A Cake You Can Really Sink Your Teeth Into

Welcome to my weekly edition of Tuesdays With Dorie where I get to tempt you, my readers, once more with a delicious recipe and photos from my most bestest baking book of all time . . . Baking, From my home to yours by my most bestest baking book author of all time . . . Dorie Greenspan! Yes, this is the one day a week I join in with some couple hundred plus (my . . . how we have grown!!) "Like Minded" bakers from across the world and bake yet another tempting delight from within it's pages.

I was so excited when I read that this weeks recipe challenge was going to be the Fluted Polenta and Ricotta Cake as chosen by Caitlin of Engineer Baker !!! I have always wanted to make a polenta cake, but have always been a bit afraid of it. Perhaps because I was thinking that it may be too much like cornbread and I'd have to break out the baked beans and ham . . . instead of the ice cream . . . I could not have been any more wrong in my thinking than that! This beautiful cake in no way resembled cornbread and I have to say it turned out to be the moistest, most lucious cake anyone could ever want to eat . . . . and . . . . oh so very yummy!



I decided to bake it on Saturday last and I went out to get my groceries in the morning. We decided we were going to shop at Lidl's from now on as the cost of food is escalating beyond what we can afford at our local haunt and Lidl's is fairly cheap in comparison. I figured they would have pretty much everything I needed that I didn't already have in the larder. WRONG!!! They did not have ricotta cheese. What to do . . . what to do . . . I knew Todd would rebel if I asked him to take me someplace else, grocery shopping not being his chosen way to spend a Saturday morning in the first place. I put my thinking cap on and ta da!!! I decided that I could use plain cottage cheese instead . . . I'd just put it through a sieve first. Problemo solved!

The instructions as normal were excellent and very easy to follow. I had a lovely jar of New Zealand Thyme Honey in my larder that I had been saving for a special occasion. I thought this would fit in perfectly with the Mediterranean flavour of the cake . . . especially where Dorie had mentioned tossing the figs with thyme leaves. I wasn't sure I wanted leaves in my cake but I thought the honey would give it the mysterious hint of thyme that would leave people guessing, but not being able to quite put their fingers on it . . .



I was a bit worried when I had read the other baker's experiences in the question and answer thread on the Dorie page and some of the problems they had been having, but I am the type of person that likes to do things by the book the first time I do them before I mess around too much with any recipe, especially a baking one. Okay . . . some might say that using cottage cheese instead of ricotta is messing about . . . and maybe it is, but they are like the same thing . . . sorta . . . kinda . . . almost . . .

The batter was really kind of runny after I had beaten in the honey. Her recipe had not stated whether we should use set or runny honey and I had used runny. I wondered after that if I had made a poor choice, but I crossed my fingers and kept going. It was not a really thick batter at the end of it all . . . but it was sleek and smooth and definitely pourable! I had no need to smooth the top with my spatula as the batter was thin enough that it just kind of smoothed itself out. It filled my fluted tart tin almost all the way to the top and I was a bit worried as I slid it into the oven that it was going to overflow all over the place and I checked on it frequently to see if it was.



All my fears were for naught! At the end I was presented with a lovely golden brown cake that neither overflowed my pan and looked perfect in every way! It was all I could do to wait until it cooled, patience not being one of my virtues, and one that I am constantly working on achieving. Once cooled I dusted it with some icing sugar and cut into it with a sharp knife . . . sliding that first piece out onto a plate for my Todd. (He's not only my husband, he's my taste tester) It looked to have a lovely texture and perfect in every way. I had really wanted to garnish it with some strawberries but wondered how they would go with the figs . . . but what the heck I went for it anyways, popped a lovely sliced strawberry on top, and he gobbled it down poste haste and went in for more! (He's rather lucky that way. He's as thin as a rail and can eat for England and never gain an ounce! I know! How frustrating is that!!!)



This is a lovely cake that I would definitely make again and maybe even without the figs at some point, but the figs did add a lovely crunch and texture to what was a beautifully rich and moist creation. I loved the flavour of the honey and I agree with Dorie, three days later and this cake is just getting better and better!

*Fluted Polenta and Ricotta Cake*
Makes 8 servings

About 16 moist, plump dried Mission or Kadota figs, stemmed
1 c. medium-grain polenta or yellow cornmeal
½ c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 c. ricotta
1/3 c. tepid water
¾ c. sugar
¾ c. honey (if you’re a real honey lover, use a full-flavored honey such as chestnut, pine, or buckwheat)
Grated zest of 1 lemon
1 stick (8 TBS) unsalted butter, melted and cooled, plus 1 TBS cut into bits and chilled
2 large eggs

Getting Ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 160*C/325*F. Butter a 10 ½-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom and put it on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat.

Check that the figs are, indeed, moist and plump. If they are the least bit hard, toss them into a small pan of boiling water and steep for a minute, then drain and pat dry. If the figs are large (bigger than a bite), snip them in half.

Whisk the polenta, flour, baking powder, and salt together.

Working with a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the ricotta and water together on low speed until very smooth. With the mixer at medium speed, add the sugar, honey, and lemon zest and beat until light. Beat in the melted butter, then add the eggs one at a time, beating until the mixture is smooth. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients, mixing only until they are fully incorporated. You’ll have a sleek, smooth, pourable batter.

Pour about one third of the batter into the pan and scatter over the figs. Pour in the rest of the batter, smooth the top with a rubber spatula, if necessary, and dot the batter evenly with the chilled bits of butter.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a thin knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. The cake should be honey brown and pulling away just a little from the sides of the pan, and the butter will have left light-colored circles in the top. Transfer the cake to a rack and remove the sides of the pan after about 5 minutes. Cool to warm, or cool completely.

Serving:
Serve the cake while it is still slightly warm or wait until it reaches room temperature, my preference. Honey cakes are good with tea, and this one's no exception. While I like the cake plain, it's very good with a little softly whipped cream that'e lightly sweetened with honey.

Storing:
Wrapped in plastic, the cake will keep for about 5 days at room temperature. In fact, it will be even better after it's had a day's rest. The cake can also be frozen up to 2 months; defrost in it's wrapper.

Playing Around:
For a cake that's even more reminiscent of a Mediterranean sweet, toss the figs with a pinch or three of crushed fresh thyme leaves or minced fresh rosemary.



Tune in next week when Elizabeth of Ugg Smell Food has chosen . . . . Peanut Butter Torte!!! Mmmm . . . . peanut butter, one of my most favouritest of all things!!! It might be very hard to keep my face out of this one . . . (not to mention my fork!)