325°F) fan or 175°C (350°F) conventional and bake for 40 minutes (reduce time if you baked for longer at the higher temp). Remove foil and continue to bake until the colour is rich and golden and you can see the apple juices bubbling along the edges about 20 minutes. It’s very important that you see (and/or hear) this bubbling, as this indicates the cornstarch has fully cooked and properly set the pie filling.

6. Remove the pie from the oven and allow to cool completely before slicing and serving.

Storage: Apple pie will last 2-3 days at room temperature, covered with plastic and/or foil tightly sealed around the rim.

Serving suggestion: Heated up and plated with rich vanilla ice cream, of course. Chantilly is also delicious.

Notes for Nerds:

The reason we bake the pie at two different temps is because we need an initial blast of heat to puff up the pastry and create layers while locking in the butter, and then we need a lower, slower bake to properly cook the apples without burning the crust and crumble. If your oven has both a fan and conventional setting, I prefer baking at 200°C (400°F) fan for 20 minutes, then 175°C (350°F) conventional for about one hour (40 min covered/~20 min uncovered).

This crumble is ideal for other applications as well, including making a simple apple crumble.

In the UK, I would prefer baking this with Granny Smith or Bramley apples and Braeburn in place of the Honeycrisp.

Feel free to spice this differently, such as reducing the cinnamon to 1 tsp and adding 1/2 tsp of allspice and 1/2 tsp ground ginger. A pinch of cardamom is also lovely if you don’t mind leaning into a chai-like flavour palette.

Traditional apple pie recipes do not call for vanilla, and really it’s unnecessary if you plan on serving this with vanilla ice cream. But I often eat this pie on its lonesome, and I think vanilla complements the apples beautifully.

If you’d prefer to make a latticed or covered pie, double the pie dough recipe, and bake more-or-less the same way. Just egg wash the top crust near the end of the bake, sprinkle with demerara, and return to the oven until crisp and gorgeous.

I recommend purchasing a scale that detects tenths of grams, because xanthan gum is both very ‘packable’ (ie the quantity can change significantly if compressed or if scooped while fluffy) and very potent, meaning small differences in quantity can impact your bakes. I use a JSR-150 for weighing gum/salt/baking powder/etc. but any scale accurate to 0.1 g will work.

I hope you adore this apple crumble pie as much as I do and that it becomes a permanent part of your rotation.

Follow me on Instagram for videos of my recipes and subscribe below to receive weekly, premium-only recipes. Feel free to comment, DM me, or email me at zak@better-chews.com

Subscribe now

This is a classic tres leches: sponge cake poked with holes and smothered in three milks (hence the name), topped with whipped cream and dusted with cinnamon. We’re having an unseasonably warm Christmas week here in Texas, so this cold cake has been hitting the spot. If you’ve never made tres leches before, I predict this will become a favourite of yours: it lasts for days because it stores in the fridge, it’s genuinely difficult to mess up (the cake is meant to be dry, after all), and it’s perfectly rich without being heavy.

You may notice that I’ve been using GF flour blends that include xanthan gum recently. I’m doing this for two reasons. Firstly, these blends are far easier to access where I am in the US and I assume many of you will be using similar blends at home. Secondly, my instinct since going gluten-free has been to control xanthan gum content as much as I would control other ingredients/variables. This requires a precise scale and testing different quantities in each recipe. However, now that I’ve been testing recipes with blends that include xanthan gum, I’ve learned that the default amount is appropriate for many things!

After the holidays, I’ll give a recap to The Chew Crew about my Christmas baking and share some recipes.

What’s The Chew Crew? It’s the members’ lounge of Better Chews — €5/month or €50/year. Members get double the recipes, one-on-one guidance, and full access to the archive. Free posts become paywalled after a few months, so subscribing means you never lose a recipe. This financial support means I can focus on recipe development and consistently providing you all with high-quality newsletters. Come on in!

Overview

Separate eggs and beat yolks with part of the sugar, add milk and vanilla, then whisk together with the dry ingredients to form a batter. Clean the bowl and whisk/beaters, then beat the egg whites while slowly adding the rest of the sugar until a meringue forms. Fold this meringue with the batter. Bake in a 9x13 pan until coloured and a bit dry. Remove and allow to cool to room temp. Combine the three milks. Poke holes all over cake, then pour milks on top. Give the cake at least eight hours to soak up the milks. Gently whip cream, spread over the cake and sprinkle cinnamon on top.

Recipe

Makes one 9x13 cake (16-20 servings)

Sponge Cake

• 150g GF flour mix with xanthan gum (or add 1/4 tsp of xanthan gum if using a blend without) [see notes for homemade blend]

• 1.5 tsp baking powder

• 1/4 tsp salt

• 5 large eggs

• 150g sugar (i)

• 50g sugar (ii)

• 75g whole milk

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 175°C (350°F) conventional or 160°C (325°F) fan. Normally, I wouldn’t recommend the fan for cake, but we actually want a dry cake here!

2. Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Separate 5 large eggs, putting the yolks into either a stand mixer bowl or one you will use with handheld beaters. Beat the yolks on medium speed with 150g of sugar (i) until pale and fluffy, at least five minutes, then add 75g of milk and 1 tsp of vanilla and mix until smooth. Pour this mixture over the dry ingredients and whisk together until smooth.

3. Clean the bowl and stand mixer whisk or beaters until very clean. It is important that fat from the egg yolks does not remain so use plenty of soap and hot water (fat inhibits the meringue from forming).

4. Now we will prepare the meringue. Put the egg whites into the bowl you just washed and whisk them on medium-high and slowly trickle in the 50g of sugar (ii), over 2-4 minutes, until the meringue forms medium peaks. This means when you pull the whisk/beaters out of the meringue, the tip that forms should gently fold over onto itself. It should be a fairly stable peak, but not pointing straight upwards. This allows the meringue to be incorporated into the batter: too loose and the cake will not puff in the oven as you want, too stiff and the meringue will be very difficult to fold into the batter. (If this is your first time making meringue, look at my video of this recipe on Instagram for a visual guide)

5. Scoop the meringue on top of the bowl of batter using a silicone spatula, then use this same spatula to gently fold the meringue into the batter. This is the same technique used when making genoise, so click here to watch a video for the folding technique. We want to retain as much of the air in the meringue as possible, while ensuring we fold enough for all the streaks to disappear.

6. Grease a 9x13 pan (‘casserole dish’) with butter. Pour the cake batter into the pan and gently spread to evenly fill the pan. Bake in the preheated oven for at least 25 minutes, then begin checking. The cake should be deeply golden and shrinking from the sides. If uncertain, always bake for longer with tres leches. We actually want the cake to be dry so it soaks up all the milks. If you pull this when it’s perfectly baked, it will actually be too moist to completely soak up all the liquid.

7. Allow to cool until room temp.

Three Milks

I have an option here to use powdered milk OR evaporated milk, because each is much easier to find depending on the country where you live.

• 115g powdered whole milk (or 340g evaporated milk)

• 225g water (remove if using evaporated milk)

• 400g sweetened condensed milk

• 55g whole milk

Method:

1. If using powdered milk, combine it with the water (some types require warm milk, so check the package). Do not use the ratios suggested on the package. We’re making especially concentrated milk here to replicate evaporated milk.

2. Combine all milks in a bowl and whisk until smooth.

3. Poke holes all over the cake with a fork or knife.

4. Pour the milks over the cake, ensuring you evenly cover the cake. It may seem excessive, but the cake will absorb all the milks with time.

5. Cover the top of the pan with a lid or with foil/paper and place into the fridge. Allow the cake to sit for at LEAST 8 hours, but 12-24 hours are best.

Topping

• 450g whipping cream (~35% fat)

• 30g icing (confectioners’) sugar

• Vanilla extract or paste, to taste

• Cinnamon powder

Method:

1. Whisk cream, along with icing sugar and vanilla, with a stand mixer or beaters until thickened and somewhat stiff, but take care not to whip it for so long that it becomes lumpy. Watch it carefully as you beat and stop it just as it can hold its shape.

2. Spread the whipped cream all over the cake. Sprinkle cinnamon powder on top.

3. Cut square slices and serve!

Storage: Store the cake inside the pan, wrapped, in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Serving suggestion: You could also top with shaved chocolate, nuts, and/or fruit like fresh berries macerated in a little sugar. Strawberries are especially delicious with this!

Notes for Nerds:

I use King Arthur Gluten-Free Measure For Measure Flour here. If making your own blend, I recommend:

• 47g superfine white rice flour

• 25g superfine brown rice flour

• 27g cornstarch

• 22g tapioca starch

• 5g potato starch

• 21g powdered milk

• 3g (a little less than 1 tsp) xanthan gum

I’ve formulated the powdered milk and water combo to be nearly equivalent to the evaporated milk. Evaporated milk is often more cost-effective, but I’ve provided both options because I developed this in Brazil where powdered milk is aplenty but evaporated milk effectively doesn’t exist.

I hope you have a lovely holiday this week, and if it happens to be a bit warm, I hope you serve a fat slice of this tres leches to your friends & family.

Follow me on Instagram for videos of my recipes and subscribe below to receive weekly, premium-only recipes. Feel free to comment, DM me, or email me at zak@better-chews.com

Subscribe now

I’m in Texas awaiting a visa to The Netherlands and while I’m here I’m determined to continue developing recipes despite my lack of equipment. I think this is good for us actually, as I tend to avoid recipes that feel too ‘basic’, however unfair the judgment. This way, I’m being forced to create things with equipment that may more closely align with what others have at home and are not as ingredient- and labour-intensive. I hope to take some of this energy into the future as well.

Today, we’re making biscotti. If you haven’t made biscotti before, we’re basically baking one big cookie until it’s just set, then removing and cutting it into strips, and then baking again until it’s dried out.

If you haven’t eaten biscotti before, you may be asking, ‘Why would I want a dry cookie?’. But I have a strong case for such a thing: the dryness of biscotti means you are invited to have it soak up any beverage of your choosing. I like it in the morning with filter coffee but it also pairs beautifully with a latte or cappuccino, a glass of milk, a strong black tea, or—as the Italians do it—after dinner with a glass of marsala. This is why the biscotto is so loooooong, so you can get it properly saturated while your fingers stay dry.

Seriously, don’t eat this without dunking it in something. It just ain’t right. I used to serve these at Edison Coffee Co. in Dallas, Texas and it would physically pain me to see people biting these between their molars without dipping. But if I may be a little self-congratulatory, these were a staff favourite at the café and my brother once took a bouquet of them home as a birthday gift for his wife. They’re that good.

Next week for The Chew Crew, I’ll be sharing my recipe for Tres Leches cake, a classic. I may even throw in a wintery variation for the HausMates, for those having a warm Christmas (like us, in Texas) and want some cold, festive cake.

What’s The Chew Crew? It’s the members’ lounge of Better Chews — €5/month or €50/year. Members get double the recipes, one-on-one guidance, and full access to the archive. Free posts become paywalled after a few months, so subscribing means you never lose a recipe. This financial support means I can focus on recipe development and consistently providing you all with high-quality newsletters. Come on in!

