This Christmas, surprise the family with a light king cake prepared by you. This recipe is nutritionally more balanced and healthier and is suitable for celiac and lactose intolerant patients.
We asked nutritionist Patrícia Trindade, from TO BE. Clínica by Teresa Branco to come up with a special king cake recipe. Prerequisites: it had to be easy to make, delicious, of course, but not fattening. Reduce the calories you eat and the time you spend in the kitchen with this easy-to-make recipe.
Ingredients
- 450 g sweet potato;
- 130 g almond flour:
- 60 g cornstarch;
- 1 teaspoon of baker's yeast;
- Orange juice and zest, to taste;
- 0.5 dl of natural almond drink;
- 1 glass of port wine;
- 1 tablespoon of honey;
- 4 eggs + yolk for brushing to taste;
- 50 g of walnuts;
- 200 g of dried fruit (raisins, dates, apricots, currants...);
- cinnamon, to taste;
- salt to taste;
- Grated coconut and nuts to decorate.
Preparation
- Cut the dried fruit you're going to use in the king cake into small pieces and macerate them in port wine.
- Wash, peel and boil the sweet potato. Puree it with a hand blender and leave to cool until lukewarm.
- Sift together the almond flour and cornstarch. Add the yeast and orange zest. Mix together.
- In a bowl, with the mashed sweet potato, gradually add the eggs, honey and almond drink while stirring with a whisk. season with cinnamon, orange juice and a pinch of salt, and stir in. Gradually add the flour mixture and mix all the ingredients together. Finally, add the dried fruit, well drained.
- Cover the container with non-stick film and a cloth and leave to stand for 90 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 200ºC.
- Arrange the king cake dough on a baking tray with an improvised round shape made of baking paper and make a hole in the center. You can also use a removable pan with a hole in the center.
- Brush the king cake with egg yolk and decorate with dried fruit. bake the king cake at 180ºC for 45 minutes until golden brown.
- Remove the king cake from the oven, leave to cool and sprinkle with grated coconut.
Our king cake has...
Compared to the original recipe, a slice of our light king cake has...
- 217.4 kcal
- 2.3 g of protein
- 5.1 g of fat
- 38.7 g of carbohydrates
If you want to find out more about the composition of foods, check out the Food Composition Table on the Portuguese Food Information Platform(PortFIR) of the Instituto Nacional de Saúde Doutor Ricardo Jorge (INSA).
Our king cake is healthy because...
- The composition of this type of cake has been adapted to make it more nutritionally balanced and suitable for celiac patients (gluten-free) and lactose-intolerant individuals.
- As an alternative to wheat flour, we opted for gluten-free sweet potato, ground almonds and cornstarch.
- No refined sugars or candied fruit have been added to the king cake - the orange juice and zest give it a sweet taste and the dried fruit is a source of natural sugar.
- The almond drink is lactose-free and makes the king cake dough softer. opt for natural versions, with no added flavors or sugars.
- Natural oleaginous fruits are foods of excellent nutritional quality. Almonds and walnuts are present in greater quantities in the bolo-rei because they are particularly good sources of vegetable protein, fiber and are rich in excellent fats, particularly omega-3, dispensing with other fats that have a negative impact on health such as butter and margarine.
