Lemon-Poppy Teacake

Name: Lemon-Poppy Teacake
Yield: makes 10 slices
Ingredients: 2/3 cup rice milk; 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar; 1/4 cup poppy seeds; 3/4 cup Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free all-purpose baking flour; 1/2 cup brown rice flour; 1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder; 1 teaspoon xanthan gum; 1 teaspoon salt; 1/2 cup coconut oil, plus more for the pan; 3/4 cup agave nectar; 1/3 cup homemade applesauce (page 78) or store-bought unsweetened applesauce; 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract; 2 tablespoons pure lemon extract; 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest

December 9, 2011

Lemon can be a baker’s best friend or her worst enemy. Often it tastes less like fresh-squeezed lemonade and more like a 15-cent lollipop. Achieving the perfect balance of lemon flavor in this teacake was a long and arduous journey; fresh lemon juice toys with the acidity in the batter, causing it to rise and fall unpredictably, while the rind on its own has a mousy presence at best. I tried everything from the yellow squeeze bottles of sugar-pumped citric acid to preserved lemons to lemon oil—everything short of boiled-down Lemonheads. Eventually I found that if you grate lemon rind into the batter with a generous helping of a high-quality lemon extract (I prefer Frontier’s product), you end up with a uniform, easy-to-manage batter that maximizes the lemon flavor while downplaying its domineering nature. Add the subtle nuttiness and earthy texture of poppy seeds, and you’ve stumbled onto a marriage unequaled since Luke and Laura’s.

Recipe notes

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