Pine Nut and Lavender Cake - Yogurt Part 2

This cake has a bunch of flavors and textures - ranging from gritty to smooth and citrus to floral, this cake is pretty dynamic it'll have you're taste buds figuring things out with every bite!

Ingredients: Cake

3/4 cup raisins

2 Tbs brandy

3/4 cup fine grind polenta (or cornmeal)

1 and 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1.5 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 Tbs. grated lemon zest

3 large eggs

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4 cup honey

3/4 cup plain yogurt

3/4 cup roasted pine nuts

Ingredients: Glaze

1/4 cup honey

1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 Tbs of dried lavender

Method: Cake

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. Butter and flour a 9-inch springform pan.

3. In a small bowl mix the raisins and the brandy together- let alone for 10 min, until plump.

4. In a medium bowl whisk together the polenta, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and lemon zest.

5. Using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment combine the eggs, honey, olive oil, and yogurt. Beat until blended.

6. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones, the raisins most of the pine nuts (keep around 3 Tbs. aside for decorating the top of the cake).

7. Mix on low speed until the batter is almost smooth.

8. Pour the batter into the springform pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula.

9. Bake until a toothpick placed in the center comes out clean (around 25-30 min).

10. While the cake is baking make the glaze. In a small saucepan combine the honey, lemon juice, and lavender.

11. Bring to a boil and remove from heat - let cool.

12. Transfer the cake to a wire rack.

13. Immediately poke holes all over the top of the hot cake with a toothpick and then using a pastry brush, brush the cake with the glaze.

14. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 min.

15. Remove the cake from the pan and flip upside down.

16. Once again prick holes all over the underside of the cake with a toothpick and glaze it using a pastry brush.

17. Place the cake the right way up and glaze again, this time sprinkle the roasted pine nuts on top as well as some fresh lavender.

Taken from "Essentials of Baking" Williams-Sonoma pp.98-9.

Russian Grandmothers' Apple Pie-Cake

This is a great dish for winter, chock full of apples and raisins it’s a really tasty treat that works well with a black milky tea.

Ingredients: Dough
2 sticks unsalted butter at room temp.
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 Tbs. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
Juice of 1 lemon
3.25-3.5 cups plain flour

Ingredients: Filling
10 medium apples (eg Fuji, golden delicious or Ida Reds)
1 cup moist plump raisins
¼ cup sugar
1.25 tsp. cinnamon

Method: Dough
1. Using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment beat the butter and sugar together on medium speed until smooth (2 min).

2.Add the eggs and beat until light and fluffy (3 min or more).

3. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the baking powder and salt and mix to combine.

4. Add the lemon juice.

5. Slowly add the flour (3.25 cups), making sure to scrape down the bowl regularly. The dough is meant to be soft, but you can add more flour if the consistency is more like a batter. The end product should nearly clean the edges of the bowl as it is being mixed.

6. Scrape out the dough and place it on a work surface. Divide it in half, shape each halve into a rectangle. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Method: Filling
1. Peel and core the apples and cut into slices about ¼ inch thick.

2.Toss the apples together with a little lemon juice, and add the raisins.

3. Combine the sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over the top of the apples. Mix to coat the apples evenly with the cinnamon and sugar.

4. Taste the apples and see if you’d like to add more lemon or sugar.

Method: Assembly
1. Center a rack in the oven and heat to 375F.

2. Grease a 9x12 inch baking dish and place it on a baking sheet.

3. Remove the dough from the fridge. If it is to hard to manipulate let it sit at room temperature for 15min.

4. For the base – use half of the dough and press it into the bottom of the baking dish.

5. Spread the apple filling on top as evenly as possible.

6. Roll out the second piece of dough so that it is slightly larger then the baking pan.

7. Place the dough on top of the apples and tuck in the over hanging edges.

8. Brush the top of the dough with water and sprinkle sugar over the dough. Using a knife cut 6-8 evenly spaced slits in the dough.

9. Bake for 65-80 min until the dough is a golden brown and the juices from the apples is bubbling through the slits.

10. Place the pan on top of a wire rack, and let cool to warm or room temperature.

11. Serve and enjoy!

Taken from the wonderful Dorie Greenspan “Baking from my Home to Yours” pp. 310-11.