Overview

Beat the butter and sugar, add eggs and vanilla, add dries, then mix in chocolates. Chill the dough for 20 min, then toss the dough in some flour on the counter before transferring to a lined sheet tray and pressing into an even rectangle. Egg wash, sprinkle with demerara sugar, and freeze the dough (if you have space) for 20-30 minutes. In the meantime, preheat the oven. Bake for 25 minutes, let cool for 10 minutes, slice into strips, place back on the tray with gaps between, and bake for another 20 minutes until dry to the touch. Allow to cool completely, then optionally dust with icing sugar.

Recipe

Makes 10-12 biscotti, depending on desired thickness

Ingredients:

• 55g semisweet chocolate (50-60% cocoa content) chips or quality bar (Tip 1)

• 55g white chocolate chips or quality bar

• 113g unsalted butter, room temp

• 150g sugar

• 100g (about 2 medium) eggs

• 1 tbsp vanilla extract

• 210g GF flour blend (with xanthan gum, or add 4g [~1 tsp] xanthan gum if your blend doesn’t include any) [see notes for homemade blend]

• 35g milk powder

• 20g dutched cocoa powder

• 1g instant coffee (optional, to deepen the chocolate flavour)

• 8g (2 tsp) baking powder

• 1/2 tsp (3g) salt

• For topping: 1 egg, beaten ; turbinado sugar ; icing (confectioners’) sugar

Method:

1. Line a baking sheet with parchment. Blitz both chocolates in processor if using bars, or chop by hand, until they’re the size of chips.

2. To make the dough: Beat the 113g butter and 150g sugar on medium speed until smooth and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl. Add the 2 eggs and 1 tbsp vanilla and continue beating on medium speed until combined, 2 to 3 minutes. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl again.

3. Add the 210g flour blend, 1.5g xanthan gum (if your blend doesn’t have any), 35g milk powder, 20g cocoa, 2 tsp baking powder, 3g salt, and 1g instant coffee (optional). Mix on low speed until combined, about 1 minute. Beat in the chopped chocolates on low until dispersed. Optionally, chill the bowl with the dough inside for about 20 minutes to make the dough easier to shape.

4. To shape the biscotti: Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and roll it around until it’s lightly coated in flour and not sticking. If still sticky, keep adding dustings of flour until it can be rolled around without sticking.

5. Transfer dough to the prepared baking sheet and flatten into a rectangle with your hands. The height is up to you: taller dough will get you taller final biscotti and vice versa. I go for about half an inch (1.3cm) high which gives me biscotti that are 1-1.5 inches (2.5-3.8cm) tall. Press the sides to create straight edges and look at it from the side to ensure it’s evenly thick across the surface.

6. Brush the tops and sides of the dough with the beaten egg and sprinkle with turbinado sugar. Transfer the baking sheet, uncovered, to the freezer and chill for 20-30 minutes. If you don’t have space in your freezer, that’s alright: chill the dough longer (about an hour or more) before shaping so the dough is still going into the oven moderately cold. (Tip 2)

7. Preheat the oven to 160°C (325°F) fan/convection.

8. Once chilled and firm, bake the dough until the top has lost its sheen and it feels dry when touched, about 25 minutes. Remove the tray from the oven. Reduce the oven temperature to 150°C (300°F) fan.

9. Let the cookie mass cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes, then carefully transfer the entire mass to a cutting board. I usually slide the paper onto the cutting board, then slide the paper out from underneath the mass. The mass should be horizontal to your body, meaning the long side is facing you and your cuts will be along the shorter dimension.

10. Use a serrated knife to cut the ends of the mass (eat these while they’re still warm as you cut), then cut into 3/4-inch (~2cm) thick slices. Be gentle, sawing back and forth without pushing downward aggressively. Use your other hand to stabilise the biscotti as you cut them.

11. Gently transfer the biscotti back to the baking sheet, standing them on their bottom edge. Place into the oven and bake until their cut sides feel firm and dry, about 20 minutes. If you can still squish them a bit, that’s fine. They will finish drying as they cool.

12. Let them cool on the baking sheet. Dust with icing sugar before serving, if desired.

Storage: Store the biscotti in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.

Serving suggestion: As addressed above, don’t you dare eat these without dunking. Let the cookies totally soak up the liquid so each bite is moist.

Tip 1: Quality chocolate makes a difference here. I’ve made this with chips most recently and it’s great, but using a chocolate bar that is yummy enough to eat on its own really shines in biscotti. In the midst of our shrinkflation hellscape, chocolate chip recipes keep changing and some are randomly quite nasty, so beware! Stick with quality bars if you can afford it.

Tip 2: Chilling and freezing this dough makes the mass bake more evenly and in a more controlled way, giving it height instead of spreading outward. This height is more important than in a standard cookie because we’re cutting slices from the mass, which would be pitifully squat if the mass spreads outward and flattens.

Notes for Nerds:

This is easy to scale. Multiply as desired and either split into even masses OR spread the single mass along a long sheet tray. Theoretically, you can make the mass as long as you want and you can control the final length of the biscotti by determining the width of the mass before baking.

You can freeze the egg-washed and demerara-sprinkled masses on sheet trays for commercial settings so the biscotti can be baked as needed. Though biscotti lasts so long (no fighting against dryness here) that I have found this unnecessary.

I use King Arthur Gluten-Free Measure For Measure Flour here. If making your own blend, I recommend:

• 65g superfine white rice flour

• 36g superfine brown rice flour

• 38g cornstarch

• 32g tapioca starch

• 6g potato starch

• 29g powdered milk

• 4g (about 1 tsp) xanthan gum

I hope you give these biscotti a try and feel how open of a recipe this is. Use this as your template to explore many other flavours! You could add in nuts, dried fruit, candied ginger, use fun chocolate chips (I may try with salted caramel chips soon), or dip half of the biscotti in chocolate.

Follow me on Instagram for videos of my recipes and subscribe below to receive weekly, premium-only recipes. Feel free to comment, DM me, or email me at zak@better-chews.com

Next week I will share my recipe for Tres Leches.

Subscribe now

I encountered Portuguese recipes for queijadinha which my Brazilian partner found offensive because they include neither cheese nor coconut (“Can you believe we almost moved there?” he said incredulously). BUT, these recipes use milk, eggs and a bit of flour, meaning I could control the sweetness and avoid condensed milk entirely. In the end, I used these Portuguese ratios and simply added coconut and cheese until I was perfectly happy with them.

They’re SO good. Everyone was humming when they first got passed around, and they’re just the right balance between sweet and savoury that makes them dangerously moreish. They’re super simple too: just mix everything in the same bowl, divide among moulds, top with cheese/coconut and bake. They’re gooey and custardy in the centre and crispy around the edges. I’m eating one with coffee as I type this and I love my life.

A couple of considerations:

• I’m using a mix of two Brazilian gluten-free flour blends by the same brand (the wholewheat and regular blends by Vila Alimentos), which contain xanthan gum. With only 50g of flour used in this recipe, you only need a little pinch of xanthan gum here. So if you have a blend with xanthan gum included, it makes sense to use it in this recipe. Otherwise, just give a pinch: even a 1/4 tsp may be too much.

• I use Brazilian ‘parmesan’ cheese here, but this is almost nothing like the Italian parmesan (Parmigiana Reggiano) you may be familiar with. It’s medium firm (bendy), nutty, and salty though not as salty as Italian parmesan. Some good options for use here are: Havarti, Fontina, Gouda, medium Cheddar, and Emmental. Anything grateable, a bit salty, but still pliable/bendy should work just fine. Or you could use actual Parm for something distinctly salty and cheesy.

• Coconut products can be confusing: make sure to use unsweetened, dried (desiccated) coconut here. I used fine coconut but if you only have (or prefer) flakes, that should work well too. Don’t use the larger ‘chips’.

• The vanilla is optional here because I imagine some people will find vanilla and cheese to be weird. I think it works perfectly in these. There is no added salt which is unlike me, but between the salted butter and salty cheese, it’s just the right amount.

Next week for The Chew Crew, I’ll be sharing a recipe for Chocolate Brownie Biscotti, a lovely recipe I developed at Edison Coffee Co. in Texas and have finally converted to being gluten-free.

What’s The Chew Crew? It’s the members’ lounge of Better Chews — €5/month or €50/year. Members get double the recipes, one-on-one guidance, and full access to the archive. Free posts become paywalled after a few months, so subscribing means you never lose a recipe. This financial support means I can focus on recipe development and consistently providing you all with high-quality newsletters. Come on in!

Overview

This one is quick. Put the milk and butter in a saucepan and heat to melt the butter. Grate the cheese and toss it with the coconut. Then combine the dries, add egg and mix, pour in the milk and mix. Fill cupcake/muffin trays (or silicone moulds) with the batter and distribute the cheese/coconut among all. Bake, let cool and unmould. Optionally, top with cinnamon sugar.

Recipe

Makes 16 small queijadinhas, or about 12 medium/large ones

Ingredients:

• 425g whole milk (I use UHT in Brazil but fresh is always better)

• 60g salted butter (if using unsalted, add a small pinch of salt)

• 50g GF flour blend (with xanthan gum preferred, or add a pinch of gum otherwise) [see notes for homemade blend]

• 200g sugar

• 2 eggs (~100g)

• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

• 60g medium-firm, grateable cheese (see note in intro)

• 70g unsweetened, desiccated coconut flakes

Topping (optional):

• 0.5 tablespoon (1.5 tsp) cinnamon powder

• 1 tablespoon sugar

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F) fan.

2. Combine 425g milk and 60g butter in a small saucepan and heat on low until the butter has melted, then remove from heat.

3. Combine the 50g flour and 200g sugar in a medium bowl. Add 2 eggs to this and whisk. Slowly add the milk/butter to this bowl while whisking to ensure no egg scrambles. Add 1/2 tsp vanilla (optional). Pour into moulds: I made 16 small ones using silicone moulds; This batch would make about 12 larger ones if using a muffin tray or cupcake tray lined with papers. The final queijadinhas are slightly sticky and somewhat fragile so properly grease the tray or use papers. Forgoing papers will get you crispier edges, but with some risk of sticking.

4. Grate the 60g cheese and toss with the 70g desiccated coconut. Evenly divide this mix among all queijadinhas. The mix will sink inside as it bakes so no need to press it in.

5. Bake for 25 minutes, rotating halfway through, and check. They should be deeply golden on top and only slightly wobbly when you shake them. A knife inserted should come out clean. If you made 12 larger ones, they will very likely need more time in the oven. If pale in the center of any, continue to bake a few minutes longer.

6. For the optional topping, mix the 1 tbsp sugar and 1.5 tsp cinnamon powder together and sprinkle over the queijadinhas just after they come out of the oven.

7. Allow the queijadinhas to rest inside the tins/moulds for about 20 minutes or until just cool enough to handle, then unmould. If using paper, you can likely let them cool completely inside the paper. If not using paper, you’ll probably need to run a butter knife around the edges to unmould.

Storage: The queijadinhas will keep sealed at room temp for 1-2 days.

Serving suggestion: With a cup of coffee, ideally.

I used locally available Brazilian gluten-free flour blends here. This recipe is not finicky and your favourite blend should work just fine here. If making your own blend, I recommend:

• 15g superfine white rice flour

• 9g superfine brown rice flour

• 9g cornstarch

• 7g tapioca starch

• 2g potato starch

• 7g powdered milk

• 1g (a little pinch) xanthan gum

I hope you give these wonderful bites a try and experience a rare collaboration between Portuguese and Brazilian palettes.

