Blood Orange Cake

Blood Orange Olive Oil Cake

by Melissa Clark
Published in the NY Times, March 13, 2009

A cake with the words "blood" and "oil" in the title wouldn't usually attract my attention.  But there's something about a blood orange that always intrigues me.  And olive oil cakes tend to have an interesting texture and flavor, so . . .  It's another Wednesday for my sons of hot dogs for dinner and an elaborate dessert that they probably won't like.   But I will!

Time 1 hour 20 minutes plus cooling

Ingredients:

Butter for greasing pan
3 blood oranges
1 cup sugar
Buttermilk or plain yogurt
3 large eggs
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
Honey-blood orange compote, for serving, optional (see note)
Whipped cream, for serving, optional.

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan. Grate zest from 2 oranges and place in a bowl with sugar. Using your fingers, rub ingredients together until orange zest is evenly distributed in sugar.

2. Supreme an orange: Cut off bottom and top so fruit is exposed and orange can stand upright on a cutting board. Cut away peel and pith, following curve of fruit with your knife. Cut orange segments out of their connective membranes and let them fall into a bowl. Repeat with another orange. Break up segments with your fingers to about 1/4-inch pieces.

3. Halve remaining orange and squeeze juice into a measuring cup. You will have about 1/4 cup or so. Add buttermilk or yogurt to juice until you have 2/3 cup liquid altogether. Pour mixture into bowl with sugar and whisk well. Whisk in eggs.

4. In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Gently whisk dry ingredients into wet ones. Switch to a spatula and fold in oil a little at a time. Fold in pieces of orange segments. Scrape batter into pan and smooth top.

5. Bake cake for about 55 minutes, or until it is golden and a knife inserted into center comes out clean. Cool on a rack for 5 minutes, then unmold and cool to room temperature right-side up. Serve with whipped cream and honey-blood orange compote, if desired.

Yield: 8 to 10 servings.

Note: To make a honey-blood orange compote, supreme 3 more blood oranges according to directions in Step 2. Drizzle in 1 to 2 teaspoons honey. Let sit for 5 minutes, then stir gently.

Sugared Puffs

This was from The NYT Sunday Magazine, 3/15/2009

Awesome!!!!!

By David Lebovitz, the author of “Room for Dessert” and “The Great Book of Chocolate.” His latest book, “The Sweet Life in Paris,” will be published in May. His blog is davidlebovitz.com.

For the puffs:
Softened unsalted butter, for greasing the pan
2 tablespoons butter, melted
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 cup flour
For the sugar coating:
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 tablespoons butter, melted.
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Liberally grease a nonstick popover pan, or a muffin pan with 1/2-cup indentations, with softened butter.
2. For the puffs, put the 2 tablespoons melted butter, eggs, milk, salt and sugar in a blender and whiz for a few seconds.
3. Add the flour and whiz for 5 to 8 seconds, just until smooth.
4. Divide the batter among 9 greased molds, filling each 1/2 to 2/3 full.
5. Bake for 35 minutes, until the puffs are deep brown.
6. Remove from the oven, wait a few minutes until cool enough to handle, then remove the puffs from the pans. You may need a small knife to help pry them out.
7. Mix the sugar and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Thoroughly brush each puff all over with melted butter, then dredge in sugar and cinnamon mixture to coat completely. Let cool on a baking rack. Makes 9 puffs.

Hamentaschen

It's Lent and I've given up sweets. Well, at least chocolate. But I'll celebrate any holiday that involves baking and Purim usually falls sometime in March. I still can't quite understand the whole history of the holiday, but know that Haman was bad, he wanted to kill the Jews and he died on the scaffolding he built to kill them with. So, the holiday is a celebration that Haman died and the taschen are the cute sweets.

You don't have to be Jewish to love Purim!



Dough:

2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into chunks
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 egg white
1/2 orange, zest grated

Filling:

Buy it from the store. Prune, poppy and apricot are traditional.

Method:

1. Combine first 4 ingredients in food processor. Process until crumbly.
2. Mix remaining ingredients together in a separate bowl.
3. Pour liquid into food processor, mix until dough holds together.
4. Pat dough into two disks, wrap in plastic wrap, chill for 30 minutes.
5. Preheat oven to 350*. Roll dough onto floured board, no thinner than 1/4". Using a 3" circular cutter, cut dough circles. You can re-roll the scraps several times.
6. Place one teaspoon of filling in the center of each circle. Pinch three corners of dough circle to make a triangular pastry. Make sure you pinch the corners well, otherwise the shape won't hold!
7. Bake for 10 - 15 minutes, until lightly browned. Wait until cool to eat -- the fruit filling gets tongue-burningly hot!