A Touch of Cardamom and Cloves

You might think that since I write a food blog that I eat gourmet food all the time. Nope. We mostly eat fairly simple foods and a lot of them are on repeat. Grilled chicken thighs and grilled fresh zucchini yesterday for dinner, and turkey chili for dinner tonight...like that.

Where I find myself playing around is often in baking, but, in order to not get any heavier than I already am, I'm only baking when I can share it with others...and leave them the leftovers. That way I get to taste what I bake, but I keep the calories down.

We were supposed to go to dinner last week in Healdsburg at a friend's house, and so I made a cake to take and share. Unfortunately there was a last minute change of plans related to Sweetie being on the board of the local fire district. After his meeting we gave in and had a slice of the cake, with the hopes that we would be able to share the rest with our Healdsburg friends.  I'll be able to bake something else later this week if all goes well and we have dinner in Healdsburg.

So the cake is a new recipe for me from the Substack of David Leibowitz. It's a fig and yogurt cake. I did make a couple of changes but I'm sure it was delicious the way it was written, too. I substituted a bit of sour cream for some of the yogurt because I wanted it just a bit richer. The recipe calls for five-spice powder as flavoring and I don't care for that. I decided to use a touch of cardamom and a bit of ground cloves instead. Those flavors went really well with the fresh figs that top the cake. The amounts used may seem to be too little, but these are both robust flavors, so a little goes a long way.

This is a single layer fairly rustic cake, but it is moist, not too sweet, and really delicious. The yogurt and the fruit allow it to stay moist a while, too, so you can enjoy it for a number of days. 

This cake has almond flour along with some all-purpose flour. If you are gluten sensitive, you could use almond flour and a gluten-free flour mix like King Arthur Baking One-to-One gluten free mix. No fresh figs? Fresh plums or apricots or nectarines would work well here, too. 

You could probably use poached pears, although I haven’t tried them. If you do, you should probably cut them into very thick slices after poaching so they stay moist due to the long-ish baking time.

 Due to the nut flour, this cake is quite hearty, not airy. Thanks to the oil in the nuts, it’ll keep nicely for 3 or 4 days at room temperature under a cake dome or well wrapped. The cake is just fine to serve on its own, but is also great with vanilla ice cream or a puff of whipped cream...which is how I served it, although I didn't get a photo of that.  A few poached or roasted figs with some of their liquid also pairs nicely with the cake.

 Fig-Yogurt Cake

8 servings

 Adapted by David Leibowitz  from the Fig, Yogurt and Almond Cake by Yotam Ottolenghi

200g (7 ounces) unsalted butter, cubed, at room temperature

200g (1 cup) granulated sugar, plus 2 teaspoons granulated sugar or 1 tablespoon turbinado (coarse) sugar crystals, for sprinkling over the finished cake

3 large eggs, at room temperature

100g (7 tablespoons) Greek yogurt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract or a scant 1/2 teaspoon almond extract

180g (1 3/4 cups) almond flour

100g (scant 3/4 cup) all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder, preferably aluminum-free

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

10-12 fresh or frozen figs (if using frozen figs, don’t defrost them first)

 

1. Line the bottom of a 9-inch (24cm) cake pan with a round of parchment paper. Butter the sides of the pan or coat with nonstick spray.
2. Preheat the oven to 400ºF (200ºC).
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or by hand, beat the butter and 200g (1 cup) of granulated sugar together on high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
4. Stop the mixer, then add the eggs one at a time, mixing them in on low speed, stopping the mixer after each addition to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Mix in the yogurt and extract.
5. Whisk together the almond flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, salt, and five-spice powder in a medium bowl. Stir the dry ingredients into the butter mixture just until combined. Scrape the batter into the prepared cake pan and smooth the top.
6. Quarter the figs and place the figs in concentric circles, cut side up, around the top of the cake.
7. Bake the cake for 15 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 325ºF (170ºC) and bake the cake until it just feels set in the center, about 40 minutes longer.
8. Remove from the oven and place the cake pan on a cooling rack. Let cool a few minutes, then run a sharp knife around the outside of the cake to loosen the sides of the cake from the pan. Sprinkle the remaining sugar over the top of the cake.
9. To remove the cake from the pan, it’s easier to do while the cake is still slightly warm. Run a knife again around the outside of the cake, and place a dinner plate upside down on top of the cake pan. Holding the cake pan and the plate firmly in place with both hands, turn both over simultaneously and the cake will release. (If it’s a bit stubborn and doesn’t come out easily, you can place the cake in a warm oven for a few minutes or set it over the low flame of a gas burner for a few seconds.)
10. Remove the parchment paper from the bottom of the cake, invert a serving platter over the bottom of the cake, then turn the cake and the platter over simultaneously.

Orange-Lemon Yogurt Bread

Our scholarship group met this morning and had some of this bread with our coffee and some red grapes. I think you might enjoy this quick bread, too.