Follow me on Instagram for videos of my recipes and subscribe below to receive weekly, premium-only recipes. Feel free to comment, DM me, or email me at zak@better-chews.com

Next week I will share my recipe for Chocolate Brownie Biscotti, so don’t miss out and subscribe now!

Subscribe now

Never draw so close to the heat that you forget that you must eat!

Next week, I’ll be continuing to share some amazing gluten-free treats from Brazil, many of which can be prepared with very basic equipment and few ingredients. For The Chew Crew, I’ll be showing you how to make queijadinha, a scoopable baked custard with coconut and cheese.

What’s The Chew Crew? It’s the members’ lounge of Better Chews — €5/month or €50/year. Members get double the recipes, one-on-one guidance, and full access to the archive. Free posts become paywalled after a few months, so subscribing means you never lose a recipe. This financial support means I can focus on recipe development and consistently providing you all with high-quality newsletters. Come on in!

Overview

First, heat the cream and infuse it with vanilla. While that infuses, make the pastry and chill it in the fridge for 30 minutes and preheat the oven. Roll out the pastry, line a tart case with it, and blind bake. Then reduce the oven temperature, add jam to the base and bake to set the jam. Then combine the custard base, add it to the tart case and bake until just wobbly in the center. Leave to cool before serving.

Recipe

Makes one 8-inch tart (see notes for making a 9-inch tart)

Custard

• 425g double cream (if you only have access to ‘heavy cream’ [36-40% fat], that works fine here but the tart will have a firmer set and be less rich and silky)

• 1 vanilla bean (or skip infusion and use 1 tsp vanilla paste or 1-2 tsp vanilla extract)

• 100g caster sugar

• 2g salt

• 2 eggs (~100g without shell)

• 3 egg yolks (~50g)

Pastry [makes enough for a 9-inch tart]

• 180g GF plain flour (I use Freee Plain White Flour)

• 3g (a little less than 1 tsp) xanthan gum

• 40g icing sugar

• 1/4 tsp (1.5g) salt

• 70g unsalted butter, cubed and kept cold

• 1 egg

Assembly

• 80-100g jam

• Vanilla bean dust, optional [recipe below]

Method:

1. Split the vanilla bean down the middle and place it into a saucepan with the 425g cream. Rub the interior of the vanilla bean into the cream to release as much of the vanilla as possible. Bring the mixture to a simmer and then cover and allow to infuse for at least an hour. You can also fridge this after letting it cool and leaving overnight if you prefer.

2. For the pastry, add all dry ingredients to a mixer and use the paddle to combine. Add 70g cubed cold butter and paddle until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add 1 egg and paddle until smooth. Transfer the dough to a clean surface and knead a few times before wrapping in plastic or paper and placing in the fridge. Let it chill for 30 minutes.

3. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). After the dough has chilled for 30 minutes, remove and place it between two sheets of parchment paper. This will allow you to maneuver the dough without it sticking to the counter and will prevent your hands from warming it. Roll out the dough with a rolling pin, moving from the center with each roll to make an even circle. This pastry makes enough for a 9-inch tart, so if you’re making an 8-inch, you’ll have a fairly substantial amount of extra pastry. Ensure you’re rolling it thin enough: about 3mm (0.1 inch). Peel off one of the parchment papers and reserve. Invert the pastry over the tart tin, let it fall inside, then peel the other parchment off. Carefully press the pastry into the tin, ensuring it is flush with the sides, especially where the sides meet the bottom. Retain some excess pastry on the sides but trim any pastry that is excessively large or unwieldy. Place in the fridge or freezer for 15 minutes.

4. Dock the pastry all over with a fork. Scrunch up a piece or parchment paper then unfold, press into the pastry, and fill with weights. I use ceramic pie weights but dry beans or rice etc. work as well. Bake for 15 minutes on the center rack. Remove the tart case, carefully remove the parchment with the weights, and bake for another 10-15 minutes until lightly golden. Remove from the oven.

   1. If using this pastry recipe for an unbaked tart, egg wash the pastry here and return to the oven and bake until evenly rich gold all over.

5. Reduce oven temperature to 160°C (320°F). After the pastry has cooled for 5-10 minutes, trim the edges so they are flush with the edges of the tin by running a sharp paring knife around the circumference. Remove any crumbs that have fallen into the case. Add 80-100g jam to the case, spread evenly, and bake for 10 minutes or until the jam is slightly bubbly. This ensures the jam will remain a solid layer beneath the custard and also protects the case from any custard seeping through. Allow this to cool while you prepare the custard.

6. Reduce oven temperature to 120°C (250°F). To your infused cream, add the 100g sugar and 2g salt and reheat until simmering. Whisk until the sugar is dissolved. In a separate heatproof bowl, whisk the 2 eggs and 3 egg yolks vigorously while slowly streaming the hot cream/sugar mixture inside the bowl. This ‘tempers’ the eggs by slowly raising their temperature and emulsifying them with the cream so that no egg bits will scramble while cooking. Remove the vanilla bean. You can pass this mixture through a sieve if you’re concerned about egg bits, but I never have this issue so feel free to skip. Place the tart case on a tray for easier maneuvering, then gently transfer the custard into the tart case (you can transfer to a pitcher and then the case if your bowl is too wide). Dust with vanilla bean powder if using [recipe below].

7. Transfer to oven and bake for 30 minutes. Check the set of the custard by giving it a little shake. We’re looking for a roughly 3-inch wobble in the centre of the tart. We want a wobble, not a ripple: the custard should move as a single mass and if there are any ripples that appear to travel through the custard, it needs more time. You may need to bake as long as 45 minutes, but check every 5 minutes beyond 30.

8. Remove and allow to cool completely. This is super yummy room-temp OR cold, so feel free to fridge before slicing.

Serving Suggestion: I love this on its own, but a little whipped, lightly sweetened crème fraîche or yogurt would lend this some lovely tang.

Storage: Keep sealed in the fridge for 2-3 days. Pastry will soften in the fridge, so it’s ideally eaten the day-of, but I think the texture is still lovely days later.

Vanilla Bean Dust

Cut the tough ends of the vanilla pod(s), split in half, and bake at 170°C (340°F) for 15-20 minutes. Or you can dehydrate if you have that option. Leave to cool completely, then blitz in a food processor until fine. Pass this through a sieve and discard any large or hard bits. You now have a flavourful, gorgeous powder to sprinkle on this tart and anything else that could use a vanilla speckle. Store in an airtight container at room temp. I’ve had mine for months and it’s still good.

Making a 9-inch tart: The pastry recipe above makes enough for a 9-inch tart. If you’re making an 8-inch tart, you will have about 25% of the pastry lost to trimming. If you’re making a 9-inch tart, you will use most of the pastry and will instead use the custard and jam quantities below.

Here are the custard and jam numbers for a 9-inch tart:

Custard

• 530g double cream (if you only have access to ‘heavy cream’ [36-40% fat], that works fine here but the tart will have a firmer set and be less rich and silky)

• 1 vanilla bean (or skip infusion and use 1.25 tsp vanilla paste or 1-2 tsp vanilla extract)

• 125g caster sugar

• 2.5g salt

• 125g eggs (whisk 3 eggs vigorously, then weigh. Two very large eggs may suffice)

• 63g egg yolks (whisk 4 egg yolks, then weigh)

Assembly

• 100-125g jam

Notes for Nerds:

I use Freee Plain White Flour here and add xanthan gum separately. If making your own blend, I recommend:

• 56g superfine white rice flour

• 25g superfine brown rice flour

• 45g cornstarch

• 27g tapioca starch

• 6g potato starch

• 18g powdered milk

• 3g (a little less than 1 tsp) xanthan gum

I recommend purchasing a scale that detects tenths of grams, because xanthan gum is both very ‘packable’ (ie the quantity can change significantly if compressed or if scooped while fluffy) and very potent, meaning small differences in quantity can impact your bakes. I use a JSR-150 for weighing gum/salt/baking powder/etc. I purchased it from BakeryBits for £17.

If you’ve never made a baked tart before, I think this is a great place to start and I’m here for you if you need any advice or troubleshooting. Ciao!

Subscribe now

Overview

First we’ll prepare the crème pât at least 4 hours before, up to 3 days before. Then we’ll make the brioche dough, shape the buns, and allow them to proof in a warm oven for an hour or more. While they’re proofing we’ll use some of the crème pât to create the coconut topping. Once the buns are proofed, we’ll add the topping and bake.

Crème Pâtissière (Pastry Cream)

This makes 325g, enough for two batches of these coconut buns. It is possible to halve this recipe to make exactly the amount needed for the buns, but such a small quantity is a bit tricky, so I recommend making this size and using the excess crème however you wish. You won’t regret having extra crème to dip the buns or anything else into. [Tip 1]

Ingredients

• 230g whole milk

• pinch of salt

• 50g sugar

• 15g cornstarch

• 40g egg yolks

• 1/2 tsp vanilla

• 45g unsalted butter, cold, cubed

Method

1. Combine 230g milk and a pinch of salt in a heavy saucepan and set over medium-low heat until just at a simmer. Meanwhile, whisk 50g sugar, 15g cornstarch and 40g egg yolks in a small bowl until combined and pale. Pour a small amount of the hot milk into the egg mixture while whisking and then slowly add additional milk while whisking to ‘temper’ the eggs. This prevents the eggs from scrambling in the liquid. Add everything back to saucepan.

2. On medium heat, whisk constantly until thick like pudding and, when pausing, thick bubbles pop under surface (this indicates the cornstarch is cooked). Remove from heat and continue whisking for a minute.

3. Add 1/2 tsp vanilla. Whisk in the 45g cold butter, one piece at a time, until totally smooth. Transfer to a container and press plastic directly on surface and refrigerate until cold, at least 4 hours.

Will keep in fridge for 3 days.

Coconut topping

Ingredients

• 150g crème pât (pastry cream), recipe above

• 75g desiccated coconut

• 35g sugar

• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

• Shredded cheese, like mozzarella/cheddar, to taste (Tip 2)

Method

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and combine vigorously with a spatula, or in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment.

Brioche

Ingredients

• 10g whole psyllium husk

• 125g lukewarm water (no more than 40°C)

• 115g tapioca flour

• 65g millet flour

• 30g sorghum flour

• 25g caster sugar

• 4g (1¼ tsp) instant yeast

• 4g (1 tsp) baking powder

• 4g (~1.5 tsp) xanthan gum

• 6g salt

• 20g milk powder (whole, skim, or my preference: coconut) [optional]

• 60g coconut or dairy milk, lukewarm

• 1 egg (50g), room temp [for dough]

• 30g unsalted butter, room temp, cut into 3-4 pieces

• 3-4 ice cubes (optional)

• 1 egg [for egg wash]

Method

1. In a medium bowl, combine 10g psyllium husk and 125g lukewarm water. Whisk dry ingredients (tapioca thru milk powder) in the bowl of a stand mixer or large bowl. Once the psyllium and water has formed a gel (5-10 minutes), add 60g milk and 1 egg to the gel and whisk until combined.

2. Add psyllium/milk mixture to dry ingredients and beat with paddle attachment or beaters until combined. This is very unlike glutinous dough: we’re not developing gluten here, so the paddle is better at combining the ingredients than the dough hook. While beating, add in 30g room temp butter one piece at a time, waiting to add the next once the previous piece has emulsified.

3. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and beat for a minute longer to ensure everything is homogenous.

