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.

Persimmon Date Walnut Bread

It's fall! Today it really feels like it; the temperature in Istanbul dropped about 10 (Celsius) degrees overnight. So now it's cold and grey but cold fall weather means fall baking! Fall also means persimmons which I love.

Homemade orange blossom water from Lebanon!

We only get one kind of persimmon here, the hachiya persimmon. For me the trickiest part about working with these persimmons is making sure to not smash them while getting them home! Hachiya persimmons aren't at their full ripeness until they're so soft they feel like they've rotted.

Thank goodness this recipe calls for persimmon puree because there's no way a fruit this soft and delicate is getting sliced nicely! Other than chopping the dates this was a super fast and easy recipe. I ended up using mini loaf pans to bake it and shared it around with my friends-I think this is the most popular thing I've ever made! Everyone went nuts for it. It is really good; it tastes like autumn.

 

Pitting and chopping the dates takes forever, they're so blasted sticky. Between that and the molasses I'm not sure I'll ever de-stick my counter. Brown sugar as we know it in America doesn't exist here so I have to make my own; which I can do thanks to the gift of molasses from a friend in Germany (as regular molasses also doesn't exist here) and the food processor E&M lent me that I kind of never returned. Oops.

The other great thing about fall baking? It warms up the apartment! My building has central heat which is annoying on several levels but it only works in two rooms and the window in my kitchen doesn't quite close so it's always cold in there.

Between the bread's resounding popularity, how blasted easy it is to make, and the warm and cozy feeling I get with the baking aromas wafting out of the oven...yeah I'll be making this again!

Persimmon Date Walnut Bread (adapted from The Little Epicurean)
Makes one 9 inch loaf pan or five mini loaves

Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp fleur de sal*
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 heaping tsp cinnamon
several dashes of ground clove
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup caster sugar
1 cup melted butter
1 tsp vanilla (I used Tahitian)
4 eggs, room temp and slightly beaten
1/4 cup orange blossom water*
2 cups persimmon puree (about 4 hachiya persimmons)
2 cups toasted, chopped walnuts
2 cups chopped dates

*optional

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2. Whisk together all the dry ingredients (flour, salts, baking powder, cinnamon, clove, and sugars).
3. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the melted butter, beaten eggs, and persimmon puree. Whisk until combined. Fold in the walnuts and dates.
4. Pour into greased loaf pan(s) and bake for about 45-50 minutes.

Turkish Breakfast Review - Münhasır

Recently I met a couple friends at Münhasır for its breakfast. Münhasır, located just down the street from Istanbul's iconic Galata Tower is a charcuterie with an impressive selection of meats and cheeses, many of which are included in the big breakfast platter. None of us were in the mood for the big breakfast though so I need to go back for that another time.

First, I loved the feel of Münhasır. It's charming, feels welcoming and relaxed, and staff were nice (and English-speaking). Münhasır isn't big but it's a bright, comfortable space with nice little decorative touches, like distressed paper menus and orderly displays of its products.

Not that I could ever get tired of the traditional Turkish breakfast but I have been feeling the need to branch out so I selected Münhasır's yogurt and granola bowl: a generous portion of yogurt topped with crunchy home made granola, chunks of pear, pomegranate seeds, and slices of green apple. It was fantastic. While the flavor combination was really well-balanced and scrummy I definitely needed the combination. The yogurt Münhasır uses is goat-milk yogurt and while my palate loves a wide range of goat-milk cheeses I still shy away from other goat-milk products. And this was a strong flavored yogurt, like licking the actual goat strong.

I can't say I would ever choose to eat the yogurt on its own but I would probably eat anything if it were topped with Münhasır's granola. Thumbs up!


Münhasır
Şahkulu, Serdar-I Ekrem Cd. No. 23
Galata, Beyoğlu

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.

5 Slightly Off the Beaten Path Things to Do in Istanbul

When most people think Istanbul the images that come to mind are the Aya Sofia, the Blue Mosque, the Bosphorus...of course these are fantastic sights and I'm always happy to go back to the museums (especially since thanks to my Museum Card I don't have to pay for most of them!) but there are so many other things to do and see here that get overlooked.

