Citrus olive oil almond flour yogurt cake

Wow! That title is one heck of a mouthful. Here’s another cake quickie with more citrus coming at ya! I’ve shared a couple of other citrus cake beauties with you in recent months - orange and lemon - and this one sort of rounds those out as summer wanes. Soon I’ll be gearing up for autumn with buttery pâte brisée, croissant and puff laminated doughs, nutty/caramel-y tartes and so much more.

While citrus is typically heralded during winter and early spring, the flavors marry so beautifully with summer fruits - lime with strawberry or cherry; lemon with raspberry or blueberry; orange with blackberry come immediately to mind. You’ll find many recipes for things like fruit crisps, jams, fruit sauces or purées that call for a squeeze of lemon juice to brighten flavors. I’m on board.

One lazy warm summer afternoon as I was reviewing recipes from various sources, this one caught my eye. It’s from Aleksandra Crapanzano’s book “Gâteau” which offers a wonderful array of simple classic French cakes. There’s a section specifically focused on yogurt cakes in which she offers some interesting versions and flavor choices. This is one of them. And besides - I had yogurt and some almond flour to use up! It’s a straight forward prep that doesn’t even require a mixer. Nice!

I first wrote about the French approach to a simple yogurt cake here. And you’ll find an orange olive oil cake here - I made this one during the early weeks of the pandemic when I was abuzz with free time and the need to bake.

As is often my wont when making a loaf cake, I use my mom’s longer, narrower Mirro loaf pan which gives a slimmer, less bulky looking end result. I like that. Butter, line with parchment, then butter and raw sugar coat it for that hint of a sugar crunchy edged result.

Here’s the recipe PDF. My mise is below where you can see I decided on a mix of lemon, orange and lime zests which I rubbed into the sugar to release the oils. I’m sure many of you know that trick. Eggs should be at room temp. I use Chobani whole milk plain yogurt and a fruity Italian extra virgin olive oil (EVOO). I’ve been using Mandelin blanched almond flour for several years now - I used to order the 5 lb bag from the company but you can now find it on Amazon. Costco sells 3 pound bags of their Kirkland brand at a decent price too.

All mised up

In a large mixing bowl whisk the eggs, yogurt, sugar/zests, EVOO, vanilla and almond extracts. Blend in almond flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt then sift in the all purpose flour and blend. Remember - the recipe is here just for you!

Flour is the final addition

I thought I’d try a suggested variation of sprinkling sliced almonds on top before baking, but once I had done that I said to myself “Susan - these babies are going to sink - I should have added them after the cake had started to set”. Guess what - I was right. Down they went! Sometimes our brains tell us something for good reason.

Almonds soon to disappear!

The cake bakes at 350ºF about 40-45 minutes until a tester comes out clean. Even though the almonds sunk, the result was a lovely golden brown with a pleasing aroma of citrus.

Next time I’ll wait about half way through the bake before sprinkling almonds on top. Or, even better, forget the added almonds and check out some serving suggestions below.

No almonds to be seen

Let cool about 10-15 minutes. Rather than lifting it out of the pan, I opted to turn it out so the bottom side ended up top. Looks pretty good to me. I think I see a fleck or two of sunken almonds.

Moist, tender and citrus scented, serve a simple slice with an afternoon cup of tea or coffee. For a light dessert, serve with Chantilly, a sprinkle of fresh berries and toasted or candied sliced almonds. Or amp it up a notch and top with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, warm berry sauce and a crunchy crumble. I think you’ll like it.

I see some almonds!!

Autumn is coming! Yay!

Cocoa spelt cake

As promised in my recent season greetings post, I’m delving more deeply into this cake that comes from Aleksandra Crapanzano’s book “Gâteau”. Made with spelt and almond flours, Dutch process cocoa, Greek yogurt and brewed espresso along with the usual sugar, butter, egg, baking soda, salt, its intriguing blend of flavors got my attention. Plus, this was the chance to use up some ingredients on hand after all the autumn and holiday baking projects.

Let’s pause a moment. You’re probably wondering “How many chocolate cake recipes does one really need?” (particularly when there are literally TONS of them out there). I already have a number of delicious versions in my repertoire, but it’s also about the discovery and trying something a little bit new, isn’t it.

My first attempt, all puckered up and sunken. Ouch!

My first attempt was NOT a resounding success although it tasted pretty darn good. I even served it for a Christmas dessert with an orange mascarpone custard (which I ultimately thought too heavy for the cake), topped with hazelnut crumble and ganache drizzle. Just a little whipped cream next time perhaps?

Hmmmmm . . . . lets call this one rustic

After that first attempt this project ended up as more of a tutorial on pan sizes and capacities than on the actual recipe! Bear with me - numbers and math coming up - I understand if your eyes glaze over! Just scroll on down to the ingredients image for more on actually making/baking the batter.

