Persimmon Pudding Cake

After the success of the persimmon bread I made I decided to try out a persimmon dessert recipe: persimmon pudding cake. It's as easy to mix up as the bread was-easier in fact as there are no dates to pit and chop!

Sherlock wanted in on the baking action

I do love persimmons but they are a bit of a pain to work with. Often if I can find persimmons with perfect skin I just chop them into quarters and give them a whir in the food processor. However this last trip to the market didn't result in the nicest of persimmons; they were all fairly heavily damaged so I had to skin them before tossing them in the food processor.

Despite my annoyance with the state of the persimmons; I love the cozy feeling I get from baking in the autumn and winter. Part of it is that the window in my apartment doesn't seal so it's freezing in my kitchen. Strong wind often forces it open, knocking over my electric kettle and making a mess of my (admittedly only sometimes) clean counter. So keeping the oven working, especially when it emanates the rich, warm aromas of cinnamon and clove not only heats up the kitchen but makes the entire apartment feel that much warmer.

Using fleur de sal, cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove

This recipe by Simply Recipes is a nice, quick little bake that results in a really moist, slightly spongy cake that I enjoyed not only as dessert but for breakfast. Aside from anything involving bacon, dessert for breakfast is one of my favorite things. I had to use a few short cuts from the original recipe skipping spices that I don't have but it still turned out pretty well, especially when highlighted with fresh whipped cream. Although what doesn't fresh whipped cream improve?

Persimmon Pudding Cake (adapted from Simply Recipes)

• 2 cups Hachiya persimmon pulp (about 4 persimmons)
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp fleur de sal (or 1/2 tsp regular salt)
• 2 tsps cinnamon
• 3/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp clove
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (or pecans)

1.  Preheat oven to 400F.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the persimmon pulp, eggs, melted butter, milk, and vanilla (I used Tahitian).
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients (expect the nuts).
4. In three additions, incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet then fold in the nuts.
5. Bake in a square pan for about 50 minutes*.

*My cake ended up more cake than pudding so I think I let it bake a little too long. Maybe check it first at 40 minutes then keep an eye on it.

Brutti Ma Buoni - My Trials and Tribulations

In November when I was in Rome L and I had the most magnificent cookies called brutti ma buoni - literally ugly but good. I have tried several times now to recreate them and are consistently turning out far more brutti than buoni. I shall persevere!!

Both attempts had good and bad points. The first recipe I found was, I now believe, miswritten. No way one egg white was enough so I did some guesstimating and randomly threw in a few more egg whites. I also went the whole nine yards with roasting whole hazelnuts then putting them through a food processor with confectioner's sugar.

I'm sure it was an ingredient  proportional issue but these baked flatter than a pancake. Brutti ma buoni should be puffy and round, kind of like a coconut macaroon. Sans the coconut.They were both brutti and buoni but brutti in a completely different way than they should have been. But wow did they taste good.

For my second batch I used a completely different recipe. I also skipped a step and used prepulverized hazelnuts that I found at Carrefour. Even the method with these cookies was much different and involved hand whisking the egg whites and sugar in a double boiler-which I think made a big difference in how the cookie turned out.

I knew as soon as I scooped these onto the cookie sheet that I had a better chance this time of making them look right. The meringue was fluffier and the raw dough stayed put instead of migrating into the surrounding cookies.

This recipe also called for a significantly less amount of hazelnuts so that explains why they may have looked slightly better (well, better = the way they're supposed to) but did not have the big hazelnut flavor that the first batch did. I also think I let them bake like two minutes longer than they needed. My new oven and I are still learning how to get along.

So the first batch wins for taste but the second sort of wins for looks. I think my next attempt will be with the below recipe which is the one I used for the second batch but with some tweaks.  When made correctly these cookies are amazing and totally worth all this trial and error to get right!