Orange-Lemon Yogurt Bread makes one loaf
2/3 cup butter softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (I substituted 2 tablespoons Meyer lemon juice for some of the OJ)
1 tablespoon orange zest
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Glaze
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
2-3 teaspoons orange juice
some grated orange zest

Topping
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon zest

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9"x5"x3" loaf pan. Set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar for 3 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating to combine after each addition. Add the yogurt, orange juice and zest and combine. Mixture may be curdled looking...that is OK.

Combine the dry ingredients and add to the batter and mix just until combines.

Pour into prepared loaf pan and bake 55-60 minutes. Cover loosely with foil if top browns to quickly.

Place warm bread, still in pan or on a platter or board, where you can glaze it. Mix together the glaze. Poke holes in the top of the bread and pour the glaze over the top, letting the glaze settle into the holes. OK if some runs down the side. Let bread cool completely. (I refrigerated it at this point.) Mix together the topping and pour over the top. Because the topping is less runny than the glaze, it should cover the holes. Let topping setup, about 1 hour. Cut and serve in thin slices.

This is a moist, tangy loaf and goes great with your favorite cup or coffee or tea. This photo doesn't show the final topping, so you can see those holes in the top.

A Very Tasty Yogurt Cake for Fall

Mea culpa! In the spring, before my trip to Ireland, the lovely Kristina at Stonyfield Farms sent me some coupons for their organic Greek style yogurt, called Oikos. I had every intention of getting some and using it for recipes and blogging about it because I love yogurt, but somehow the coupons stayed in my old purse and everything else, just about, went into the new one for the trip, so they were never with me when I was at a store that carried the yogurt.

It has taken waaaaay too long, but finally I found the coupons, carried them with me, used them, and made a very tasty yogurt cake using the rich, creamy, tangy plain Oikos yogurt and the recipe in Dorie Greenspan's Baking, pg 224. Although this isn't the best photo, you can see how rich and creamy the texture of this yogurt is.

Because we have fresh Gravenstein apples and because it really feels like fall is coming (we even had rain this weekend) it seemed like a good idea to make a fall themed cake.

Apples and maple syrup are two flavors that remind me of crisp fall days and rich fall colors. The caramel for the apples is made with maple syrup, butter and some cream. When I was cooking some sliced apples one night this week to go with dinner, I started by sauteing them in a little butter, then pouring on some maple syrup and letting them simmer while I cooked other things. By the time I paid attention to the apples, the syrup had caramelized and I could spin caramel threads with a fork dipped in the syrup. The problem was that I didn't know how long that had taken.

Ever the explorer, when it was time to make the filling and topping for the cake, I tried to re-enact caramelizing the maple syrup. First I steamed the apple slices a bit so that I wouldn't over cook the syrup while trying to cook the apples. Using a slotted spoon I transferred the partially cooked apples to a frying pan full of melted butter. After sauteing the apples for a couple of minutes, I poured on a cup of maple syrup, stirred it all together, then let it simmer for about 3 minutes. Later I decided that it should have been longer since I ended up with a pretty soupy sauce. Again using a slotted spoon, I removed the apples and then 1/4 cup of whipping cream was whisked in. After more simmering I decided that it wasn't really going to thicken up, so the apples went back into the sauce, were coated with it, and then half the apple slices were removed...again....with a slotted spoon and placed on the bottom half of the yogurt cake (which I had sliced in half earlier). Because I wanted the maple flavor to sink into the cake, I drizzled a little of the sauce over those apples. I put the top cake layer over them, wrapped the whole thing in plastic wrap and let it sit overnight. The rest of the syrup and apples were stored in the fridge.

The next evening I carefully removed apple slices (the slotted spoon was getting a workout) from the sauce and arranged them on the top of the unwrapped cake. The cake had been set on a rimmed plate. Once the caramelized apple slices were in position on top of the cake, I spooned the rest of the sauce over them and over the top of the cake. Lots of sauce spilled down the sides and collected at the plate rim. A gooey, but very, very tasty mess.

I took the cake to a dinner party, but left the camera at home, so the plated cake photo was taken almost a day later and without benefit of the ice cream garnish we had at night.

The Oikos yogurt gives this cake a wonderful tang, very much appreciated as a foil for the very sweet maple-apple sauce. The cake is moist from the yogurt and from the syrup and apple juices, but holds together very nicely for slicing. It really does taste like fall to me. The last slice was even better this afternoon with a cup of tea.

This yogurt cake is super easy to make and goes together quickly. If not dolled up with maple-caramel-apple sauce, it would also taste great plain with a fruit compote and I suspect it would make a great base for strawberry shortcake, too. Go ahead, make a yogurt cake yourself and see. If you can find Stonyfield Farm organic Oikos yogurt in your store, by all means use that for the cake's yogurt. Plain generic yogurt just doesn't have the texture or tang that Oikos has, but if that is what you have available, go for it because this cake is worth making.

Need the recipe? E-mail me and I'll send it to you.