4. Cover a sheet tray with parchment. Preheat the oven on a high temp for 5 minutes, then turn it off immediately (this is unnecessary if your kitchen is very hot, like 35-40°C).

5. Clear some counter space, sanitise it, and sprinkle some millet flour across the surface. Transfer the dough onto the counter and toss it around to coat it in flour. The dough will be very wet and sticky so continue rolling it in flour until you can handle it, but bear in mind that the less flour you use the better (to maximise the hydration). Create an even ball of dough, slice it in half (I use a bench scraper), then cut each of these halves into 3 pieces so that you finally have 6 equal pieces.

6. Roll each piece into a ball. Place each ball on the sheet tray. Dust your fingers with flour and press each ball into a slightly flattened round. Cover the tray with a damp towel (I soak a tea towel with water then wring it dry) and transfer to the warm oven (ensuring the oven is NOT more than 40°C). Gluten-free dough needs an especially intense proof to get a nice crumb, so a warm, moist environment is very important. You can proof this on the counter but it may take much longer to get a plump rise. If the oven becomes cool at some point during the proof, turn the oven back on for 1-2 minutes and back off to maintain a 40°C environment. While proofing, prepare the coconut filling (recipe below).

7. After an hour, check the buns. They should be very swollen and over doubled in size. If not, add 15 minutes and check again. Remove the buns and preheat the oven to 185°C (365°F). Once the oven is fully preheated, dampen your fingers and create deep craters in each bun, gently manipulating the edges to maintain a round shape. Divide the coconut filling evenly between all the craters and press the filling down to ensure it doesn’t spill out while baking.

8. Whisk the other egg vigorously, then apply this egg wash on each bun, avoiding the center with the filling, all the way down the sides to where the bun meets the parchment. This will give the buns a lovely deep colour and smoother surface.

9. Sprinkle dessicated coconut all across the tops of the buns so that it sticks to the egg wash. Add the buns to the oven and throw in a few ice cubes onto the bottom of the oven (optional). This maximises oven spring by keeping the surface of the buns pliable as they expand and creates a thinner, softer crust. Bake the buns for 12 minutes, then check. They should be deeply golden and the coconut filling should be slightly browned. If you’re uncertain, use a food thermometer to check if the interior of the bun (not the coconut filling part) is at least 87°C and not much more.

10. Remove the buns and allow them to cool to room temp. Dust with icing sugar if desired.

Storage: Buns are best day-of, but refrigerate for up to 2 days if desired. Reheat briefly to soften before eating.

Serving suggestion: With a mug of coffee, of course.

Tip 1: If using elsewhere (like for dipping), whip the crème until loose and smooth.

Tip 2: This might sound crazy to you, but coconut/cheese is a popular Brazilian pairing that goes surprisingly well with sweet baked goods. And this way, it feels more like a rounded breakfast!

Notes for Nerds:

Use this as a template for a wide variety of fillings. You could use ground almonds (toasted would be lovely) and amaretto instead of coconut. Or combine the crème with melted and cooled chocolate. Or fill the buns with sweetened cream cheese and fresh fruit or jam. I imagine frangipane would be nice as well. The world is your brioche.

If this is your first gluten-free bread, expect the dough to be totally unlike anything you’ve made before. It will resemble goo until you bring it together manually. It will be spongy and not at all extensible. After being baked, it will surprise you how similar the crumb and chew is to glutinous bread.

The last few months have been a whirlwind for my partner and me. Our friends have been on standby to hear which country we plan on moving to, which changes just about every few days. Getting a visa in 2025, as two people in the food industry, is not easy! Finally, it appears we have a good plan (one I won’t divulge here–you can’t digitally knock on wood).

This is all to say: I’ve been absent from the newsletter for a little while but I’m thrilled to see that people continue subscribing and interacting with these recipes. If this is the first newsletter you’ve received since subscribing, then I wish you a warm welcome. The next few months look unpredictable, but I intend on continuing to provide you with recipes despite the limitations.

In the meantime, my partner and I are staying with his family in Cabo Frio, Brasil. We went from a descent into winter in London, to a push into summer here in Brasil. It’s hot. I’m getting a real tan for the first time since I was a child. His family has been incredibly lovely and welcoming and his mother has taught me some wonderful (gluten-free!) Brazilian baked goods that I’ll share with you soon. Speaking of which, it’s pretty easy being gluten-free here: every food package either says ‘Contém glúten’ or ‘Não contém glutén’, so you can tell if it’s safe at a glance.

Today, I made my signature carrot cake for the family. This is the first time I’ve made it gluten-free, and in addition to this change, I also am using different flour blends, baking powder, sugars, and eggs; And buttermilk doesn’t exist in Brasil so I combined UHT milk (fresh is nearly impossible to find) and lemon to approximate the acidity and tang. I also don’t have all my usual equipment, so this was a genuinely fun challenge. It was a good reminder to let loose when baking and trust my instincts. Even with substitutes and changes with technique to accommodate different equipment etc., all that matters in the end is that it tastes damn good. Lopsided or homely or a bit dark, most things still go down easy and bring joy.

Overview

First we’ll toast pecans, then grate the carrot and ginger and combine those with the buttermilk and vanilla (you can this this a few hours ahead). Then we’ll crush some pecans and finely ground the rest, then mix all the dries. Then we’ll beat the sugar and eggs until ribbon-stage, stream in the oil, then combine everything together and bake. In the meantime, we’ll brown the butter for the frosting and later we’ll beat everything together and top our cake.

You can bake this as rounds for a frosted cake or, as I did today, bake in a 9x13 or any rectangular pan for a simple cake to have with coffee.

For The Chew Crew, I’m sharing something I put on the backburner and didn’t publish before I left London: creamy, custardy coconut buns. Coincidently, these buns are very Brazilian as well, especially if you add some cheese into the mix. Brazilians eat lots of sweets with cheese which I first found strange but now I LOVE.

What’s The Chew Crew? It’s the members’ lounge of Better Chews — €5/month or €50/year. Members get double the recipes, one-on-one guidance, and full access to the archive. Free posts become paywalled after a few months, so subscribing means you never lose a recipe. This financial support means I can focus on recipe development and consistently providing you all with high-quality newsletters. Come on in!

Recipe

Makes one, triple layer 8-inch cake (baked in three separate pans) OR two thicker layers in two 9-inch pans OR one large rectangular cake (like in a 9x13)

Ingredients:

• 150g pecans, walnuts, and/or hazelnuts

• 450g carrots

• 240g buttermilk, room temp (or milk, adding 1 tbsp of lemon juice and let rest for a few hours OR mix 1/3 yogurt and 2/3 milk)

• 1 tbsp finely grated fresh ginger

• 2 tsp vanilla extract

• 300g gluten-free flour blend with xantham gum (or, if using one without, add 6g, a little less than 2 tsp, of xanthan gum) [see notes for homemade blend]

• 2.5 tsp cinnamon

• 2 tsp (8g) baking powder

• 6g salt

• 1 tsp (6g) baking soda

• 1 tsp ground ginger

• 1/4 tsp ground clove or allspice

• 4 large eggs (200g), room temp

• 150g caster or granulated sugar

• 150g dark brown sugar (I used muscovado sugar today and it worked well)

• 225g neutral oil

1. Preheat oven to 175°C (350°F) fan and toast 150g nuts until deep golden. You can turn off the oven here. Peel and grate 450g carrots into a medium bowl and combine with 240g buttermilk, 1 tbsp grated fresh ginger, and 2 tsp vanilla. You can do this a couple of hours before because the buttermilk will tenderise the carrots with time.

2. Put about two-thirds of the nuts in a plastic bag and lightly crush, then transfer into a small bowl. Put the rest of the nuts in the bag and mash until mealy, then transfer to medium bowl. You can do this in a food processor instead. To the bowl with the finely ground nuts, add 300g flour blend, xanthan gum if needed, 2.5 tsp cinnamon, 2 tsp baking powder, 6g salt, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp ground ginger, and 1/4 tsp clove/allspice. Whisk.

3. Beat the 4 large eggs, 150g caster/granulated sugar and 150g dark brown sugar in a stand mixer until ribbon stage. You can use a handheld beater instead though it will take longer to get to ribbon stage. You want the egg foam to sit on top of the surface of the mix, for a couple seconds, when you lift the beater out. This means enough air is incorporated. Stream in oil very slowly, while beating, until emulsified. Switch to paddle attachment (or do this by hand with a rubber spatula) and add one-third of dry mix, then half of wet, and alternate, ending with last third dry plus the lightly ground nuts that were put aside. Scrape sides and fold.

4. Grease and line cake tins or a rectangular pan. If you don’t have paper as I didn’t today, grease and flour your tin. Pour in the batter and ensure it’s flat and pushed into the corners. Allow the batter to rest for about 30 minutes (gluten-free flours take some time to properly hydrate). Preheat the oven to 175°C (350°F) conventional. If your oven only has a fan setting, preheat to 160°C (325°F).

5. Bake, rotating after 20 min, until the center springs back and an inserted skewer comes out clean but damp, about 10-30 minutes more depending on your pan size. The cake should be fragrant and just pulling away from the sides of the pan.

6. Cool to room temperature, then remove from tin and frost as desired.
   

Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting:

This is not the frosting I made in Brazil but have since updated this recipe to include my new and improved frosting. The old version was always too sloppy and impossible to pipe. This pipes/spreads beautifully and is absolutely delicious. I understand the egg white powder is an additional ingredient in your kitchen, so feel free to simply leave this out and accept that it will be a bit less stable. The heating process and powdered milk will still help keep it decently stable and make it pipe-able.

• 340g unsalted butter

• 12g powdered milk

• 15g (1 tablespoon) water

• 170g cream cheese, full fat

• 150g caster or granulated sugar

• 9g (1 ½ tablespoons) dried egg white powder

• 2g (½ teaspoon) lemon juice

• Salt, to taste

• Vanilla, to taste

1. Brown 50-100% of the butter (depending on how ‘brown’ of a flavour you want, I like about 75%), then pour into a heatproof container and let it sit at room temp until hardened. If you didn’t brown all the butter, add the remaining butter and the hot butter will melt and combine with it. You can put this into the fridge to speed this up, but pull it back out as soon as it’s hard. It’s very important the butter is solid but room temp before continuing. Feel free to brown the butter the day before to give it time to totally harden.

   1. If you haven’t browned butter before: use a stainless steel pot if you have one (it’s easier to see your progress this way) and melt the butter over medium heat. Continue cooking, moving constantly with a rubber spatula and scraping the bottom, until the butter becomes very quiet. This means the water has evaporated. Turn the heat down and try to see past the foam on the surface for browned bits floating in the butter. Your nose will tell you when it’s ready: it will be intensely nutty. Immediately remove from heat and scrape every last browned bit into the bowl. Some chefs push their browned butter way past this stage until the bits are black, but I find this flavour unappealing and stop once it’s just caramelised. Brown butter if doing so and allow to slightly harden in fridge. Cut into pieces.

2. Hydrate 12g powdered milk with 1 tbsp water by whisking and set aside.

3. Place 170g cream cheese and 150g sugar into the bowl of stand mixer and place over a double boiler (ie. a small pot of water brought to a boil). If your stand mixer bowl doesn’t sit into any of your pots without touching the water, then do this in a separate bowl, then transfer to the stand mixer.

4. Whisk the cream cheese and sugar mixture constantly while heating, until the temperature reaches 78°C (172°F), at which the sugar should be dissolved in the cream cheese.