For frequent cake bakers (or even not so frequent), the general rule as to how much batter goes into different size pans or molds is typically 2/3 to 3/4 full. To determine your pan’s capacity, place it on a zeroed scale, fill it with water and record the gram weight completely FULL. Then add up the weight of your recipe ingredients, divide that by the full pan weight and you’ll figure out pretty quickly if the batter will work in your chosen pan.

Aleksandra’s recipe calls for a 9 x 5 loaf pan which is typically touted as having a capacity of 1900 g or 8 cups. Over the years I’ve used the slightly smaller 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 pan (holds about 1400 g / 6 cups) or my longer, narrower tea loaf pan (about 5.5 cups) for things like basic recipes for quick breads, pound cakes etc with good results. BUT what I hadn’t done this time was to figure it out FIRST!

In this case the total ingredient weight for the batter comes to about 1310 g (5.5 cups); divided by 1575 g capacity of my tea loaf pan = 0.83 (~7/8!). WAY over the fill-to-2/3-to-3/4 rule for that particular pan.

What I did do the first go around was blithely plunge ahead, make the batter, fill the pan and realize it was WAY too full! So much so that I had to scoop some batter out early in the bake to reduce overflow. I should know better.

The First BAtch

Life is full of lessons, eh?

Anyhoo - always determined, I went through two more rounds of baking this batter, one with a larger loaf pan and one with my favorite muffin size silicone molds.

I got my hands on a pan that was billed as 9 x 5 x 2 1/2” deep but was barely 2 1/4”. I did my water fill/weighing test and found the capacity to be 1600 g, very close to my tea loaf pan - far too small for this batter.

Shallow 9 x 5 pan

Next up - a 9 x 5 x 2.75 USA brand loaf pan which weighed in (water filled) at about 1787 g. Hmmm . . . . this might work after all. That comes to about 0.72 filled, just in between that 2/3 to 3/4 fill guideline.

I went for it! While a 5 quart mixer works, I had learned from the first attempt that the amount of batter was a bit much for mine, so I switched to my 6 quart for further batches. Much easier to work with.

Let’s make this! Here’s the printable recipe PDF for you. You’ll note some ingredient variation options.

As always, read the recipe and do your mise en place with particular attention to ingredients that should be at room temperature (butter and eggs in this case).

A.C.’s recipe calls for Greek yogurt although for my first, not so great batch, I used crème frâiche; then Greek yogurt for the second loaf and full fat buttermilk for the tea cakes. It doesn’t seem to matter which you use - all good!

You can also alter the amount of spelt flour by creating a blend of spelt, medium rye and whole wheat pastry flour. Or replace the almond flour with a different nut flour like hazelnut or pistachio - they go so well with chocolate and coffee flavors.

The process is much like many cakes - cream butter and sugar, add eggs and vanilla, alternate dry and wet ingredients and, in this case, warm espresso is blended in at the very end.

Following are images of the steps.

Creamed butter and sugar

Even when eggs are at room temperature, it’s not unusual for the mixture to have a bit of a curdled look once the eggs are added. You should be able to appreciate that below. Don’t worry - it’s not an issue.

Eggs and Vanilla added

Dry and wet all blended in

Warm espresso goes in last - I will say it made me a bit nervous to add 3/4 cup of warm liquid but, with blending, it turned into a smooth and creamy mixture. Ahhhh. . . .

Final batter

Heat oven to 350ºF. I’m using the 9 x 5 USA pan below. Butter the bottom and sides of the pan (helps the parchment stay in place), line with parchment, lightly butter again and dust with cocoa powder (eliminates the chance of a white flour-y residue on the outside of the finished cake). You could also dust with raw sugar for a lovely hint of exterior crunch :-)).

You might think this buttering/lining thing is over kill, but I’ve had a few frustrating experiences with cakes not releasing from pans, so I tend to err on the side of caution. Having the parchment allows you to grab it and lift the cake out easily when the time comes.

I filled the pan, weighing the batter as I went. The final amount was a bit less than my calculated 1310 g based on ingredient weights, but let’s remember that egg weights will vary a bit and not every little scrap of batter ends up in the pan. Not enough to fuss about.

This should work!

Bake time is recommended as 50 minutes, rotating the pan about half way through. At my half point rotation things were looking OK with a still pretty jiggly center, and it looked like some edge overflow was about to happen. In another 10-15 minutes, this is what I found. Oh NO! Foiled again.

I scraped away the ooze and cleaned the edge up a bit. It took a good 20 minutes longer before I was happy that the cake had set and my tester came out clean. I even popped my digital probe into the oven and found my oven temps were pretty much on track.

