I had bought some Bosc pears (not quite fully ripe), and couldn't find my tart pan, so I made this recipe.
1 stick unsalted butter
140g almond meal
5g glutinous rice flour
70g sugar
3 large eggs
83g cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp almond extract
1/4 tsp chocolate extract
2 Bosc pears
The original recipe said to combine the butter eggs, cocoa, and almonds in a food processor. Instead, I creamed the butter and sugar together before adding eggs. I doubled the recipe, which meant that 6 eggs needed to be added, and by egg number 4, I couldn't get the mixture to quite come together (without flinging bits of butter and raw egg throughout the kitchen). The batter was very thick, almost cookie-like, and it took a lot of wrangling to spread it throughout the pan (9x13 lined with parchment, for a doubled recipe).
I'm not at all happy with the result, it will be going in the bin. Perhaps it's the glutinous rice flour I added, but the cake bit has rather a grainy texture, and it's simply not sweet enough (at all?). I found a very similar recipe which has more than double the sugar (150g). Bosc pears also weren't quite right for this; I was hoping for a juicier, softer baked pear than what I got. One recipe suggests Red Bartletts or Red d'Anjou, while the other used Bartlett.
I'm probably going to want to try baking with pears again, probably with a very similar recipe. So! For next time, no rice flour, increase the sugar, use the right pears, (use more pears?)
Sunday, November 15, 2015
Tartelette Lemon, Olive Oil, Yogurt Cake
Last weekend, I attempted a non-GF version of this:
2 large eggs
100g sugar
3/4 cup EVOO
1 cup plain yogurt
zest and juice of a lemon
250 g flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
pinch of salt
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt, set aside.
3. Whisk eggs and sugar together for 2 minutes.
4. Add the olive oil, yogurt, lemon juice, and zest, whisking until well mixed.
5. Add dry ingredients, whisking gently until batter is smooth
6. Bake
I doubled this recipe and baked it for a now-forgotten length of time in a 9x13 pan. Despite adding the olive oil to the wet ingredients before adding the dry, this batter was thicker than I thought it ought to have been, and the top had to be leveled by hand once in the pan. The crumb was uneven and rather gummy in patches, though that is possibly entirely my fault. I got lazy and potentially didn't whisk the eggs and sugar for long enough, in addition to neglecting to whisk the dry ingredients together before adding to the wet. Straight out of the oven, I thought the acidity of the citrus completely overpowered the sugar, but the next day, the balance was perfectly fine, though it was still a good sigma of lemon flavor above the mean (for lemon cakes without glaze). Despite the olive oil, the top did not brown and there was no crunch to it.
Next time, I'll experiment with slightly less flour or an additional egg. Maybe 1.5 tablespoons of baking powder.
2 large eggs
100g sugar
3/4 cup EVOO
1 cup plain yogurt
zest and juice of a lemon
250 g flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
pinch of salt
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt, set aside.
3. Whisk eggs and sugar together for 2 minutes.
4. Add the olive oil, yogurt, lemon juice, and zest, whisking until well mixed.
5. Add dry ingredients, whisking gently until batter is smooth
6. Bake
I doubled this recipe and baked it for a now-forgotten length of time in a 9x13 pan. Despite adding the olive oil to the wet ingredients before adding the dry, this batter was thicker than I thought it ought to have been, and the top had to be leveled by hand once in the pan. The crumb was uneven and rather gummy in patches, though that is possibly entirely my fault. I got lazy and potentially didn't whisk the eggs and sugar for long enough, in addition to neglecting to whisk the dry ingredients together before adding to the wet. Straight out of the oven, I thought the acidity of the citrus completely overpowered the sugar, but the next day, the balance was perfectly fine, though it was still a good sigma of lemon flavor above the mean (for lemon cakes without glaze). Despite the olive oil, the top did not brown and there was no crunch to it.
Next time, I'll experiment with slightly less flour or an additional egg. Maybe 1.5 tablespoons of baking powder.