5. Remove the bowl from heat, then add 9g egg white powder and the milk powder paste. Whisk on high speed with for about 5 minutes until thickened to a glue-like consistency and cooled to room temp.

6. Gradually add the room temp, browned butter. It is important here that the butter and cream cheese mixture are slightly warm so that the butter emulsifies into the mixture. Scrape down the sides and whisk to ensure no clumps of butter remain. Put into the fridge, along with the whisk inside the bowl for about 20-30 minutes, until cool to the touch. The frosting will not whip into a stable cream until it’s cold.

7. Whisk again until thick like buttercream. Add 1/2 tsp lemon juice. Add salt and vanilla to taste. Switch to the paddle and beat for a minute or two to eliminate large air bubbles. Refrigerate until ready to use and re-paddle just before piping/spreading.

You can simply spread this all over your rectangular cake or assemble your carrot cake layers into tiers and spread this frosting between and outside. I have served this with candied carrot pieces, candied ginger and pecans sprinkled around.

Storage: Unfrosted cake will keep at room temperature, in a sealed container, for about 3 days. Once frosted, keep the cake in the fridge and consume within 3 days. Frosting made ahead will keep in the fridge for 3 days.

Tip 1: Really, you can make this frosting with any cream cheese, but Philadelphia is quite low in moisture and anything else may need adjustments, such as more butter to compensate for the moisture. But even if the frosting is looser because of a different cream cheese, it will still be usable and delicious, just not as stable.

Notes for Nerds:

I use King Arthur Gluten-Free Measure For Measure Flour here. If making your own blend, I recommend:

• 93g superfine white rice flour

• 51g superfine brown rice flour

• 54g cornstarch

• 45g tapioca starch

• 9g potato starch

• 42g powdered milk

• 6g (a little less than 2 tsp) xanthan gum

I hope you try this cake and that you enjoy it as much as we did. Remember, there are almost always ways to change recipes to suit your own ingredients and equipment! If you ever have doubts about what is possible in your kitchen, leave a comment below and I’ll be happy to advise you.

Follow me on Instagram for videos of my recipes and subscribe below to receive weekly, premium-only recipes. Feel free to comment, DM me, or email me at zak@better-chews.com

Next week I will share some recipes from my partner’s mother, including cassava cake.

Subscribe now

Now here are some pics from Brazil:

Overview

First, we’ll combine the cocoa powder with boiling water, then add the milk and xanthan gum (if using a blend without) and blend. Then we’ll cream the butter and sugar, add the eggs, add the cocoa/milk mixture and dry ingredients, then pour the cake into the tin and bake. Then we’ll let the cake cool, remove any doming, melt all the topping ingredients in a saucepan and pour it on top of the cake. Finally, we’ll cover it all with desiccated coconut and serve.

Recipe

Cake

• 50g dutched cocoa powder

• 100g boiling water

• 100g coconut milk OR whole milk (I prefer coconut)

• 4g (1 tsp) xanthan gum, if your blend does not include any

• 200g unsalted butter, room temp

• 225g caster sugar

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 3 eggs

• 200g GF flour blend (I use Freee Plain White Flour) [see notes for homemade blend]

• ½ teaspoon (3g) salt

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

Topping

• 150g icing/confectioners sugar

• 50g unsalted butter

• 1 tbsp (5.3g) dutched cocoa powder

• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

• 60g strongly brewed coffee (instant is fine)

• 50g desiccated coconut, plus extra to decorate

• sea salt flakes (optional)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 175°C (350°F) conventional. If your oven only has a fan setting, set to 160°C (325°F). Line a 20x20cm (8x8 in) cake tin.

2. Measure 50g cocoa powder into a bowl that is a good depth for blending directly inside. Pour 100g boiling water into the cocoa and whisk (this ‘blooms’ the cocoa, ensuring it doesn’t clump and enhances the flavour of the cocoa). Let this cool for five minutes. If using a flour blend without xanthan gum included: Add 1 tsp xanthan gum, whisk, then add 100g coconut milk and use an immersion blender to blend until everything is well-combined and there are no clumps of xanthan gum. If your blend includes xanthan gum: Simply add coconut milk and whisk or blend until smooth.

3. Cream 200g butter, 225g sugar and 1 tsp vanilla in a stand mixer, on medium, using the paddle attachment, until lighter in colour and the sugar has begun to dissolve. The mixture should look like thick frosting, not whipped cream. Stop before it gets very pale and fluffy (that means you’ve added too much air, which can make the cake rise unevenly and collapse). Add the 3 eggs one by one, taking care they are completely incorporated before adding the next. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and beat for a minute more to ensure everything is homogeneous.

4. In a separate bowl, whisk or sift the 200g flour blend, 3g salt and 1 tsp baking powder.

5. Add the cocoa mixture to the stand mixer bowl and beat until combined, then scrape the bowl again and beat for another minute. Add the dry ingredients and beat until just combined, scrape the bowl, and beat for another minute until everything is well combined and there are no pockets of butter.

6. Pour the batter into the lined tin and bake in the middle of the oven for 30 minutes, then check. A skewer should come out with a little moisture, maybe a small crumb. Let it keep baking if any raw batter comes out on the skewer.

7. Leave the cake to cool in the tin.

8. After an hour or two, when the cake is room temp, remove the cake from the tin and slice off the dome to create a flat surface for the topping and to expose the crumb. If you skip this step, the topping will settle on the edges and the center of the cake will miss out on all that delicious coconut and coffee.

9. Poke holes in the cake with a skewer or fork if you want the topping to soak into the cake. I prefer to skip this step to have a more distinct topping layer. Combine all the topping ingredients in a saucepan and cook while whisking until everything is melted. Pour the topping all over the cake and use a spatula to spread it around evenely. Top with extra desiccated coconut and flaky sea salt. Leave to set for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Serving Suggestion: With a cup of filter coffee, of course.

Storage: Keep sealed at room temp for 2-3 days.

Notes for Nerds:

I recommend purchasing a scale that detects tenths of grams, because xanthan gum is both very ‘packable’ (ie the quantity can change significantly if compressed or if scooped while fluffy) and very potent, meaning small differences in quantity can impact your bakes. I use a JSR-150 for weighing gum/salt/baking powder/etc. I purchased it from BakeryBits for £17.

I use Freee Plain White Flour here. If making your own blend, I recommend:

• 62g superfine white rice flour

• 34g superfine brown rice flour

• 36g cornstarch

• 30g tapioca starch

• 6g potato starch

• 28g powdered milk

• 4g (1 tsp) xanthan gum

This is such a fantastic, comforting cake to have on the counter at home. I hope you give it a try and enjoy the best afternoon coffee break of your life.

Follow me on Instagram for videos of my recipes and subscribe below to receive weekly, premium-only recipes via HausMates. Next week I will share my recipe for GF brioche-style buns, and The Chew Crew will receive my recipe for creamy, unctuous coconut custard buns.

What’s The Chew Crew? It’s the members’ lounge of Better Chews — €5/month or €50/year. Members get double the recipes, one-on-one guidance, and full access to the archive. Free posts become paywalled after a few months, so subscribing means you never lose a recipe. This financial support means I can focus on recipe development and consistently providing you all with high-quality newsletters. Come on in!

Subscribe now

Some people have resisted tasting my layer cakes, sheepishly explaining, “I’ve never really liked cake”. I prod them and tell them to try a small slice. Being polite, they concede and give it a go. Always, I have heard from these cake-haters something like, “I can’t believe it, but this is delicious. It’s so light, so moist, so fresh. What is it?”. It’s genoise, sis.

I too was once a cake-hater and would have rather skipped dessert than eat a layer cake. This is because the vast majority of layer cakes offered in supermarkets, birthday parties and weddings are butter-based cakes frosted in a cloying, teeth-numbing buttercream. Fortunately, there is a definite trend away from extremely sweet buttercreams, but butter-based cakes have stuck around. Butter is delicious. I love butter. But in a cake, especially one that has been refrigerated at any point, the butter solidifies, permanently drying the sponge. Fresh butter cake, like a loaf of pound cake, is damn delicious. But the only way a butter-based layer cake is satisfying is if the sponge is baked and frosted on the same day (a feat in itself), and this means the cake doesn’t have time to sit and meld, which I believe is essential for a layer cake.

That’s where genoise comes in. Genoise contains a very small amount of butter or–as has always been my preference–oil to hydrate the sponge, though even this is technically optional. Instead of using baking powder and beating butter and sugar together to get lift in the oven, we instead create an egg foam with whole eggs and sugar. Then, we gently fold in the dry ingredients and fat. After baking, we are left with a spongy, airy cake that can be frozen and refrigerated and stacked and soaked with syrup and, without fail, remains moist and light as it’s eaten. In fact, these layer cakes improve as they sit in the fridge because the sponge absorbs the flavour of the fillings. Because of its ‘lightness’, a fat slice of layer cake made with genoise doesn’t feel heavy and deflating, the way a butter-based layer cake can make you regret accepting dessert. It’s sort of dainty and luxurious and pinky-up, and it stuns the cake-haters into a new perspective.

The technique takes some getting used to, but I promise you will improve every time you make it. The key is to reduce the amount you deflate the foam while folding in the dry ingredients and the fat, but to also not be too delicate about it. The foam will deflate despite your best efforts, but if you are mindful of stopping when you are no longer seeing flour pockets, you will still get great rise in the sponge. If you’ve never made sponge cake before, you’ll feel like a real pastry chef nailing this one.

And for the pastry chefs encountering this with some healthy skepticism: you and your clients will not be able to tell the difference between this and a standard wheat genoise. I’m dead serious.

For The Chew Crew, I’m showing you all how to transform this sponge into a delicious, fruit-forward layer cake with green tea syrup, blackberry/blueberry compote and whipped mascarpone/cream cheese frosting, as well as provide you with general advice about crafting your own layer cake combinations. Read here.

What’s The Chew Crew? It’s the members’ lounge of Better Chews — €5/month or €50/year. Members get double the recipes, one-on-one guidance, and full access to the archive. Free posts become paywalled after a few months, so subscribing means you never lose a recipe. This financial support means I can focus on recipe development and consistently providing you all with high-quality newsletters. Come on in!

Subscribe now

Overview

First we’ll create a very stable and velvety egg/sugar foam, combine our dry ingredients in the meantime, then transfer the foam to a large bowl where we will fold in the dries, then create a ‘liaison’ with the oil and fold it in, then pour the batter into the tin, knock out large air bubbles, and bake until golden and spongy.

Recipe

Makes one 8-inch cake that can be split into three ~1 inch layers.

Ingredients:

Wet mix

• 300g eggs (about 6 medium) (Tip 1)

• 150g caster or granulated sugar

• 1 tsp white vinegar (or lemon juice)

• 70g neutral oil (I use cold-pressed sunflower oil)

• 1 tsp vanilla extract or paste (optional)

Dry mix

• 140g plain GF flour blend or my custom blend:

  • 44g superfine white rice flour

  • 24g superfine brown rice flour

  • 26g cornstarch

  • 21g tapioca starch

  • 5g potato starch

  • 20g powdered milk

• 3g (~1 tsp) xanthan gum

• 2g salt (~0.5 tsp ‘kosher’/fine sea salt)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) conventional. If your oven only has a fan setting, set it to 165°C (325°F). Line your 8-inch cake tin with parchment on the bottom and sides.

