Mevrouw Cupcake

 

As you are probably well aware, the whole point of Tuesdays with Dorie is to bake our way through Dorie Greenspan's baking bible, Baking: From My Home to Yours. Every week a different member of TWD chooses the recipe of the week and we all give it a go, posting about our experiences on the following Tuesday. I love the fact that I'm working my way through an entire cookbook, a task that until now, I've never accomplished. Hell, I have cookbooks on my bookshelf that I've never made even one recipe from, for that matter. The only draw-back, to this otherwise fabulous initiative, is that you're not always going to like every recipe and you're not always going to be in the mood for the work that some recipes may require.

I hate to say it, but when I read the recipe for this cake, I felt pretty lukewarm about it. First of all, I don't like dried figs. Fresh figs are lovely and they taste like watermelon, but dried figs and their tiny crunchy seeds, hmmm...not my thing. I was contemplating substituting some other dried fruit, like apricots or dried cherries; but then my strange and wonderful boyfriend, who is notoriously a picky eater, told me that he loves dried figs. What a weirdo, my guy, but in the end I decided to follow the recipe to the letter and leave the figs in. I could always eat around them, right?

After perusing the comments on the TWD P&A page (what a handy feature) and chatting with Ulrike who somehow manages to get her challenges baked within days of them being announced, I decided to cut out the sugar for this recipe entirely, and use only honey to sweeten the cake. Dorie says "if you’re a real honey lover, use a full-flavored honey such as chestnut, pine, or buckwheat." My mother used honey as the sole sweetener for baking and cooking when I was growing up, so I'm pretty well versed in the variates of honey available, and what they taste like. I chose buckwheat honey, only because I thought that chestnut honey would be too overpowering for those who are used to eating only milder honeys. My plan was to foist the cake upon my unsuspecting colleagues, so I wanted to ensure that the flavor of the honey wouldn't be a deterrent to the cake getting eaten.

The End Result...

In the end I had to take it all back, because I really liked this cake, figs and all. I got up Sunday morning and whipped it up in no time, using cornmeal for lack of polenta and steeping the figs to ensure they reached their full potential for plumpness. Everything was so easy in fact that I carelessly misread the recipe and started out using the paddle and not the whisk attachment, only realizing when the ricotta - honey - lemon zest mixture looked more grainy then light and smooth. Oops! I quickly corrected my mistake, switched out the attachments and was back in business in no time. Although I would call my batter neither smooth nor pourable, it kinda splattered into the tart pan, the cake turned out perfect. I loved the flavor that the buckwheat honey lent to the cake and I think it would have been a rather lackluster cake had I used a milder honey. E found the aroma and flavor of the honey too overpowering and mentioned something about musty farmyard smells, but I chose to ignore this comment, there's no accounting for taste. I took more then three-quarters of the cake to work with me and it was all gone by lunchtime, so I'm obviously not the only one who liked it. I liked this cake enough that I'd make it again and next time I'd like to play around with the recipe a bit. I still think apricots would make a nice substitution.

Plus Points for...

This recipe changed my mind about dried figs in baked goods, gave me an excuse to buy a new porcelain tart pan, and re-introduced me to buckwheat honey. I want to send a special thank you to Caitlin of Engineer Baker for choosing this recipe, although I was lukewarm about it at first, am so glad that I had the opportunity to try it out.

Fluted Polenta and Ricotta Cake

source: Baking: From My Home to Yours 

About 16 moist, plump dried Mission or Kadota figs, stemmed

1 cup medium-grain polenta or yellow cornmeal

½ cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 cup (250g) ricotta

1/3 cup tepid water

¾ cup sugar

¾ cup honey

Grated zest of 1 lemon
2 large eggs

Getting Ready:

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325ºF/163ºC. 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.

Previously by Mevrouw Cupcake for TWD:

Bill's Big Carrot Cake 

The Most Extraordinary French Lemon Cream Tart

Gooey Chocolate Cakes 

More...