Matcha Angel Food Cake

Created by Chef Waldo Yan, this light-as-a-feather gluten-free angel food cake is made possible by the unique qualities of Japanese rice flour. Matcha tempers its sweetness and provides a welcome grassiness. For a bright and sunny accompaniment, serve alongside this no-cook mango sake sauce.

Yield: one ten inch Cake and 1 quart Mango Sauce

CAKE Ingredients:

 ½ cup (55g) tapioca starch

1/3 cup (40g) rice flour

1/3 cup (40g) corn starch

¼ cup (30g) coconut flour

¾ teaspoon (4g) aluminum-free baking powder

2 ½ Tbs  (15g) matcha

1 ¾ cup (425g) egg white (from 11 large eggs), refrigerated

2 1/8 cup (425g) granulated sugar

1 Tbs (15g) vanilla extract

2 Tbs (30g) lemon juice

A pinch (1g) kosher salt

CAKE Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350F

2.   Sift the tapioca starch, rice flour, corn starch, coconut flour, baking powder and matcha together in a bowl. Set aside.

3.   Combine egg whites, granulated sugar and vanilla extract in a stand mixer bowl with whisk attachment. Be careful not to get any egg yolks into the bowl.

4.  Mix on stir for one minute, then increase speed to setting 4 for three minutes.

5.  While the stand mixer is still running, add lemon juice and kosher salt.

6.  Increase speed to setting 6 for three minutes, then to setting 8 for three minutes, then turn off stand mixer. The meringue should be in soft peaks—foam is loose enough to fall off the whisk, but stable enough gently mound on itself.

7.  Sift premixed tapioca starch, rice flour, corn starch, coconut flour, baking powder and matcha evenly onto the surface of the meringue.

8. Gently fold in the dry mixture with a silicone spatula. Take care to scoop all the way into the bowl, working delicately to not deflate the meringue. Stop when no pockets of the starch/flour mixture are visible.

9.  Pour into an ungreased and unlined aluminum Bundt pan (not nonstick), gently smoothing the surface with the silicone spatula.

10.  Bake on center rack of the preheated oven for 45 minutes.

11.  Remove from oven and quickly invert the cake pan to cool upside down. Cool for two and a half hours at room temperature, or until no trace of heat remains.

12.  Once cool, turn the cake pan right side up, loosen the edges of the cake from the pan with a thin metal spatula or knife. Turn over the pan onto a plate, and the cake should release itself.

13.  Slice with a bread knife, or any long sharp knife, using a gentle sawing motion to preserve the height of the cake.

14.  Wrap any leftover slices tightly in plastic wrap. Leftovers will keep for one week at room temperature, and can be unwrapped and lightly toasted for a crispy treat.

Mango Sake Sauce

SAUCE IngredienTS

1.   ½ cup (115g) doburoku or nigori sake

2.   Scant ½ cup (110g) granulated sugar

3.   2 teaspoons (10g) lemon juice

4.   450g mango (roughly cut into 1 inch chunks from 2 or 3 mangos)

5.   1 cup (225g) non-fat Greek yogurt

SAUCE DIRECTIONS

 1.   Pour sake, sugar and lemon juice into a blender. Blend on low, until sugar is dissolved. If using doburoku, blend until rice granules are completely pureed. Turn off blender after about two minutes.

2.   Add the mango chunks to the yogurt and blend. Start on the lowest setting, then gradually increase the speed while maintaining the vortex in the center. Stop in approximately four minutes, when the sauce is uniform in color, not getting paler and no longer contains any visible solids.

3.   Pour through a fine mesh sieve, using the back of a spoon or a flexible silicone spatula to help pass the sauce through the sieve.

4.   Keep in a sealed container in the refrigerator. Any leftover sauce can keep for one week.