2. In a heatproof bowl, combine 300g eggs, 150g sugar (i), and 1 tsp vinegar. Warm over simmering water to about 38–40°C (100-104°F), whisking gently to dissolve sugar. (Tip 2)

3. Transfer to a stand mixer and whip on the highest speed for about 8 minutes, until the mixture is thick, pale, and forms ribbons that hold for 2–3 seconds before sinking. Then decrease to medium (~6 speed) and whip for another 3 minutes. Then decrease to low (~2 speed) and whisk for 5 minutes. Your foam should now be velvety and cohesive with no visible bubbles, and when you lift the whisk, the foam should rest on itself without sinking. (Tip 3)

4. Combine all the dry ingredients and vigorously whisk for 1 minute or sift a few times.

5. Pour the egg foam into a wide mixing bowl, preferably a very large one and preferably transparent. Sift one-third of the dries over the foam and very gently ‘slice and scoop’ to combine. After about five folds, add another third, repeat, add the last of the dries, and when the dries have nearly disappeared, measure the 70g oil and (optional) 1 tsp vanilla into a small bowl. Scoop 1-2 tbsp of the batter into the oil and mix to create a ‘liaison’. Continue adding small amounts of batter and mixing until the oil and batter have emulsified, ie. there are no visible streaks of oil and the mix becomes homogeneous. Pour this evenly over the batter, then gently fold in using the same method. Throughout this folding, we are trying to maintain as much aeration as possible, but it is also essential to not leave any pockets of unmixed flour or liaison. (Tip 4) This is why I like using a transparent bowl: pick it up and look at the sides and bottom to ensure you didn’t miss any pockets. It is better to overfold than to leave flour unmixed, so when in doubt, mix a little more. You will gain confidence with this with time!

6. Pour batter into lined tin. Drop the tin 30-60cm (1-2 feet) above the counter to encourage larger bubbles to pop. Gently run a skewer in a figure 8 pattern through the batter to distribute the batter evenly and pop bubbles inside.

7. Bake until the top springs back, a skewer comes out clean, and the sides are just beginning to pull away from the tin. Check at 20 minutes. Mine typically takes 20-25 minutes.

8. Let cool for 10 minutes in tin, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely before removing parchment.

Storage: Cake will keep at room temperature, in a sealed container, for about 3 days. Cake can be frozen for up to one month and thawed at room temperature, though the texture will be slightly less spongy.

Serving suggestion: Split into three layers and build a layer cake by soaking the sponges with syrup and filling with fresh fruit and something creamy. I show you how to make a fruit-forward layer cake here (subscribers only).

Tip 1: The egg quantity here is very precise. If you have +/- 10g of egg, remove some of the egg white with a cookie scoop or similar until you are as close to 300g as possible.

Tip 2: Technically, this heating step is unnecessary if using European/British eggs. If you are in the USA, you must heat this mixture as hens are not typically vaccinated against salmonella and the protective cuticle on the egg is typically removed before sale. Regardless of hygiene, this step does ensure a more stable foam because it partially denatures the egg proteins and makes the foam less likely to collapse when folding. If I’m not in a hurry, I always heat this mixture, but you can skip and simply whisk longer for a similar result.

Tip 3: The initial high speed gets us the air incorporation we want, and the subsequent lower speeds knock out larger air bubbles, creating an incredibly stable foam with fine, microscopic air bubbles.

Tip 4: Here is a video of me folding the genoise so you can better understand the technique:

Notes for Nerds:

I recommend purchasing a scale that detects tenths of grams, because xanthan gum is both very ‘packable’ (ie the quantity can change significantly if compressed or if scooped while fluffy) and very potent, meaning small differences in quantity can impact your bakes. I use a JSR-150 for weighing gum/salt/baking powder/etc. I purchased it from BakeryBits for £17.

I used to bake genoise in a sheet tray, and this recipe makes a batch that is ideal for a 30x40cm sheet tray. I forfeited this technique of cutting the circles I wanted from trays because baking in tins produces less waste, and the bake is more even across the sides and center (in a tray, the sides always climb and are thus more spongy than the middle).

The milk powder contributes protein which provides some heft and structure, and also helps retain moisture and tenderness (milk proteins bind water). This is recommended because gluten-free flours are more prone to drying out after baking. You could eliminate this and substitute it with additional rice/starch, but I think it’s worth the hassle if you don’t already keep some around.

Size conversions:

All these sizes below result in partial egg formulas, so round up, vigorously whisk your eggs, then pour in the needed weight. For example, a 6 inch calls for 168g of egg, which is about 3.36 medium eggs. So whisk 4 eggs and pour in only 168g.

• 6-inch: 56% (multiply all ingredients by 0.56)

• 9-inch: 127% (multiply all ingredients by 1.27)

• 10-inch: 156% (multiply all ingredients by 1.56)

I like very thin sponge for layer cakes, but increase this recipe by 117% (so one additional egg) for thicker layers in an 8-inch tin. Remember to decrease/increase bake times when baking less/more batter.

I hope you give this a try, whether or not you’ve made/tasted genoise before, and convince others (and maybe even yourself) that layer cakes can be some of the most delightful desserts around.

Follow me on Instagram for videos of my recipes and subscribe below to receive weekly, premium-only recipes. Feel free to comment, DM me, or email me at zak@better-chews.com

Next week I will share my recipe for buns, which are ideal for breakfast sandwiches, burgers, and sweet fillings. Paid subscribers will also receive my recipe for creamy coconut buns.

Subscribe now

On the main newsletter, I showed you how to create a genoise sponge cake that would give my wheat genoise a run for its money. Today for subscribers, I want to show you how to transform this sponge into an impossibly delicious layer cake. More than just showing you these exact components, I want to encourage and guide you to craft the layer cake that represents you, your kitchen, your setting, your season, your desires, your family & friends. The lovely thing about layer cakes is, once you feel confident with them, you can create endless variations with whatever sounds yummy to you and whatever fruit is at its peak. Eventually, I will have an archive of cake component recipes that I will assemble into a matrix so you can glance over, choose your components, and make your ideal cake. For now, let me show you this Green Tea & Summer Berries Layer Cake and I’ll advise you on the ways you can vary each component.

First, some general advice about layer cakes:

• I almost always split the creation of a layer cake into three days. On day one, I bake the sponge and prepare the syrup and any fillings. This gives all the components time to cool completely and allows for seamless construction the next day. On day two, I prepare the frosting just before assembly and then everything comes together very swiftly. I fridge the cake overnight to let all the flavours meld, then I decorate and serve the cake on day three.

• If you’re nervous about constructing the layer cake ‘freestanding’, you can construct it inside a cake tin lined with plastic. I will show this technique to you very soon, but to put it simply: line a tin of the same size as your cake layers with plastic, then put in the sponge, soak it, create a barrier of frosting, fill, and repeat. Press the plastic down and refrigerate. The next day (or after a few hours), remove from the tin, peel away the plastic, and you’ll have an incredibly straight and even cake. Then frosting the exterior is a breeze. This is the cheat code for a layer cake that looks super professional and sleek.

• I don’t love buttercream. I like it! But I always prefer a whipped dairy frosting, like the one I include here. We’ll cover meringue buttercreams in the future, because they’re more stable and thus more appropriate for event cakes and complex decor. The frosting I’m showing you today is nonetheless stable and, in my opinion, far more delicious than any buttercream.

• I know this is easier said than done, but try to not overthink the decor. Pipe some swirls, throw on some fruit, call it a day. My hot take is that inedible components never belong on a layer cake, including flowers. It is very much not chic to force people to remove something from a plate of food. Flowers are gorgeous, and they have their place on wedding cakes etc. where they are heavily photographed and then cut and given to guests by staff (who can remove inedible components beforehand). But for the vast majority of scenarios, people should be able to lick their plate clean, ya feel me? Similarly, I believe components should never be included that do not suggest what is inside the cake. For example, I do not advise you to put flaked almonds on a cake if there are no almond components inside. This is misleading, and if you include fantastic ingredients inside, those same ingredients on the exterior will be more than enough to create beauty and intrigue.

As I said in the genoise recipe, I believe this cake is capable of transforming any layer cake-hater into a heartily surprised loverrr. Let’s get into it:

Recipes

Green Tea Syrup

• 125g water

• 125g caster sugar

• 1 tbsp loose-leaf sencha green tea (not matcha)

Brew tea with very hot water a few minutes off the boil. After 5 minutes of steeping, strain and press water out of tea. Add 125g caster sugar to the tea and stir until sugar has dissolved, then transfer to fridge to cool completely.

Variations: Syrups can be anything you can imagine, as long as the liquid:sugar ratio is roughly 1:1. You can stew fresh or frozen fruit into syrup and strain. You can include vanilla beans, sumac, fresh or dried herbs, fig leaf, liqueurs, wine, coffee, rose petals, spices, orange blossom…I could go on. In this case, feel free to substitute the sencha tea for any other tea you desire. If the final syrup isn’t flavourful enough for your taste, because of your choice of tea, just brew again even stronger (more tea and/or more steeping time) before adding sugar. Black tea is delicious with stone fruit, especially plums. White tea is gorgeous with floral flavours. Rooibos offers an earthy backdrop to chocolate.

Blackberry & Blueberry Compote

• 290g blueberries & blackberries (I did half/half)

• 63g sugar

• 19g fresh lemon juice

• 1/2 tsp agar agar powder

• Pinch of fine sea salt

1. In a saucepan, combine the berries, sugar, lemon juice, agar agar, and salt and bring to a rolling boil over high heat. Reduce to medium and boil for 7-8 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent burning. Remove from the heat and let cool for five minutes.

2. Transfer the mixture to a food processor (or use an immersion blender) and puree slightly so the compote still has some texture. Let cool completely and store in fridge for up to 2 weeks or freeze for up to 2 months.

Variations: Use this as your blueprint to make a compote with any fresh/frozen fruit. The agar is key here to make it set up enough to be a stable filling without worrying about it leaking out the sides, and without fussing with starch or pectin (though we’ll cover these methods later). Add 2 tsp of dried sumac for an extra citrusy, spicy note.

Whipped Mascarpone & Cream Cheese Frosting

• 450g full-fat cream cheese

• 450g mascarpone

• 200g icing/confectioners’ sugar

• 400g whipping cream (~40% fat)

• vanilla extract or paste or beans

• fine sea salt

1. Combine cream cheese, mascarpone and icing sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk on medium-high until combined, then stream in whipping cream until thick and well-combined, a few minutes. You’re unlikely to over-whip this, so don’t be afraid to beat it for a couple minutes. Scrape the bowl down the sides and across the bottom.

2. Add vanilla and salt, whisk on medium-low, and taste. Add more vanilla and salt until it makes you hum.

Variations: Add liqueur at the end (as long as the colour works with your vision). Infuse the whipping cream with fresh or dried herbs overnight before straining and adding. Add some tahini or black sesame paste. Swirl a jam in at the end to create streaks of colour and flavour, or the thick syrup from sour cherry jam to create a vibrant, pink-hued frosting.

You will also need one 8-inch genoise sponge cake, recipe here.

Now for the assembly:

There are four steps to constructing a layer cake: dividing the sponge, filling the layers, coating the exterior, and adding decor.

