Today’s coffee cake is a simple pound cake made with brown butter. Brown butter is one of my favorite baking ingredients. It’s just butter that’s been cooked so that that the solids turn brown and nutty-flavored–but it really packs a flavor wallop. It may sound intimidating to do–but it’s really not. You just need to pay attention to what you’re doing. And your kitchen will smell amazing. Other than making the brown butter (which takes very little time), this recipe is very easy.
I found the original of this recipe on Gourmet‘s web site. As I discussed in my last post, Gourmet has been discontinued.
Brown Butter Pound Cake
-adapted from Gourmet magazine
Special Equipment Needed
-loaf pan, 9″x2″x5.5″
-stand mixer is nice, but a hand mixer will do
Ingredients
2 1/4 sticks (18 tablespoons) unsalted butter
2 cups Jeanne’s Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour Mix (sift before measuring)
1 tsp aluminum-free double-acting baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
4 large or extra-large eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
extra butter and tapioca flour for pan
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F
-butter and flour pan with tapioca flour
-in a small bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside
-in a large skillet, heat butter over medium heat until the milk solids on the bottom are dark chocolate brown.
-transfer butter to a shallow bowl or baking pan and chill in freezer until just congealed–about 15 minutes. You want to get it to the consistency of soft but not melted butter
-transfer butter to the bowl of mixer
-beat the butter for a couple of minutes–until fluffy
-add sugars, beat for a couple more minutes
-add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition
-add vanilla extract
-with mixer at slow speed, add flour mixture–do not over mix
-transfer batter to prepared baking pan
-thump on counter to release any trapped air bubbles
-bake at 325 degrees for about 1 hr 20 minutes or until a tester comes out clean
Enjoy!
Note: If you use a different gluten-free flour mix, alter the amount of or eliminate the xanthan gum or use a different gluten-replacer, use dairy-free or egg-free substitutes, or change any other ingredients in this recipe, your results may not match my results.
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Hi! 🙂 I am making a gluten free apple spice cake for a dear friend of mine, and I tried a recipe but just wasn’t happy with the results. Would this recipe hold up do you think if I added applesauce and small apple chunks? I know sometimes you can substitute the sugar with applesauce. Any advice is very welcome, or if you know of a recipe that already is made for Apple spice cake! 🙂
Thank you!
Kelsey: I would recommend adding diced apple but not applesauce–that would make the cake too dense. Also, do you have a favorite apple spice cake recipe? Send it to me and I can let you know how to adapt it to gluten-free. 🙂
Thank you! I had a wedding cake for a friend who wanted a gluten free apple spice cake last weekend. I’ve never done gluten free before, so it was a challenge, but after several baking tests I found a recipe for applesauce cake I was super happy with at the Gluten-Fre Homemaker!
Hi there,
Thank you for the Recipes .
What can i use instead Tapioca flour ?
We do not have arrowroot powder .
Sabbath Shalom
Nurit
Nurit: Check out my Ingredient Substitutions list for info on how to substitute for different flours.
I need a gluten free recipe for a pound cake for a character cake (a 3 diamentional bear cake) will this recipe work? or would the pan be too thick for the recipe?
Toni: Hm, I’ve never made a character cake so I’m not completely sure how that works. But, it is a fairly standard pound cake, so if that’s what you need–this should work well. You might also want to check out the Cream Cheese Pound Cake or the basic Pound Cake recipes to see if those might work.
Thanks I’ll try them both.
Hi, Jeanne.
Finally got around to trying out this recipe and the cake came out truly delicious!!! I am enjoying baking with your gf mix. Looking forward to your new book. Kind regards – maria
Maria: Yay! I’m so glad!
This was one of the most incredible desserts I’ve ever eaten. I made this yesterday for a small get together that included people who normally eat gluten. Everyone absolutely loved it and my favorite comment was “this doesn’t even taste gluten free”. I really appreciate that I can pick pretty much any recipe on your list and know that it is going to turn out wonderful and delicious for everyone.
Thank you so much!!
Vince: Yay! I’m so glad!
Thanks so much, Jeanne! I will try it and will let you know.
One other issue: there seem to be so very many sizes for loaf pans – makes me a bit crazy! Are the sizes so critical?
I’m wondering how this cake would be if you were to substitute almond flour/ground almonds for some of the flour. Any thoughts?
Amy: Hm, interesting question. I haven’t done this. What I would recommend to you is to experiement. Substitute almond flour for 1/3 of the flour and see what happens. It will affect the taste and texture a bit, but not necessarily in a bad way. It will just be different. If you do this, please let me know how it goes!