Olive Oil Pound Cake with Almond Meal

 

While my wife and I share similar tastes for most savory dishes, desserts are another matter.  I have a weakness for butterfat.  The higher percentage of butterfat in a dish, the more likely I am to love it.  My wife, however, has an aversion to butterfat.  Shortbread cookies--no.  Croissants, proper ones--no.  Traditional pound cake--no. My mother makes a very good traditional pound cake rich with eggs and butter.  I love it, but Tjing doesn't care for the buttery richness. Desserts are a cultural divide that finds us on two distant shores.  This olive oil pound cake helped us bridge that distance.

Catherine, a local blogger who is very active in the Sacramento food scene and is the author of Munchie Musings, helped organize a dinner for Sacramento bloggers at the Greek Village Inn last month that was also a promotional event for Star Fine Foods who wanted to showcase their release of a 100% California olive oil.  Besides a nice chance to meet and interact with some other local bloggers while enjoying a delicious Greek meal (Tjing also can't stand the smell of lamb, so any time I have it is a rare treat), I came away with a bottle of olive oil (the regular extra virgin--not the California terroir).  As fond as I am of butter, I did think this made a delicious pound cake, one that you could almost feel righteous in eating, good fat vs bad fat and all that.  Most importantly, it tastes good.

Olive Oil Pound Cake with Almond Meal

1 1/4 cups (160 gr) all purpose flour

1/2 cup (50 gr) almond meal

2 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

1 cup sugar

4 eggs, room temperature

3/4 cup olive oil

finely grated zest of one lemon

1 tsp almond essence

Preheat the oven to 350º F.  Grease a 9" x 5" loaf pan.  You may line the bottom with parchment paper if you wish.  (I found it slightly easier to remove the cake when the pan had the parchment paper, but not that difficult to remove it without the parchment paper.  I use a pyrex glass pan, and I think I liked the crust a little more on the loaf without the parchment paper.)

Sift or stir together the flour, almond meal, baking powder, and salt.

In a large bowl set over a pan with about an inch of hot water, beat the eggs and sugar together until the volume nearly triples.  The mixture should be the consistency of whipped cream just before it gets to the soft peak stage.

Carefully fold the dry ingredients into the egg mixture by sprinkling the flour mix over the top little by little and stirring it in.  Add the olive oil, lemon zest, and almond essence, making sure to stir well to keep the oil from pooling in the bottom of the bowl.  Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 40 to 50 minutes until the cake is a golden brown and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Let cool in the pan for five to ten minutes, then remove and cool on a rack. 

Mexican Spiced Lava Cakes

 Who doesn't like a lava cake?  Properly made, they are light clouds of rich chocolate with an oozing core of molten ganache.  While easy to whip up, they do require a reliable oven and careful attention to timing.  However, even if you miss the mark a little as I did with these, they still taste wonderful.  Chocolate with chocolate, butter, cream, sugar, flour and eggs, what's not to like?

These were another book club dessert.  They preceded a spirited discussion on home-schooling that nearly resulted in the dissolution of the book club.  As spirited discussions are no strangers to my family's get-togethers, I was surprised to hear several of the participants were too upset to want to continue to meet every six weeks or so.  I like to think I could even be civil with Dick Cheney were we to get together once every six weeks,  although I would ask him to check the shotgun at the door.  Matter of fact, it would be my pleasure to serve this dessert to Cheney, but he'd have to get his own transportation to the hospital if it triggered yet another cardiac arrest ; )

The book we had read for that night was The Lacuna, by Barbara Kingsolver.  Since much of the book is set in Mexico, I prepared a Mexican meal for the night.  To give a Mexican twist to the lava cakes, I adapted a Ghiradelli recipe by adding some cinnamon and ancho chile powder to the molten centers.  Both complement the chocolate nicely and are not in such quantities that they overpower the chocolate, remaining more a back note than a jarring blast.

Mexican Spiced Lava Cakes

(makes 2, can easily be doubled or tripled)

for the molten centers
1 ounce dark chocolate (I used Trader Joe's Pound Plus 72% Belgian Dark Chocolate Bar)
2 TBS whipping cream
1 tsp ancho chili powder (available in Mexican markets and many supermarkets)
1/2 tsp cinnamon

for cakes
2 ounces dark chocolate
1/2 stick butter (4 TBS)
scant 3 TBS sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
2 TBS cake flour

To make the centers, melt the chocolate and whipping cream in a double boiler or in the microwave.  Stir in the ancho powder and cinnamon until completely mixed.  Chill this mixture in the refrigerator.  When chilled, form into two balls.

Preheat the oven to 400º F.  Butter 2 six-ounce ramekins.

Melt dark chocolate and butter together in double boiler or microwave.  Whisk to thoroughly incorporate the butter into the chocolate.

In a small mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to whisk egg, egg yolk, sugar and vanilla until light, about 5 minutes. Gently fold in the chocolate mixture and flour until just incorporated.  Pour the cake mixture into the prepared ramekins.  Press a chocolate ball into the center of each ramekin.

Bake about 10 minutes, until cakes are firm.  (My oven is terribly erratic, making it a guessing game each time as to when the cakes will be done, anywhere from 7 to 12 minutes. )  Let cakes sit on a rack for 3 to 5 minutes.  Run a knife between the edge of the cakes and the ramekins.  Invert a plate on each ramekin, flip plate and ramekin over, remove ramekin and serve.  Garnish with powdered sugar, raspberry coulis and fresh raspberries.

Put the Lime in the Coconut

Although I'm not really all that into desserts, I've been pretty much designated the dessert person in my book club. I could bring a chocolate tart every time and there would be no complaints. (Well, maybe from my wife.) But I try to mix it up some and bring different types of desserts.

Tonight's effort is a variation on a lemon pudding cake I like. I normally cook it in one larger vessel, but for tonight I thought I'd try individual ramekins. While I don't generally test recipes out on guests, this is for the book club, and they'll pretty much eat anything I put before them ;-). I sampled one and found it a little drier than my usual recipe. Whether this is because of baking it in individual ramekins or the use of coconut milk, I don't know. I do prefer a moister, more pudding-like cake.

Coconut Lemon-Lime Pudding Cake

1 stalk lemongrass, lower half only, outer leaves removed
4 kaffir lime leaves
1 can of coconut milk, Chaokoh brand is what I prefer
3 TBS butter, softened
3 eggs, separated
1/2 cup flour
1 cup sugar
7 TBS lemon juice
zest of one lemon, finely grated
pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350º.

Steep the lemon grass and two of the kaffir lime leaves in the coconut milk in a pan over low heat for half an hour. Strain and cool the coconut milk.

Mix flour and sugar together.

Microwave the other kaffir limes for about 40 seconds to 1 minute, until crisp. Crush in mortar or spice grinder to make a fine powder. Stir into the flour mixture.

Whisk the yolks and butter together until smooth. Add in the cooled coconut milk, lemon juice, and zest. Stir the flour mixture into the coconut milk mixture.

Whip the egg whites with the salt until soft peaks form. Fold them into cake batter.

Pour the batter into individual ramekins or a 1 quart baking dish. Place into a roasting pan that can accommodate them and create a bain marie by adding boiling water until it reaches half way up the sides of the ramekins.

Bake for 25--30 minutes. With tongs, remove the ramekins from the bain marie and allow to cool on racks. May be served warm, room temperature, or cold.

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