Ricotta flan with sauce of mixed berries (gluten free, cow milk free)…here I come, baby!

October 27, 2012

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Tags: Casa Alice, cow milk free, flan berries, gluten free, italian recipe, ricotta

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I love cooking…well I love inventing in the kitchen ♥. Some years ago,  when I discovered (at last!) my food intolerances I got a crush for fora, whose main topic is cooking. From a forum to another one  an idea was growing in the rear garden of my mind: a blog on my own…and here I am.

I “met” this recipe on a forum years ago (posted by .nima in “L’angolo di Chicca” originally was from a TV program called Casa Alice)  and I fell in love with it: easy to do, but so goood! Of course I adapted it to my main intolerances: no gluten, no cow milk. My family did like it and so did my friends. So, not only it’s in my family cookbook, but also in the cookbook of some friends…Sounds awesome, doesn’t it?♥

Ingredients..here we are

500 gr of sheep ricotta ( or goat ricotta or buffalo ricotta or vegan ricotta made from soy milk)

Ricotta is not a cheese, since it is made from the coagulation of the proteins of the milk serum, which is the liquid part of milk, that is separated when the curd is formed. It is still rich in noble proteins and here in Italy is a widespread product, that is every region produces it. It can be made from cow milk, sheep milk, goat milk, buffalo milk and a mix of milks. I avoid the cow milk one, love the other ones♥  Vegans  usually make it from soy milk.

200 gr of raw cane sugar  (the less manipulated the better, I use different kind of sugars, but cane sugar is my fave!)

4 eggs ( I do use extrafresh, class O eggs, here in Italy class O means they are ORGANIC, but you can buy eggs from free range farmings which use natural chicken feed…NdA: the best the ingredients are, the healtiest you are)

3 tablespoons of gluten free rice flour, you can substitute them with 2 table spoons of  potato starch and 1 of  corn flour, both of them gluten free (check the symbolo, the tag on the packaging)

1 teaspoon of organic vanilla bourbon (I do ♥ vanilla)

a pinch of salt

the zests of 1 organic lemon

the juice of half of an organic lemon

1/2  sachet gluten free baking powder ( I use the commercially available mix of sodium bicarbonate and of cream of tartar, which is available gluten free)

I use a 24 cm diameter mould.

For the sauce of mixed berries

200 gr of mixed berries ( I use the frozen ones, but the fresh ones are of course the best)

100 gr of raw cane sugar (150 gr if you like sweeter)

the zests of 1 organic lemon

Beat the whole eggs with the sugar till they become white and foamy ( I usually use the Kenwood Chef to do this). In another bowl smash the ricotta with a fork or with minipimer, the ricotta must be well drained*. Then add the ricotta to the eggs and mix thoroughly (I use the K beater  for soft doughs), then add the vanilla (♥), the lemon zests and the juice, then the gluten free flour and the baking powder (previously mixed together). Put the dough in the mould, which has been greased with marge ( NO hydrogenated fats!!!) and then in the oven (180°C or 356 °F) for 40 minutes. Please always chek your oven, since every oven is a world apart 😉 so to be sure always do the toothpick proof: insert a toothpick in the middle, when it comes out clean and not humid, it’s ready!

For the sauce: very very very simple…put the mixed berries, still frozen (if you use the fresh ones, just clean them and put in the pan) in a pan, then add the sugar and the lemon zests. The sugar must melt at medium heat, then it must start boiling. After 5-10 minutes, not more, turn the heat off and let it cool down.

When the flan is ready, take it out of the mould and put it on a grid for 10 minutes, then put it on a dessert plate and make little holes with a toothpick. Then pour the sauce all over the flan and serve.

I had just the time of a shoot and then …it disappeared…

Hope you like it!♥

§ for coeliacs and gluten sensitive people: check the symbol or the tag  GLUTEN FREE  according to the CE 41/2009 directive or according to the local directives in your country and don’t forget traces, contaminations and cross-contaminations, never ever!

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