Maialino Olive Oil Cake
I have made this recipe twice, both times to unsatisfying results. The crumb is very moist, true, but only because the cake is seemingly saturated with oil, with hands coming away very oily after handling, even several days after baking. And despite the orange zest, the orange juice, and the orange liquor (note to self: if you cannot find it, the Triple Sec is probably in the freezer), there's not a very strong citrus flavor. Despite the overall oiliness of the result and the lovely brown color, there's no crackle to the top.
I am done trying to make this cake! A double batch requires a whopping 2 2/3 cup of EVOO, in addition to orange juice and whole milk, neither of which I regularly keep in the house. And the results are consistently poor, despite an absence of recipe twiddling.
I am done trying to make this cake! A double batch requires a whopping 2 2/3 cup of EVOO, in addition to orange juice and whole milk, neither of which I regularly keep in the house. And the results are consistently poor, despite an absence of recipe twiddling.
Lemon, Olive Oil, and Yogurt Cake
Today I made Dorie Greenspan's EVO and Yogurt Loaf Cake, from Serious Eats, with some alterations:
180g flour
2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
200g sugar
zest of 1 lemon
1/2 cup plain whole milk yogurt
3 large eggs
1/4 tsp lemon extract
1/2 cup EVOO
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Rub sugar and zest together.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
3. Whisk in yogurt, eggs, and extract until mixture is well blended.
4. Gently whisk in dry ingredients.
5. Use a spatula to fold in the oil.
6. Bake until a knife inserted into the center comes away clean.
Will keep at room temperature for at least 4 days.
I doubled the recipe (8 x 2 = 16 cups) and baked it in a dark 8-inch square pan at 350 for 75 minutes. The cake was quite tall, though there was no risk of overflowing. And judging from the dark bits on the sides and bottom, I should have taken it out earlier, though a butter knife inserted to the bottom came out wet 65 minutes in. The crumb is rather coarse, as Dorie mentions in the original recipe, though there is no residual oiliness to the touch, and the top has that lovely crispy/crunchiness which has been lacking from the Maialino Olive Oil cake.
As for alterations for next time, the flavor wasn't as strongly lemon flavored as I prefer, and the lemon flavor which was there leaned a little too far towards lemon oil for my tastes. I don't know that I'd add the juice of an entire lemon, like the Tartelette recipe does, but half a lemon would do quite nicely. Also, even though I sprayed quite liberally with PAM, the bottom stuck even as the sides came away easily. Line the bottom with parchment paper. To maximize the amount of crunchy crust on the top, try doubling the recipe in a 9x13 pan, whose shorter bake time might also make the color of the sides and bottom less alarming.
Update: The top had lost its crunchiness by the next day.
180g flour
2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
200g sugar
zest of 1 lemon
1/2 cup plain whole milk yogurt
3 large eggs
1/4 tsp lemon extract
1/2 cup EVOO
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Rub sugar and zest together.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
3. Whisk in yogurt, eggs, and extract until mixture is well blended.
4. Gently whisk in dry ingredients.
5. Use a spatula to fold in the oil.
6. Bake until a knife inserted into the center comes away clean.
Will keep at room temperature for at least 4 days.
I doubled the recipe (8 x 2 = 16 cups) and baked it in a dark 8-inch square pan at 350 for 75 minutes. The cake was quite tall, though there was no risk of overflowing. And judging from the dark bits on the sides and bottom, I should have taken it out earlier, though a butter knife inserted to the bottom came out wet 65 minutes in. The crumb is rather coarse, as Dorie mentions in the original recipe, though there is no residual oiliness to the touch, and the top has that lovely crispy/crunchiness which has been lacking from the Maialino Olive Oil cake.
As for alterations for next time, the flavor wasn't as strongly lemon flavored as I prefer, and the lemon flavor which was there leaned a little too far towards lemon oil for my tastes. I don't know that I'd add the juice of an entire lemon, like the Tartelette recipe does, but half a lemon would do quite nicely. Also, even though I sprayed quite liberally with PAM, the bottom stuck even as the sides came away easily. Line the bottom with parchment paper. To maximize the amount of crunchy crust on the top, try doubling the recipe in a 9x13 pan, whose shorter bake time might also make the color of the sides and bottom less alarming.
Update: The top had lost its crunchiness by the next day.
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