Brutti ma buoni

Ingredients:

• 200 grams whole hazelnuts
• 1 cup (200 grams) sugar
• 4 large egg whites
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 3 Tbs (30 grams) flour

Method:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 F/177 C and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Place the hazelnuts on the baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes (or until fragrant) and skins begin to flake. Remove and place on a clean dish towel. Roll up the towel and let them steam for about 10 minutes then rub the (still in the towel) briskly to remove the skins. Let them cool completely then coarsely chop (or run through a food processor).
2. In a heatproof bowl placed over a shallow pan of simmering water combine the sugar and egg whites whisking constantly until opaque in color.
3. Remove from heat and beat with a hand mixer until thick and glossy. Beat in the vanilla then fold in the flour and chopped nuts.
4. Place heaping tablespoonsful on a parchment lined cookie sheet and bake for 12-ish minutes then check and bake more or not.

These are best the day of but will keep for a day or two in an airtight container. 

5 Turkish Desserts That Are Not to Be Missed

I have a serious sweet tooth. Which is probably no surprise given the number of baked good recipes I've posted and the dessert bonanza I threw for my 31st. When I moved to Turkey I knew I was looking at a few pretty good domestic desserts but I did not realize the vast array available. Turkey may not have a large variety of some things but it does desserts like no body's business.

One of my favorite places for dessert is Hafiz Mustafa. There are at least four branches in Istanbul and I visit them all pretty regularly. The menu needs to be seen to be believed. They have just about every Turkish dessert in existence: baklavas, candied fruit, Turkish delight (lokum), puddings, cakes, mastic ice cream...it's pretty insane. My favorites are the puddings, particularly the profiterol, sütlaç

and tavuk gümüsü. I usually eat around the profiterols in the profiterol pudding. I don't like them but the hazelnut pudding they're drowning in is amazing. Tavuk gümüsü is often off putting to newbies because the main ingredient is chicken breast. Don't be scared, eat it. It's glorious. Sütlaç, simply described, is rice pudding (served without raisins thankfully). Usually served cold here it's milkier than rice pudding in the States and goes beautifully with cup of Turkish tea.

Choc-pistachio (back) & profiterol pudding

Another famous dessert here is künefe, a dessert Turkey shares in common with the Middle East. I do a bad job describing this dessert which is like cheese filled shredded wheat, baked, and drowned in simple syrup. It's nummy.

künefe

This next dessert you have to travel for a little bit. I've only ever found it in Selçuk, home of Ephesus. It doesn't even have name beyond whatever the restaurant calls it: Artemis something something. I don't even like pistachios and I love this thing. It's like a cross between the afore mentioned künefe and baklava. I call it künaklava. Tracing paper thin layers of pastry wrapped around ground pistachios in the manner of kol bureği, then circled in a dish, baked with simple syrup, and served hot with kaymaklı ice cream (we'll talk more about kaymak eventually). If Ephesus doesn't 'flip your Twinkie' as a friend of mine is fond of saying, it's still worth the trip for this dessert which I've only ever seen at the Agora Restaurant in Selçuk.

künaklava

Dessert is not just a restaurant thing here. Street food vendors also play their part. Lokma are one of my favorite desserts here and it's probably a good thing that there aren't any vendors in my neighborhood, or even the surrounding neighborhoods that sell them. Sometimes there's someone selling them near the spice market, there are a couple vendors in Ortaköy, and one in Eyüp. Personally though, the best are on Büyükada which is the only reason I ever agree to go out there. Lokma are like donuts but are really so much more. Dough balls are piped out of a pastry bag into hot oil where they're fried until golden and crisp. They're then scooped out and swirled around in some sort of honey syrupy goodness. Sometimes they're topped with pistachio powder (ick) but I prefer a dash of cinnamon (tarçin). You will never know the heaven that is a fresh batch if you're lucky enough to get one. After the initial crunch of the outer layer they basically just melt in your mouth.

Beautiful lokma goodness.

Last, but certainly not least-baklava. Baklava is nearly as ubiquitous as tea here and there are so many kinds! Baklava is really kind of fascinating. Like "Turkish" coffee there are a lot of regional arguments between the Turks, Greeks, and Arab countries over who invented it and each country does baklava differently. Lauren I think prefers Iraqi baklava. We both agree the stuff they make in Dearborn, MI should never be eaten and that the Greeks need to pull back a little on all the honey they dump all over theirs. I prefer Turkish baklava. Unarguably the best comes from Gaziantep, Turkey (frankly all food in Turkey gets better the farther East you go) but in lieu of flying to Antep you can get some pretty decent baklava in Istanbul. My favorite places to go are Ali Usta (several branches in the Sultanahmet area) and Göllüoğl, one of the most famous baklava places in Turkey. 

