Lately, on top of being a cookie girl, I find myself becoming a cake girl. Now, for afternoon tea, there is still nothing that beats a chewy cookie in my book. They're easy to grab in the morning, too, if I can't have my breakfast right away. But there is something so dignified about a cake. It feels more stately when I walk into the kitchen and see a cake on a ceramic plate. (This one is resting on a plate that Steve made ages ago.) It's beautiful in a way that a half-empty tupperware of snickerdoodles can never be.
Despite its lofty air, cake doesn't have to be snooty. It can be quite simple both to make and to eat. My daily forays into the food blogosphere have several times now turned up a recipe for French yogurt cake. I tried one over the weekend, and, despite my mother's protestations to the contrary, it was a dud. I kept coming back to it every few hours for a new forkful, each time hoping that the flavors would have magically melded into something edible. No such luck. I have never thrown a dessert into the trash before, but that cake had to take the plunge.
Pitching it wasn't so hard, though, because I had already found another recipe to try. This one comes from Orangette, who encouraged me to take her base recipe and make it my own. So I tweaked it a little bit and was pleased with the results. The cake has a light, delicate crumb. It has splashes of blueberry, hints of lemon and almond, and a slight tang from the yogurt. There is nothing fussy about it. It's not even that sinful.
And it doesn't mind if you're a cake girl, a cookie girl, a French chef, or a humble home cook (that's me). Enjoy!
*
French Yogurt Cake
Adapted only slightly from Orangette
The original recipe is charmingly written using yogurt jars for the measurements (i.e. "two jars of sugar"), since that's how the recipe has traditionally been prepared in France. I have translated jars into cups here, though I do love the image of dipping the same jar into sugar, flour, and oil to progressively build a cake. If you don't have almonds, you can replace them with 1/2 cup of flour. Other fruits would be tasty as well. I can imagine raspberries being quite nice, or even sauteed apples or pineapple. Be sure to check out the original recipe for additional suggestions on ways to flavor this cake. It's not very sweet, so it makes a great coffee cake or afternoon snack. With vanilla ice cream or a simple blueberry (or other berry) sauce, this would make a delicious dessert as well.
1/2 cup plain, full-fat yogurt
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
Zest of one lemon
1/8 tsp almond extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup finely ground almonds
2 tsp. baking powder
Pinch of fine sea salt
Scant 1/2 cup canola oil (olive oil could work as well, for a slightly different flavor)
3/4 to 1 cup blueberries*
Confectioner's sugar, for dusting (optional)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Generously butter a 9-inch cake pan. In a mixing bowl, combine the yogurt, sugar, eggs, zest, and almond extract. Stir until well blended, with no lumps remaining in the yogurt. Add the flour, ground almonds, baking powder, and sea salt to the bowl, and stir just to combine. It's okay if you can still see some streaks of flour. Add the oil and stir until the batter is smooth and the oil fully incorporated, about 20 to 30 seconds. Pour half of the batter into the cake pan. Sprinkle most of the blueberries on top, reserving fifteen or twenty to sprinkle on the top. Pour the rest of the batter into the pan and top with the remaining blueberries. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool on a rack for twenty minutes. Remove from the cake pan to finish cooling on a rack.
* If you use frozen blueberries, there is no need to thaw them. It sometimes helps to toss them in 1 to 2 teaspoons of flour before adding them to the batter; this can prevent sinking to the bottom.
0 comments:
Post a Comment