Dividing the sponge: A cake turntable is very useful here, though not strictly necessary. Place the genoise on something that can be moved around, like a proper cake board, a piece of cardboard cut into a slightly larger circle than the cake base, or–as I use here–an inverted plate with a circular piece of parchment between the cake and plate. Create marks on the side of the cake to divide it into three even slices. With each mark, saw with a serrated knife (that is longer than the cake’s diameter!) back and forth while you slowly rotate the turntable until you have cut into the perimeter of the cake, then continue rotating and move the sawing knife further and further into the center of the cake until you feel the layer separate from the cake beneath. I usually get eye-level with the cake to ensure I am cutting a straight line. Do this once more and you will have three even layers of sponge.

Filling the layers: Either working ‘freestanding’ or inside a plastic-lined cake tin (as described in the intro), put what was originally the top of the cake on the base, with the crumb layer facing upward. We want to soak the crumb of each cake, not the exterior layer that was exposed to the cake tin/air, as this ‘skin’ does not readily absorb syrup. Generously soak the sponge with syrup, ensuring each and every ‘bite’ of the cake will have syrup inside. As you continue making layer cakes, you’ll learn the amount of syrup that you prefer. If this is new for you, include more if in doubt: this genoise can handle it. Create a barrier of frosting around the perimeter, then add the compote to the middle and spread evenly. The compote should be just below the height of the barrier. Add the next sponge, which should be what was originally the center slice of the cake (so exposed crumb on either side). Repeat the soaking, barrier and filling. Then soak the final layer (the one that was originally the bottom of the cake with a flat base), crumb-side up, and invert this sponge onto the top of the layer cake so the darker ‘skin’-side is facing upward. Because we’re using the bottom layer as the top, we have a perfectly flat surface to frost. If constructing your cake inside a lined tin, you will invert the order of layers, because you will flip the cake to unmould.

Coating the exterior: Plop some frosting onto the cake and spread all around in a thin layer to seal the cracks between layers and create a base for your decor. This is often called a ‘crumb coat’. You can refrigerate the cake here if anything is feeling wobbly. With these components in particular–the frosting, syrup, compote and sponge all being cold or room temp–I was able to immediately decorate with no worries. This is the stage where I advise you to refrigerate the cake overnight to allow all the flavours to meld together. Or you can refrigerate overnight with the decor added if you are not concerned about the decor becoming dry or otherwise losing flavour/attractiveness.

Adding decor: Add a generous amount of frosting on top and spread around, letting it fall down the sides and continuing to spread it there. No hurry. Keep adding frosting, removing where it’s excessive, using a bench scraper to create straight sides as you rotate the turntable, etc. Go for something swirly or something sleek. Don’t overthink it, like I explained in the intro. Pipe some swirls, cut up fresh fruit and arrange it as you please. Sprinkle some of the dried tea you used to create your syrup (as long as it’s not bitter or otherwise unpleasant). When you feel like there’s a couple more things to add, it’s probably time to stop. Simplicity triumphs over excess. Unless you find that excess is your style, in which case: keep it coming.

Then cover the cake and keep it in the fridge until it’s nearly ready to be served. Layer cakes like this one improve massively with 12+ hours in the fridge. The genoise soaks up the flavours around it and everything melds. Without fail, if I eat a layer cake on the day it was made, I think ‘this is aight’. Then I eat the same layer cake the next day and it gives me goosebumps. Patience is a virtue or whatever. Speaking of which, let the cake sit out for 45-90 minutes before it’s eaten. The softening of the frosting and sponge make a huge difference in the perception of moisture and tenderness. There’s no butter here though, so even right out of the fridge, it’s lush.

This layer cake can survive being out for a few hours. You can bring it to the park and as long as it’s not excessively hot, it will maintain shape very well. Technically you should consume it within 4 hours out of the fridge, because of all the dairy, but you can certainly re-fridge and consume later as long as it smells/looks fine.

Soon, I will create a full-length video tutorial to show this process in greater detail. In the meantime, ask me anything you’re uncertain about and I’ll do my best to help. Like most things, crafting components and constructing layer cakes is something that simply gets easier with time. If you’re not stoked about how your first one looks, it’s very likely that it will still taste amazing if you followed this recipe. Then, your task will be to continue making layer cake until you can look at it with pride.

There’s something so special about a beautiful piece of art that you can actually consume. I hope, if you’re new to layer cakes, that this serves you as a guide and you feel confident embarking here and sensing the inherent freedom within this ‘recipe’. You can tinker with literally any component of this. For you professionals, I hope this guide has shown you how to construct a gluten-free layer cake that will awe your clients.

Thank you so much for being a paid subscriber. Your support means I can dedicate myself to providing you all with top-notch recipes and responding to your queries. Follow me on Instagram for videos of my recipes and feel free to comment below, DM me, or email me at zak@better-chews.com

Next week I will share my recipe for buns, and subscribers like yourself will also receive a recipe for some gorgeous coconut buns and other topping ideas.

This cookie has sent people searching for me at parties; This cookie has made people angry at how delicious they are (the anger being directed at the impossibility of having your cookie and eating it too); This cookie has been an obsession of mine for years now (I originally based it on Claire Saffitz’s recipe). And I was missing it. So I tinkered with it until the gluten-free version gave me the same intensity of sensation as before, but it’s still different–still unique–because the flours used are delicious and particular to themselves. Plus, I discovered some other little tricks on my way to perfecting this recipe.

On paper, it may look to be a too-demanding cookie, but I promise once you’ve made this once or twice, you can go from beginning to dough-in-your-fridge in 45 minutes, dishwashing included. Toast your pecans while you make the syrup, blitz your dries while the brittle cools, wash up while the dough rests in the fridge, and it ain’t no thang.

Overview

First, we’ll make a very simple maple-pecan brittle and allow that to cool while we brown half of our butter and pour this over the other half of cold butter to cool. Then we’ll blitz our dries with our chopped brittle, then mix our butter, sugar and eggs, then add the dries, and finally add our bigger brittle pieces and oats. Then we’ll scoop the dough and fridge it to solidify and hydrate. Then you can freeze your dough, or bake them all off to spread the joy.

Recipe

Makes 24 cookies

Ingredients:

Brittle

• 150g pecans

• 2 tbsp water

• 150g granulated or caster sugar

• 60g unsalted butter

• ½ tsp baking soda

• Pinch of fine sea salt

Cookie Dough

• 180g unsalted butter, divided

• 170 g GF flour blend (I use Freee Plain White Flour) [see notes for homemade blend]

• 28g milk powder (optional, Tip 1)

• 1/2 tsp (2.5g) fine sea salt

• 1 tsp (6g) baking soda

• 4g (~1 tsp) xanthan gum, if your blend does not include any

• 200g gluten-free old-fashioned oats, divided

• 100g caster sugar

• 90g light brown sugar

• 60g maple syrup (Tip 2)

• 2 eggs (100g)

• 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract (Tip 3)

• 1/2 tsp vinegar

Method:

1. Toast 150g pecans in a 175°C (350°F) fan oven for 10 minutes or until fragrant and deepened in colour.

2. Now to make our brittle: Line a small rimmed baking sheet with a Silpat baking mat or parchment paper. Pre-measure the 1/2 tsp baking soda and pinch of salt and set aside. Put 2 tbsp water into a small pot (preferably one with a lid), followed by 150g sugar and 60g butter. Heat over medium while stirring with a rubber spatula and when the mixture begins to boil, cover with a lid for 1-2 minutes (this causes water to fall down the sides of the pot and will prevent the caramel from crystallising later). Uncover the lid and continue cooking, without stirring, swirling the pan occasionally, until the caramel is deep amber. Remove the pot from heat, pour in the toasted pecans, and stir quickly to coat them all in the caramel. Then add in the baking soda and salt and quickly stir – the mixture will foam and expand. Pour the molten brittle onto the silpat/paper and spread into a thin, even layer. Allow to cool for 15 minutes, then chop into pea-size pieces.

3. Place half of the butter (90g) in the bowl of a stand mixer. Brown the other half of the butter in a stainless steel pot (or any pot, but it’s easiest to evaluate browning with steel). If you haven’t browned butter before: stir constantly and it will boil until the water evaporates, then continue cooking until there is a substantial amount of brown milk solids floating around and a deeply nutty smell emanates from the butter. When it has reached this stage, immediately pour the hot butter over the cold butter in the stand mixer bowl to stop the cooking. Allow the butter to cool to room temp, until all the butter has resolidified. Pop your bowl in the fridge to speed this up if you’d like, but do not allow the butter to get cold.

4. Combine 170g flour blend, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp xanthan gum (if not included in your blend), 28g milk powder (optional) and 1 tsp baking soda in a food processor, then add half of the chopped pecan brittle and half (100g) of the gluten-free oats. Blitz until very fine.

5. Add 100g caster sugar, 90g light brown sugar, and 60g maple syrup to the resolidified butter and beat with the paddle attachment on medium speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add 2 eggs and 1 tbsp vanilla. Beat until light and satiny, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add your dry mix. Beat on low speed until combined, then add the other half of the chopped pecan brittle and the other half (100g) of the gluten-free oats. Beat on medium-low to evenly distribute. Fold with a large spatula a few times to ensure everything is mixed.

6. Use a scoop to create whatever size cookies you want. I use a 1.2oz/35ml scoop and get 24 cookies by doing so. If batter is quite loose and difficult to scoop, transfer to fridge for about 20 minutes until scoopable. Scoop these into a plastic-lined tin or Tupperware and, when all have been scooped, cover completely with plastic and fridge or freeze.

7. Allow to chill for at least 12 hours to harden and hydrate. Gluten-free flour takes longer than wheat flour to hydrate, so this is especially important to do to ensure our cookies do not aggressively spread in the oven. Flavours also meld here and lead to a more delicious cookie. It’s worth the wait.

8. When you’re ready to bake, preheat your oven to 160°C (325°F) fan or 175°C (350°F) conventional. With my cookie size, I can fit 6 cookies on each 13x18” sheet tray lined with silpats (you can use parchment instead). Bake for 8 minutes, flip and rotate the trays, then bake for another 7 minutes and check them: they should look crispy on the edges and the centre should be turning matte, but should still look slightly shiny. You’re at a greater risk of underbaking these than you are overbaking, so give them another 1-2 minutes if you’re feeling uncertain. Allow to cool for 10 minutes on the trays, then transfer to a wire rack to cool, and bake any remaining.

9. These cookies get even more delicious the next day and the following, so don’t hesitate to seal and keep them around for a few days.

Serving Suggestion: Crumble up the baked cookies on top of vanilla ice cream. Trust me.

Storage: Keep sealed at room temp. These cookies get even more delicious the next day and the following, so don’t hesitate to seal and keep them around for a few days.

Tip 1: Milk powder is 25-35% protein so adds some heft/structure and retains moisture, and also helps with browning and flavour. Feel free to remove and replace with the equivalent weight in additional flour.

Tip 2: Maple syrup is expensive. If you don’t want to buy the real stuff, don’t substitute with a dupe, just eliminate it and do 125g caster/125g LBS sugar. The flavour will still be lovely.

Tip 3: I know this seems like an excessive amount of vanilla, but this contributes a wonderful butterscotchy flavour. Don’t use your best vanilla paste here, a cheaper extract works very well in this.

