Photo courtesy of Almond Board of California

I am thrilled to let you all know that I am working with the Almond Board of California to promote healthy and delicious eating.

Why am I doing this?  As you can imagine, I love almonds.  They are a superfood and of course one of my favorite things to nibble on.  I like almonds so much that I wrote an entire book about them.  The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook uses almonds in all of its recipes and is a wonderful symbol of my love for that most nutritious of all nuts.

In my work with the Almond Board, I have written 4 recipes just for them (and you all, of course).  Here is the first one for a Cranberry Almond Loaf.

Cranberry Almond Loaf
¾ cup creamy roasted almond butter, at room temperature
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 large eggs
¼ cup arrowroot powder
½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ cup dried apricots, chopped into ¼ inch pieces
½ cup dried cranberries
¼ cup sesame seeds
¼ cup sunflower seeds
¼ cup pumpkin seeds
¼ cup sliced almonds, plus 2 tablespoons to sprinkle on top
olive oil for greasing
blanched almond flour for dusting

1. In a large bowl, blend almond butter, olive oil and eggs with a hand blender until smooth
2. In a medium bowl, combine arrowroot powder, salt and baking soda
3. Blend arrowroot mixture into wet ingredients until thoroughly combined
4. Fold in apricots, cranberries, seeds and sliced almonds
5. Grease a 7.5 x 3.5 magic line loaf pan with olive oil and dust with almond flour
6. Transfer batter into loaf pan and sprinkle remaining sliced almonds on top
7. Bake at 350° for 40-50 minutes until a knife inserted into center comes out clean
8. Let bread cool in pan for 1 hour, then serve

Yield 1 loaf

Slice this Cranberry Almond Loaf and enjoy it as a jazzed up base for your Turkey Club Sandwich. Or toast it and dip in olive oil for a delicious breakfast or after dinner treat.  Personally, I like mine toasted and smothered in goat cheese.

As part of my work with the Almond Board, I will be traveling out to California next week to publicly discuss my love of almonds.  I’ll be doing a couple of interesting things on Friday (stay tuned) and a book signing at Erewhon Natural Foods on Saturday.  Hope to see you at the signing!