Angel Food Cake (LC, GF, SF)

Here’s another one of my recipes that’s been floating around the low-carb world for many years.

I think I came up with that one in about 2003 or so. Still works like a charm!

First let me post the original recipe, then the modifications I have made recently with different sweeteners now available and Oat flour, which now also makes this recipe gluten-free!

Ingredients:

10 Egg Whites (from XL Eggs) at room temperature
1/2 tsp Salt
1 1/4 tsp Cream Of Tartar
1/2 tsp Almond Flavoring
1/2 tsp Vanilla Flavoring
1/2 cup Unflavored Whey Protein (or the vanilla kind goes well with it too)
1/2 cup Barley Flour
1 cup Splenda (whizzed in the coffee grinder to make it more like confectioner's sugar - measure 1 cup after whizzing)

3/4 cup Splenda

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 375.
1. Beat the egg whites and the salt on high speed until just frothy.
2. Add the cream of tartar and flavorings and beat until soft peaks (don't overbeat ... it could make the cake dry and crumbly)
3. Add 1 cup of (whizzed) Splenda (a little at the time) and continue beating until well incorporated.
4. In a separate bowl sift together the remaining splenda, whey protein and barley flour. It is best to sift it about 3 times.
5. Sift about 1/4 of the flour mixture over your egg whites and fold with a spatula (don't do this with an electric mixer!). Continue until all the flour mix is well incorporated.
6. Pour into an ungreased Angel food pan. Once all the batter is in there shake the pan a LITTLE to settle the dough and release any air bubbles. You could also just "cut" the dough lightly with a knife (don't cut too deep or you will damage your pan!!)
7. Bake for around 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
After taking your pan out of the oven, invert it (upside down) on a plate or the counter top and let it cool this way.
8. Once cooled the cake will come out quite easily.

4.7g carbs/slice (at 16 generous slices) with 6g protein per slice

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Now for the second version:

Angel Food Cake #2

Ingredients:

10 Egg Whites (from XL Eggs) at room temperature
1/2 tsp Salt
1 1/4 tsp Cream Of Tartar
1/2 tsp Almond Bakery Emulsion or Almond Extract
3/4 tsp Sweet Dough Bakery Emulsion or 1/2 tsp vanilla  (MUCH better with the emulsion though!)

1/2 cup Unflavored Whey Protein (or the vanilla kind goes well with it too)
1/2 cup Oat Flour 
1 cup Ideal Bulk Sweetener or 2/3 cup of xylitol (whizzed in the coffee grinder to make it more like confectioner's sugar) *

2 tsp gluten-free cake enhancer

1/2 cup Erythritol, powdered

1/4 tsp stevia extract

* you could use 1 cup of powdered xylitol total and omit the Ideal, stevia and erythritol.

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 375.
1. Beat the egg whites and the salt on high speed until just frothy.
2. Add the cream of tartar and emulsions/ flavorings and the stevia extract and beat until soft peaks (don't overbeat ... it could make the cake dry and crumbly)
3. Add the (whizzed)  Ideal (a little at the time).

4. Then sift together the erythritol, whey protein and oat flour. It is best to sift it about 3 times to really fluff it up.

5. Sift about 1/4 of the flour mixture over your egg whites and fold with a spatula (don't do this with an electric mixer!). Continue until all the flour mix is well incorporated.

6. Pour into an ungreased Angel food pan (or other non stick pan. Once all the batter is in there shake the pan a LITTLE to settle the dough and release any air bubbles. You could also just "cut" the dough lightly with a knife (don't cut too deep or you will damage your pan!!)

7. Bake for around 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Mine are  a little too full. You want to give your angel food batter room to rise, so 3/4 full would have been much better! Giving them room also helps  later on cooling to not compact the angel food cake when it’s upside down!

And rise it will!

After taking your pan out of the oven, invert it (upside down) on a plate or the counter top and let it cool this way. 

8. Once cooled the cake will come out quite easily. Don’t try and force it out too early!

If you’re impatient like me, this happens:

But if you wait, the tell-tale angel food crust forms, and it releases the cake just fine:

The whole cake is 71 g of carbs, 8 g of fiber and 115 g of protein. That makes it  3.9 g of net carbs/slice (at 16 generous slices) with 7 g protein per slice.

In comparison I think I prefer the barley in combination with the unflavored whey protein isolate the best for texture. It seems to be a lighter, finer texture. The difference is not huge, but noticeable. You can even see it in the pictures.  I do however prefer the emulsion flavor over the straight extracts in this and don’t miss the splenda taste one bit, so I think my preference will be a combination of the two recipes!