Brioche Custard Snails

I love this dough – it’s rich, smooth and wonderfully buttery. This is a lot of work to make, and unless you have arms of steel I would recommend using a stand mixer for this recipe.

These snails are lovely. The rich dough is wound around a dense custard and sprinkled with rum soaked sultanas (raisins).

Ingredients: Basic Brioche Dough (use half the dough for this recipe. Make sure to make the whole batch though – as yeast dough is really hard to make in different quantities).

2 packets of active dry yeast

1/3 cup just-warm-to-the-touch water

1/3 cup just-warm-to-the-touch milk

3.75 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp salt

3 eggs at room temperature

1/4 cup sugar

3 sticks of unsalted butter at room temperature (but still slightly firm) cut into 2 Tbs pieces

Ingredients: Filling (the custard is good for using the whole brioche recipe – it makes a lot)
80g custard powder
500mL full fat milk
250mL whipping cream
100g sugar (and 1.5 tsp sugar separately)
3.5 Tbs. butter cut into small bits1 cup plump raisins
3 Tbs. dark rum
¼ tsp. ground cinnamon

Method: Brioche

1. Put the yeast, water and milk in the bowl of a stand mixer and, using a wooden spoon, stir until the yeast is dissolved.

2. Add the flour and salt, and fit the mixer with a dough hook.

3. Put a tea towel over the mixer (to prevent the flour from covering everything when you mix it).

4. Turn the mixer on and off for a few short pulses, then remove the towel.

5. Increase the mixer speed to medium-low and mix for 1 - 2mins, just until the flour is moistened.

6. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula, set the mixer to low and add the eggs, followed by the sugar.

7. Increase the speed to medium and beat for around 3 min, until the dough makes a ball.

8. Reduce the speed to low and add the butter in 2 Tbs sized chunks, beating until each piece is almost incorporated before adding the next piece. The dough will soft, and more like a batter then a conventional dough at this stage.

9. Increase the speed to medium-high and continue to beat until the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl (around 10 min).

10. Transfer the dough to a clean bowl, and cover with plastic wrap. Leave to rise in a warm place for 30-40min.

11. Pick the dough up from the sides, and let it fall back down into the bowl with a slap.

12. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge. Every 30min for the next 2 hours, slap the dough down in the bowl.

13. Leave the dough in the fridge overnight.

Method: Filling
1.In a saucepan add the custard powder and a little of the milk. Stir to blend in making sure there are no lumps.

2. Add the rest of the milk and add the cream and 100g sugar. Stir well to incorporate.

3. Put the heat of the stove top onto medium-high and with a whisk stir the custard mixture until it becomes thick (the whisk should leave visible gouges in the custard).

4. Take the saucepan off the stovetop and add one piece of butter at a time, making sure to combine the butter well before adding another piece.

5. Leave the custard mixture to cool down to room temp (periodically whisk it to make sure it doesn’t form a skin).

6. In a small saucepan soak the raisins in hot water for 4 min.

7. Drain them, and then place them back in the saucepan. Warm them over low heat until they become quite hot (stir constantly).

8. When they are hot, take them off the stove and pour over the rum.

9. Stand back and ignite the rum. Wait until the flames die out and then cover the raisins with a lid.

10. Mix the sugar and cinnamon together.

Method: Assembly
1. Line a two baking sheets with parchment paper.

2.Using half the chilled dough, roll it out into a rectangle on a floured bench top (12” X 16”).

3. Spread half the custard onto the dough leaving 1 inch spare around the edges.

4. Sprinkle on the cinnamon and sugar.

5. Sprinkle on the raisins.

6. Roll the dough from one of the smallest edges towards the other. Roll as tightly as you can.

7. Here you can wrap the tightly rolled snails in plastic wrap and freeze for later use (to use frozen, defrost overnight in the fridge then take them out and let them rise for around 1.5 hours and bake as directed below).

8. With a sharp knife trim the dough at the ends. Cut the log into 1 inch pieces.

9. Place on the lined baking sheets making sure to leave room around each snail.

10. Lightly cover the snails with wax paper and set the baking sheets in a warm place to rise for 1.5 hours.

11. Heat the oven to 375F.

12. Bake for 25 min (they are done when they are puffed, and a light brown).

Dough and raisins taken from the stunning Dorie Greenspans's book "Baking from my home to yours" pp. 56-7, 48-50.