As I said there are so many kinds of baklava using not only pistachios but hazelnuts and walnuts (my favorite). You can even find chocolate baklava made with chocolate pastry and oozing chocolate sauce. 

Those on the far right are my absolute favorites.

There are so many more desserts than this; this is merely an overview of some of my favorites. Don't take my word for it though! Visit Turkey, try all the desserts, and find your own favorites.

Orange Cake with Mascarpone Frosting, Pomegranate Seeds, and Candied Orange Peel

Last week I was blown away by the revelation that you can whip ganache. I don't know how I didn't know that but it changes everything. This week's revelation is mascarpone frosting.

I love baking under just about any circumstances, but I love being challenged with an ingredient. I visiting friend requested something with pomegranate and after some puzzling we decided on an orange-pomegranate combination. As an added bonus they're both winter fruits so I was able to get fresh, seasonal produce from my favorite local market.

I dream of one day having my own house built. the kitchen will take up a good chunk of the floor plan and will include double ovens built into the wall and simply acres and acres of counter space. In the meantime I made do here with a mini oven borrowed from my neighbor and only enough counter to put the cutting board. Baking usually requires a fair amount of shifting as everything that normally lives on top of the mini oven has to be taken off and put on the range or the small space between the sink and the counter. However for this recipe I needed not only the oven but also the range and the number of steps it involved outnumbered my mixing bowls requiring me to do a complicated dance of rearranging, mixing, washing, cooking, and baking.

A complicated dance that takes place in a space as small as my counter allowance and that usually also involves dodging Sherlock who, if not monitoring my actions from her perch atop the microwave is usually trying to climb up my legs.

Aside from the flavor, which was rather marvelous, one of the best things about this cake is the bright colors! Like many of my past cakes it wasn't the most well decorated creation ever but the intense colors of the pomegranate seeds and candied orange peels made up for it.

Recipe (adapted from BBC Food):

To decorate:

• 1 orange
• seeds from 1 pomegranate
• 50 g/1 3/4 oz sugar

For cake:

• 1 orange
• 275g/9 3/4oz self-rising flour*
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 275g/9 3/4oz sugar
• 275g/9 3/4oz butter, softened
• 4 eggs
• 1 tsp cinnamon

For frosting:

• 50g/1 3/4oz butter, softened
• 175g/6oz powdered sugar
• 250g/9oz full-fat mascarpone cheese

Instructions:

1.  Zest the orange (I use a plain old vegetable peeler and chop the resulting strips small). Place in a small pan and pour boiling water over the zest. Add half the sugar and let boil for just a couple minutes. Strain out the zest, arrange in a single layer as much as possible on non-stick paper, sprinkle remaining sugar over it, and set aside. To seed the pomegranate, I prefer the water method but do whatever works best for you. Set aside the seeds.
2. Combine the flour, baking powder, and cinnamon in a medium bowl.
3. Zest the second orange. Using a food processor, combine zest and sugar to make orange sugar. This isn't necessary but I think it's a nice touch.
4. Separate the fruit from what remains of the orange peel and chop up the fruit in a food processor (or if you don't have one mash it up however you like). Set aside.
5. Blend the orange sugar and butter with food processor, stand mixer, or hand mixer until fluffy and add eggs one at a time. Blend in the dry ingredients. Finally fold in the mashed up orange.
6. Separate the mixture between 2 8in baking pans and bake at 180C/350F for about 30 minutes. After the cakes are done, turn off the oven and put in the orange peels that you candied earlier. With the oven off they won't cook but the heat will help dry them out a lot faster than just leaving them lying about.
7. While the cakes cool put together the frosting. Blend the butter and powdered sugar. BBC Food says until "smooth"...I got no smooth, just powdered sugar that resembled damp sand. If that's what you get don't worry about it, you're fine. At wet sand stage blend in the mascarpone cheese. 
8. To assemble the cake: if your cakes rose/you have mad slicing skills halve the cakes to make four layers. Divide the frosting between however many layers you have, stacking them with frosting and pomegranate seeds between each layer. Top the cake with frosting (and frost the sides as well if you have enough) and decorate with pomegranate seeds and the candied orange peels.

