Eggless Wholegrain Strawberry Frangipane Tray Bake …simple, one bowl deliciousness

Eggless Wholegrain Strawberry Frangipane Tray Bake… simple, one bowl deliciousness. The buttery shortbread base which holds an indulgent fragrant almond filling, finished off with sweet tart strawberries and sprigs of fresh rosemary. The whole bake comes together quite quickly and simply, you’ll love it!

This has been a while coming and I’m not really sure why. The last time I baked this wholegrain frangipane tray bake, it was one with eggs, the recipe jotted down on one of my million post-it notes. While it did see light of day in a ‘blueberry tray bake‘ avatar, it felt like it was time to do a strawberry version again.

That truckload of strawberries in my fridge leads me on everyday. This is one of 3 strawberry seasons up in North India, and I can’t get enough of it. There’s SO MUCH you can do with these luscious berries…

Then again, one thing led to another, and further inspiration from the infinite eggless requests kicked in. I’ve been baking for donkeys years, some of the best years were with the Daring Bakers. I recall an eggless frangipane we once made back then, so this is a spin off that recipe.

Those were some of the best years of my baking life, a steep learning curve then, and very challenging. It’s one thing to get up and push your creativity a little. It’s altogether another when you completely shove the boundaries, doing things you never thought you would do!

Those Daring Baker golden years. All from scratch ... Hungarian Kalács, Tres Leche, Momofuku’s Crack Pie, Battenberg, Armenian Nazook, Povitica, Swedish Princess cakes, Savarins, Croquembouche, Baklava, Pavlova, Empanada Gallega, Entremets … so many more!

It was these challenging bakes that gave me a foundation, a ‘baking education’ that allowed us to think differently, perhaps more creatively too. At the time, ingredients were tough to come by in India and the challenges were for a worldwide audience. Doing things from scratch had a different meaning, something I will always be grateful for.

This Eggless Wholegrain Strawberry Frangipane Tray Bake is the result of all that experimentation. Doing a whole lot of baking, and a whole LOT of eggless baking makes you often think out of the box.

The recipe is super simple, using no ‘equipment‘ as such. It’s a quick, one bowl recipe {used twice}, gets the fingertips in a bit and gets into the oven in under 30 minutes.

Then you need to wait for the bake to cool to allow you to slice it. The flavours just sing your name. I mean look at the ingredient list. All that almond meal will make anyone HAPPY!

Using ghee/clarified butter instead of normal butter is a game changer for me in many ways. I think I use it more than butter in baking now.

Ghee – doesn’t spoil and stays indefinitely at room temperature. That it tastes great and is difficult to stop eating … it is delicious! I think it also works really well because of a lower water content as compared to butter. I think I’ve read somewhere that it’s easier to digest too. Well, I’m not complaining!

So here’s the recipe for the Eggless Wholegrain Strawberry Frangipane Tray Bake. Hope you make it soon, and enjoy it as much as I have.

If you make any changes, please jot them down and do share them with me in comments. It’s always nice to know how things work differently with different folk, and how we can share experiences.

Thank you for stopping by as always. If you have any requests for recipes, please leave me a note. Will try and get something going for you.

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Eggless Wholegrain Strawberry Frangipane Tray Bake

Eggless Wholegrain Strawberry Frangipane Tray Bake… simple, one bowl deliciousness. The buttery shortbread base which holds an indulgent fragrant almond filling, finished off with sweet tart strawberries and sprigs of fresh rosemary. The whole bake comes together quite quickly and simply, you’ll love it!

Keyword baking, dessert, eggless, fruit, sweet

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes minutes

Total Time 2 hours hours 50 minutes minutes

Servings 16 squares

Ingredients

Wholewheat biscuit base

• 1 cup whole-wheat flour/aata scant} {110g}
• 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp clarified butter / ghee melted, cooled {75g}
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• Pinch salt
• 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 3 tsp Water

Eggless Almond Frangipane

• 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp clarified butter / ghee melted, cooled {75g}
• 1/2 cup raw sugar/boora {75g}
• 1 1/2 cups almond meal {145g}
• 3 tbsp cornflour 25 {25g}
• Few drops almond extract
• 1/2 vanilla bean scraped
• 2 tbsp Greek yogurt

Instructions

Wholewheat biscuit base

• Preheat oven to 180C. Line a loose bottomed 8 X 8″ square baking tray with parchment paper.
• Place flour, sugar, salt and clarified butter in a large bowl. Whisk with balloon whisk to get an even breadcrumb like mix. Since it’s winter here, the ghee was semi solid which was perfect.
• Whisk in the apple cider vinegar evenly, then whisk in just enough water that the biscuit base holds together when pinched between fingertips, much alike a crumble.
• Transfer to prepared tin, even out, then gently press into place with your fingertips.
• Bake for 12 minutes at 180 C until light golden brown.
• Meanwhile, make the eggless almond frangipane.

Eggless Almond Frangipane

• Place everything in a large bowl and whisk to mix. Use fingertips to get an even moist crumb. Turn over baked biscuit base and spread uniformly using an offset spatula.
• Top with sliced strawberries, a scattering of fresh rosemary. Sprinkle over a tbsp of vanilla sugar.
• Bake for 30-35 minutes until slightly firm to touch, and the strawberries are cooked and slightly coloured at the edges.
• Cool completely before slicing.