Lesson learned (again) - recipe bake times are guidelines, every oven is different and always check sooner than later!!

Here it is! Sunken but not quite as much as the first loaf.

All baked up

It lifted neatly out of the pan and, once cooled, sliced easily to reveal a dense crumb and moist center.

In spite of these trials and tribulations, this cake is absolutely delicious! For my third attempt I went for small cakes, my avowed favorites when it comes to cakes of almost any kind.

Here I’m using an 8 well muffin style Silikomart mold SF028. Full capacity is 85 g / 3 ounces; if filling 2/3 to 3/4 full, you can figure 56 to 64 g per well (average it at 60 g - it’s easier). Take ~1300 g batch weight, divide by 60 g and you should have a yield of about 21 cakes.

Place silicone molds on a wire grid set into a half sheet pan. Pipe batter into wells, about 2/3 full. As opposed to scooping and spooning, piping is a much neater and easier way to dispense similar quantities of batter into the wells.

Here are some of the tea cakes, going in and coming out.

Ready for the oven

These bake around 20-25 minutes. You’re looking for tops to be dry with some cracking and a tester coming out clean.

All baked up

Let them cool in the molds about 10-15 minutes then gently turn out onto a wire rack. I decided to put some up and some down for you - different looks. If you’re going to dip them in ganache, I like the flatter bottom side up for a smoother finish, but either way works if you’re covering with a nice swirl of Swiss meringue buttercream or whipped mascarpone.

REady for dressing up!

For some I went with a spread of ganache on top followed by a swirl of caramel mascarpone cream and shared them with the neighbors for the New Year.

For New Year’s Eve Steve and I enjoyed a comparison bowl, each with a small piece of the second sunken loaf and half of a small ungarnished tea cake topped with vanilla ice cream, caramel drizzle and a favorite crumble. Both delicious but the small cakes edged out the slices with a slightly less dense texture and a lighter crumb.

What have I learned from all this?? I still love baking. Recipes/baking times are guidelines, ovens are not the same and everyone’s experience will be a little different. Even when you pay attention, things may not turn out as you think. Perhaps half the batter in a 8 x 4 pan would be perfect - maybe I’ll try it some day.

If I could be a fly on the wall in Ms. Crapanzano’s kitchen, maybe I’d learn a trick or two. Perhaps a 10” x 5” loaf pan is the solution? Or just bake small.

But the BEST thing is that this cake is delicious no matter how you cut it! Going forward I’ll stick with my individual tea cake versions since I can divide the batter into as many molds as it will give me. The cakes freeze well. They’re great with ice cream or whipped cream, a drizzle of caramel and/or ganache and a crunchy topping like crumble or toasted chopped nuts.

You can’t beat that. Happy baking!

Oh - and winter has finally arrived in west Michigan!

Have a cheery, peaceful and happy holiday season!

Holiday shortbread all boxed up

It’s been a busy time these past few weeks and blogging has taken a back seat. BUT . . . . I’ve tried a couple of new cakes from Aleksandra Crapanzano’s book “Gâteau” which I hope to share with you in the upcoming weeks.

One is a classic French apple rum-scented cake which I’ve made several times now. The first time around was for a demo I did back in October at a nearby assisted living facility during which I made two 6” smaller cakes. The time frame required a shorter bake than for a full 9” cake and it worked out just fine. The residents LOVED it!

six inch french apple cakes

I’ve also made both standard “muffin” sizes (seen below at another assisted living gig) and petite teacake versions topped with whipped caramel mascarpone and oat crumble. Yum!

The other day I made a chocolate, spelt, crème frâiche, coffee enhanced loaf that I will definitely try again. The recipe calls for a 9”x5” loaf pan, but I used my mom’s Mirro pan that’s longer and more narrow than a standard loaf. I’ve done that a number of times with other cake recipes that call for a standard loaf but this time the batter was WAY too much for the pan, spilling over the ends like lava. I ended up scooping some of the batter out early on in the bake and then let it finish. Boy did I have my doubts.

Not a pretty picture - sunken right down the middle like a trough. All puckered up! Just goes to show ya that things don’t always end up as you might hope.

But wouldn’t you know it - it’s delicious! Deep cocoa flavor, moist crumb with just the right level of coffee flavor.

I’ll let you know how the Christmas dessert I hope to serve comes out. Slices and/or chunks of this cake with a vanilla/orange scented ricotta custard, some chocolate ganache and something crunchy to set it off. Maybe a nutty crumble or chopped candied hazelnuts or walnuts. Mmmmmm . . . sounds good!

Cheers and good wishes to all! Catch you later.

My vermont memories window display (No white christmas here!)