*I don't have self-rising flour so I substituted with regular flour and some additives. For every 8oz of regular flour add 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt. It worked fine but my cakes didn't rise very much so I made a two, not four layer cake.

Che Bellisima-The Food of Rome

Rome isn't all just churches and the remnants of ancient worlds. Like many cities with seeming impossibly long histories (like Istanbul, Cairo, Amman, etc.) the old stands flush alongside the new. So much of what has allowed these places to survive in Rome is the long history of repurposing.

Castel Sant'Angelo

Bridge over the Tiber Castel Sant'Angelo (behind), St. Peter's (R)

Altare della Patria

The Castel Sant'Angelo, completed in 139 AD, was originally a mausoleum for Emperor Hadrian and his family and later emperors. In the 5th century it was converted to a military fortress and sadly much of the original treasures and the ashes were lost to Visigoths (there's something so satisfying abut the 'Visigoth') in the 400s. It wasn't until the 14th century that it because a Papal refuge, residence, and even prison. Now it's a museum.

Not quite so respectful to the city's history is the 1925 AD Altare della Patria, also known as the Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II, and less respectfully, the Wedding Cake. Built to commemorate the unification of Italy but it's first king (Victor Emmanuel) the base houses the Museum of Italian Unification and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier with an eternal flame. As the construction of this rather ostentatious thing destroyed a large part of the Capitoline Hill and leveled a medieval neighborhood it's not the most beloved site by Romans.

One way to explore a city is to just wander and get lost and I have always been a proponent of that method. Another favorite method: food tours. L and I discovered Trastevere that way with Eating Italy. I would be happy to go back to Rome and do nothing but Eating Italy's tours.

Da Enzo

We met our guide on the Isola Tiberina and crossed into Trastevere to the first of our seven stops. At Da Enzo we were greeted by the owners and a glass of prosecco. Here we had burrata, a fresh (and not easy to find) cheese made from mozzarella and cream. The outer shell is solid mozzarella but the inside is a mix of cream and mozzarella. For my DC peeps-sometimes Dino in Cleveland Park has this. We also the most amazing artichoke I've ever eaten. I can't remember the type of artichoke but basically all the do to it is pop it in peanut oil for a couple seconds then sprinkle it with salt.

Spirito di Vino

Spirito di Vino

Spirito di Vino

While I would happily have just stayed at Da Enzo for the entire evening I'm glad I resisted the temptation because the next stop was not to be missed. Spirito di Vino not only serves up amazing wine and food made from traditional, Roman recipes that date back to the emperors, the building itself is older, OLDER than the Colosseum. Here we ate pork cooked in red wine, apples, onion, honey, vinegar, and spices from a recipe created by Julius Caesar's chef. Whaat?! Yes.

Innocenti

From there we wandered Trastevere's charming and picturesque streets to Innocenti where this family has been baking its cookies since 1920. We were offered a section of biscotti but I believe the resounding favorite was the brutti ma buoni (middle above). These cookies, translated as 'ugly but good' are a meringue hazelnut cookie that are stupid good. Since we lack not at all for hazelnuts in Turkey I may try my hand at making these.

Antica Norcineria

After leaving Innocenti we had a longish walk of about 10 minutes for which I think we were all pretty grateful. We were feeling a bit on the rolly polly side and we weren't even halfway through the tour! Eventually we came to Antica Norcineria, a delicatessen offering amazing cheeses including Parmesan and Peccorino Romano and the city's best porchetta. I deeply love the description of porchetta: a savory, fatty, moist, boneless pork roast. the body of the pig is deboned, arranged carefully with layers of stuffing, meat, fat, and skin then rolled, spitted, and roasted for hours over wood. Every evening the family who owns Antica Norcineria prepares its porchetta which is then sent out for the roasting so its ready to be sold the next morning.