Notes for Nerds:

1. I use Freee Plain White Flour here. If making your own blend, remove the added milk powder and xanthan gum in the ingredient list and combine the following:

   • 62g superfine white rice flour

   • 35g superfine brown rice flour

   • 36g cornstarch

   • 30g tapioca starch

   • 6g potato starch

   • 28g powdered milk

   • 4g (1 tsp) xanthan gum

2. ‘Fine sea salt’ in the UK is ‘kosher salt’ in the US (roughly speaking). Do not use table salt in these quantities.

3. I’ve taken these cookies on a plane with me as a gift for my hosts and they travel very well (and lasted for about a week in a plastic bag).

4. If you freeze the dough balls and bake from frozen, be aware that the centre will take longer to bake through, so squish them down as they bake and/or frequently tap the trays. Add 2-4 minutes of bake time to ensure they are nearly matte in the centre.

5. Feel free to make different sorts of brittle instead of pecan. I’m sure peanut would be delicious.

6. The vinegar here is helping the egg proteins denature, improving the structure of the cookie and preventing too much spread.

I hope you give these cookies a try and get a spotlight at the potluck.

Follow me on Instagram for videos of my recipes and subscribe below to receive weekly, premium-only recipes. Feel free to comment, DM me, or email me at zak@better-chews.com

Next week I will share my recipe for the ideal layer cake sponge: the inimitable genoise.

Subscribe now

This cake makes for a fantastic snacking cake, trifle sponge, and vehicle for whipped cream, syrups/sauces and fresh fruits. You could turn this into a chic Victoria Sponge situation, filled with jam and dusted with icing sugar. You could drizzle it with a rich chocolate sauce. You could sleep on its inviting boing and wake up to breakfast in bed.

Overview

First we’ll make our ‘wet’ mix by heating cream cheese and milk, adding egg yolk and oil, blending in xanthan gum (if your mix doesn’t include any), and adding flour to this mix. Then we’ll make a simple meringue with the egg whites and combine the cream cheese/flour mix with the meringue before baking the batter in unlined tins. We’ll immediately invert the cakes once they’re baked.

Recipe

Makes two 6-inch cakes, 700g batter OR one 6-cup tube pan (Tip 1)

Ingredients:

• 110g full-fat cream cheese

• 70g caster sugar (i)

• 63g whole milk

• 50g neutral oil

• 1/2 tsp (2.5g) fine sea salt

• 1.5 tsp (7g) vanilla extract

• 2g (slightly heaping 1/2 tsp) xanthan gum (if your flour blend doesn’t include any)

• 6 large eggs (350g in-shell weight) (Tip 2)

• 1/2 tsp vinegar

• 90g caster sugar (ii)

• 112g GF flour blend [see notes for homemade blend]

• Serving suggestion: thick fruity syrup, softly whipped cream and fresh fruit

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 175°C (350°F) conventional with a rack in the center. If your oven only has a fan setting, set it to 160°C (325°F).

2. In a heat-safe bowl, combine 110g cream cheese, 70g sugar (i) and 63g milk. Heat over a bain-marie (ie. over a saucepan with an inch of simmering water with the bowl nested on top, not touching the water), whisking frequently, until melted and smooth. Remove from the heat and let cool for a few minutes.

3. Separate 6 large eggs, letting the whites fall into your stand mixer bowl and add the yolks to this cream cheese mixture. Whisk the yolks into the cream cheese, then add 50g oil, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1.5 tsp vanilla. Add slightly heaping 1/2 tsp xanthan gum if your blend doesn’t include any and use an immersion blender until very smooth (Tip 3). Ensure xanthan gum has not gripped onto sides of bowl or blender and if so, scrape into mixture and blend until there are no clumps. If you can see any clumps, strain through a fine sieve. Sift in the flour in two batches and whisk until smooth after each addition. If your blend already includes xanthan gum, simply add the flour and whisk until smooth.

4. Now let’s make the meringue. Add 1/2 tsp vinegar to the egg whites in your mixer bowl, then mix with the whisk attachment on medium until foamy. Slowly add 90g sugar (ii) a spoonful at a time over 3-5 minutes. Once all the sugar has been added, continue whipping on medium speed until the meringue holds medium-firm peaks. The meringue should just flop over on itself when lifting the whisk, without holding a sharp peak. If you under-whisk, the batter will deflate more quickly and your cakes will bake shorter and denser. If you over-whisk, it will be very difficult to fold the cream cheese/flour into the stiff meringue. So check often to ensure you have mixed enough and have not overshot the stiffness. Transfer the meringue into a wide mixing bowl, preferably a very large one and preferably transparent.

5. Add a large scoop of meringue to the cream cheese/flour mixture and whisk it in to loosen the mixture. Scrape this mixture over the meringue in your bowl. Use a large whisk to gently combine the mixture with the meringue by scooping the whisk beneath the meringue and shaking the whisk as you exit (Tip 4). We’re trying to retain as much air as possible. If you’ve made a genoise, the same method applies here. When a few streaks of meringue remain, switch to a flexible spatula and continue folding until the batter is smooth and uniform in colour. The transparent bowl is helpful here because I like to lift the bowl and check to see if there are any unmixed portions along the bottom and sides.

6. Divide the batter evenly into two ungreased, unlined aluminum 6-inch cake tins. It is essential that the tins are not non-stick. I know it feels wrong to pour cake batter directly into tins, but the cake needs to cling to the sides as it bakes and will need to continue clinging while it hangs upside down. Do not even line the bottom, as this will cause the bottom of the cake to collapse from the inside as it cools. There should be 350g of batter in each tin. Drop the tins 30-60cm (1-2 feet) above the counter to encourage larger bubble to pop. Gently run a skewer in a figure 8 pattern through the batter to distribute the batter evenly and pop bubbles inside.

7. Bake for 25 minutes and begin checking. The cake should be deep golden and a skewer inserted near the center will come out with little bits of soft cake, but will not be wet. Mine usually take 28 minutes.

8. Remove from the oven and immediately turn the cakes over onto a wire rack. If the cake has risen beyond the rim of the tin, that’s okay. The wire will press into the cake, but you will still achieve the total height of your cake tin.

9. Allow the cakes to cool to room temperature before running an offset spatula around the perimeter of the tin, gently scooping at the base to encourage the cake to unstick from the bottom. You can be a little rough with this cake as it quickly springs back. Once you feel the cake loosen inside the tin, invert again and give a gentle shake until the cake falls out. Use a serrated knife to slice the cake into wedges.

Storage: Cake will keep at room temperature, in a sealed container, for about 3 days. Cake can be frozen for up to one month and thawed at room temperature, though the flavour and texture will be slightly less yummy.

Serving suggestion: Create a syrup with 100g sugar and 100g water and cook on high in a saucepan until the bubbles become slower and syrup becomes quieter (indicating the water has largely evaporated). Add ~100g of fruit puree, vanilla, a pinch of salt and/or any other flavourings. Whip cream with a little salt and honey until very soft peaks. Serve a slice of sponge cake with whipped cream, fresh fruit and a generous drizzle of thickened, cooled syrup.

Tip 1: Halve to make one 6 inch cake, though immersion blending may become difficult with smaller quantities. Bake 620g in an 8-inch tin. For a 9-inch tin, increase recipe by 1.12 and bake all in one tin. I have not tested this recipe in tins larger than 6 inches. I expect them to bake similarly, but the interior may collapse slightly due to the greater distance from a surface to cling to.

You can also bake this in a tube pan, though I haven’t tested this.

Tip 2: Eggs are in-shell weight here because I find it easier to ensure my eggs are correctly sized before separating, rather than cracking, weighing, and then plucking the yolks out (something that is difficult if using room temp eggs, as I do). If using liquid whites and yolks, this batch size calls for 204g whites and 84g yolk.

Tip 3: It may be possible to blend using a regular blender, but I would scale up this entire cream cheese/yolk mixture by at least 10% to account for loss and ensure this mixture weighs 389g before adding flour.

Tip 4: Here is a video to better illustrate this method of mixing:

Notes for Nerds:

*Update: I now prefer to make my own blend with xanthan gum distributed in the mix, rather than separately adding it and necessitating blending it.

Do not bake this cake in a sheet tray. Only the edges will cling to the sides and thus the center will collapse and be dense.

I have not tried making this into a layer cake. I have served this as a trifle, soaked with syrup and layered with buttercream and fresh berries and it was absolutely delicious. A perfect park cake, especially because it can be thrown into a lidded container and passed around for chowing down. I imagine a Victoria Sponge, simply sliced in half, lightly filled with buttercream and jam, and dusted with icing sugar, would work well.

I recommend purchasing a scale that detects tenths of grams, because xanthan gum is both very ‘packable’ (ie the quantity can change significantly if compressed or if scooped while fluffy) and very potent, meaning small differences in quantity can impact your bakes. I use a JSR-150 for weighing gum/salt/baking powder/etc. I purchased it from BakeryBits for £17.

I used Freee Plain White Flour here. If making your own blend, as I recommend, combine or sift together the following:

• 36g superfine white rice flour

• 20g superfine brown rice flour

• 20g cornstarch

• 17g tapioca starch

• 3g potato starch

• 16g powdered milk

• 2g (slightly heaping 1/2 tsp) xanthan gum

I hope you give this cake a try and are as dazzled by its bounce as I am.

Follow me on Instagram for videos of my recipes and subscribe below to receive weekly, premium-only recipes. Feel free to comment, DM me, or email me at zak@better-chews.com

Next week I will share my recipe for Pecan Brittle and Maple Cookies.

Subscribe now

Subscribe now

Welcome to Better Chews by me, Zak Cannon.

I'm a pastry chef, baker, and recipe developer who trained in Texas, then London, before spending several months in Brazil, where my partner's family introduced me to a whole new world of flavour. I landed in The Netherlands in summer 2026, and all of that time on the road is why this newsletter blends down-home sweets, elevated desserts, tropical flavours, and cosy bakes.

I was diagnosed with coeliac disease after a 10-year career in commercial kitchens/bakeries. At first I was devastated and confused and bitter. But since then, I’ve been working my ass off to create foods that are as good or better than their glutinous versions, not only to share with others but primarily because I stubbornly refuse to go without all the delicious foods I’d enjoyed before.

Many of my recipes are developed to fill voids I have identified: glutinous sweets and desserts that don’t yet have delicious GF versions. However, I also share recipes that are ‘accidently’ gluten-free (ie. frozen desserts, fruit-forward dishes, puddings, confectionary, etc), because this newsletter is meant to be more than simply converted recipes. I like to think beyond what my food is ‘free’ from, and follow my intuition to whatever sounds most delightful.

This is my place to share these recipes with you. Each recipe has been meticulously tested and tinkered until I am certain it is about as good as could possibly be. They are formatted for home chefs/bakers but notes are included for professionals with access to specialty tools or who want to prepare products on a larger scale.

Many recipes are available for free and become paywalled after a few months. More advanced recipes, plus those which utilise the basic recipes to create something more refined, will be available to premium subscribers. These recipes require many hours of my attention and personal investment to develop, so premium subscriptions are greatly appreciated and I hope you always feel the price is appropriate for what you gain from the newsletter. If you want a recipe and can’t afford to subscribe, just give me a shout and I’ll do my best to provide it for you.

Don’t be a stranger! Use the comments to ask questions, DM me on Instagram, or email me at zak@better-chews.com. Being gluten-free can feel isolating and confusing, so let me lend an ear and a little clarity.

Welcome to Better Chews. Let’s get baking!

Subscribe now