1. Markets

Shop like a local and visit some of the weekly markets around the city. Some of the markets are largely food but some of them carry everything and anything you could possibly think of...and some things you can't.

Fatih Çarşamba (Wednesday) market is one of the latter, you can find just about anything at this market. It spreads out behind the Fatih mosque so if you're unfamiliar with the area it's probably easiest to take a cab.

Beşiktaş Saturday market  - located between Taksim and Örtaköy, you can either walk to this one down Dolmabahçe Cd then up Şair Nedim Cd, or take bus 43 from Taksim and get off at Ihlamur, or take a cab.

Inebolu - This Sunday market starts early (around 6) and closes early (4). It's worth the early wake up to get to this one though. Vendors from Turkey's Inebolu Black Sea area set out late Saturday night to set up their wares in Istanbul's sketchy Kasımpaşa neighborhood on Toprak Tabya Sokak, Kucuk Piyale. 

Besiktas Saturday market

Yeşilköy's market is also on Wednesday. In a classier area of town this 2,000 stall market offers a variety of products and vendors who take credit cards. Take the 72T from Taksim or the 81 from

Eminönü and get of at the Park stop. Alternatively you can take the inner city train from Sirkeci and get off at Yeşilköy where apparently there is a free transfer service.

If you're looking for a market on the Asian side then head to Kadıköy on Tuesday or Friday. The Kadıköy market is huge with over 4,000 stalls, many of them run by women. To get there from the European side take a ferry from Karaköy or Eminönü then take cab or bus 8A to Mandira Caddesi or S.Er Bulent Altinsoy station. 

2. Wander!

 Get lost, it's ok. If you're worried about getting lost make sure to get a business card from your hotel and carry it with you to show cab drivers. For me though, wandering is the best way to learn a city.

Istanbul has some amazing architecture, much of which is sadly deteriorating.Wandering is also a great time to take advantage of Turkey's tea culture. Stop in a tea house for a rest, a game of backgammon, and chat with some locals.


3. Dolphin watch

Sadly I don't have any pictures of dolphins. It seems I never have my camera on me. Dolphins are not an uncommon sight while traversing the Bosphorus. Even if you don't see them though, it's always fun to ride the vapur and enjoy a çay and a simit.

4. Kariye Müzesi

The Kariye Müzesi, or (St. Saviour in) Chora Church is my favorite of the Istanbul museums. It's probably the best example of Byzantine art and architecture left in Turkey and while it may be a mere fraction of the size of the Aya Sofia, its mosaics and frescos are far better preserved. You also won't have to Photoshop out of your pictures as many other tourists. Given its not central location, the Kariye Müzesi is not as well visited as are other museums.

It's a bit of a trip but totally worth it. To get there, take the tram to Topkapı stop then switch to the light rail and get off at Edirnekapı. From there, walk to the nearby, large intersection where you will take your life in your hands and cross Turkish-style (ie sans signal and crosswalk) and you'll start seeing signs for the museum.

5. Eyüp Cemetery

Nearby the Kariye Müzesi is Eyüp. While it sits outside Istanbul's ancient city wall, Eyüp is of huge importance to the city. It is home to the Eyüp Sultan mosque, the burial place of Eyüp Ensari, standard bearer of the Prophet Mohammed. In addition to visiting the mosque, Eyüp's market area and main square are a much quieter cousin of those in Sultanahmet and are a nice break from that area's tourist experience. 

In addition, the Eyüp cemetery is famous for its highly decorated grave markers and shaded pathways. Even if you can't read the old Turkish script (similar to Persian) you can tell a little about the person buried there by the decorations. A woman's marker will often be decorated with flowers, one for each child. Fez's adorn the grave markers of a paşa, the size of a turban reflects a man's status, and third type of hat (for which I don't have a name) indicates the grave of a member of a Sufi order. However all three of those headgear having been banned at one time or another you don't see them on the more modern graves.

There are a lot of ways to get here. If you're already at the Kariye Müzesi you could actually walk, take a ferry, or hop in a cab. But if you're starting from a little farther away take the ferry from Karaköy or Eminönü.

Whether you walk up through the cemetery or take the cable car, the views at the top are spectacular and it's worth the climb to sit and have a tea while taking it all in.