I asked if I could marry into the family but was told there were no sons of any age. Maybe they'll adopt me.

I Suppli

When it looked like things couldn't get any better we arrived at our next stop, I Suppli for Italian street food favorites suppli and pizza. Suppli are a balls of rice that's been mixed with tomato sauce, stuff with cheese, and deep fried. What can go wrong there?! We also had squares of Pizza Marinara which was just pizza with sauce, no toppings. I say 'just' but as soon as I tasted the marinara sauce with its perfect balance of biting garlic and sweet oregano all I wanted to do was dive into a vat of it and eat my way out.

Enoteca Ferrara

At this point, even I was getting pretty full but we still had actual dinner to go!At Enoteca Ferrara we were treated to a dinner or hand-made gnocchi, spinach and ricotta ravioli, and tonarelli cacio e pepe which is the fist pasta dish ever made. It was also my favorite of three.

How we managed to put away more pasta and wine is a little beyond me stuffed as we all already were. However there was no question of not being able to indulge in some gelato at the evening's last stop: Fatamorgana. It was here that I had one of the most interesting gelatos ever which I will try to recreate as soon as I can find enough fresh basil. Yes...basil. Fatamorgana carries a lot of the classic flavors you find anywhere else but they have also their own creations like: black cherry and beer, chestnut and myrtle, banana and lime, chocolate wasabi, Gorgonzola, cream of lavender and chamomile...the list goes on. However my favorite was the basil honey walnut. It was a revelation. Unfortunately I have no picture because I gobbled it down too quickly.

So basically...take at least one Eating Italy tour!

Strawberry Basil Cake with Balsamic Frosting

It is strawberry season! The strawberries we get here are gorgeous and I could eat them on their own a kilo at a time; but that does not mean that I don't like a strawberry dessert from time to time. I've played in the past with strawberry cupcakes and balsamic frosting and strawberry basil sorbet and this time decided to combine all the flavors.

Finally got a real measuring cup!

Even though I got an oven sometime ago it is only recently that I've really started baking. Part of the what's held me back is how difficult some key ingredients are to get; like vanilla. Sure I could buy vanilla beans at a spice shop, over pay by about 300% for a bottle of good vodka and make my own...but I just cannot pay that awful mark-up on alcohol. Luckily for me I found Simply Nicki's. She makes peanut butters, vanillas, extracts, and all sorts of good things. When I lived in the US I was a devotee of Mexican vanilla but Nicki turned me onto Ugandan vanilla and it is fantastic. I think I need to get some Tahitian vanilla from her as well.

The last few years I have been very picky about the ingredients I use for my desserts but that was not always the way! When I was younger I was unaware that there even was a difference between baking powder and baking soda. We (i.e. my dad) planted a ton of strawberries every year so strawberry short cake was a pretty common dessert in our home. Heck there were days when that's all dinner was too! I remember once, I must have been in middle school, I wanted to make the biscuits for the shortcake. They came out of the oven and were gorgeous. Fluffy, just the right shade of golden brown...I was so impressed with myself. Then we put the strawberries on them. Everything turned purple and started to fizz. It was a little like eating Pop Rocks. That's when I learned that baking powder and soda are two very, very different things!

I promise you really do need baking powder for this!

Recipe:

• 400 ml flour
• 1 1/2 Teaspoon baking powder 
• 1/8 Teaspoon salt
• 150 ml olive oil
• 175 ml sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 Teaspoon vanilla
• 100 ml milk
• 1 1/2+ Cups sliced strawberries
• 2+ Tablespoons chopped basil*

• 230 grams cream cheese (or labne)
• 115 grams siftened butter
• 3+ Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 100 ml powdered sugar

1. Sift (or not, I'm lazy so I don't) the flour, baking powder, and salt then set aside.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk or beat together the oil and sugar. Then beat in eggs one at a time then the vanilla.
3. Into that add, in 5 parts, the dry ingredients and milk (flour-milk-flour-milk-flour).
4. Fold in berries and basil.
5. Bake in greased 8x8 pan at 190C for about 20-25 minutes.

*Don't be afraid of the basil! I always forget that basil's taste is much milder than the scent and I chickened out and didn't put in enough.