Ragazzi, the assiduous readers amongst you may be thinking ANOTHER olive oil cake? Well, yes. See, Annalena is fascinated by the use of olive oil in baking. Ultimately, it is something that makes sense. You have all read about "buttery" olive oils, and in homes where butter is not much in use (like much of Southern Italy), the fat you use to make your baked goods, will be the fat you have. Before any of us were glints in our parents' eyes, and before our parents were glints in their parents' eyes, etc, that fat was lard. Butter was not that common and it was expensive. Now, you can get your butter at the store around the corner. Not so elsewhere. So, Annalena uses it to get in touch with her inner "something."
Also, she got a new cookbook. One of her favorite farms, Red Jacket Orchards, which only grows fruit (with the exception of rhubarb, which is a vegetable), has come out with a book called "Fruitful." It is a beautiful book, and a labor of love. Also - and Annalena warns those of you who may get the book - there are errors in it, which can catch up even someone as experienced as Annalena - as she will explain later in this recipe. Nonetheless, the book is so full of, well, "love," that you have to try it. There are not many books that feature only fruit, and only fruit that the source of the book grows, so it is a treasure.
This recipe will actually teach you how to make something that is good to have around: jam. Now, not jars and jars and jars of jam that you seal in boiled water, burning yourself, cursing, and swearing you'll never do it again. No, ragazzi, but if you find yourself awash in fruit (as Annalena is these days), being able to make a jar or two of refrigerator jam, is not a bad thing.
Lets start by doing that. You need a pound of strawberries (and read back to Annalena's most recent blog on strawberries to see about a "pound" of these berries). Hull them, half them, and put them in a heavy duty pot with a cup plus of sugar (this is a judgement call: you will need at least a cup, probably a cup and a quarter and this year, given the rain, perhaps as much as a cup and a half) . Squeeze half a lemon into this. Then turn the heat to low, and keep your eye on the thing, for about twenty minutes. Stir every few minutes. If you see the thing beginning to bubble over, take it off the heat for a minute, then lower the heat, and continue to cook. The berries will darken, the volume will drop, and in that 20 minutes: you have about 1.5-2 cups of jam. Chill it, and cap it in jars in the fridge, and use it up over the next couple of weeks, if it lasts that long.
Now, we move to the cake. And here, ragazzi, Annalena shall be telling you how the recipe lets you down, for this is supposed to be a swirl cake. Look below. That is not a swirl, is it? No, it is not. It will still taste good, but if you want a swirl, Annalena shall tell you how to get it.
You will need 2 large eggs, and an egg yolk. Put them in a bowl with 3/4 cup of sugar, and the grated peel of a lemon. Get the whisk attachment, and get to work, for five minutes.
Now, when you see a recipe that calls upon you to whip egg yolks in the way you would whip whites, you are in the realm of chiffon cakes, and genoises. These cakes will never rise much, and they will stale. So keep that in mind.
While this is working, mix a quarter of a cup of milk with the juice of half of that lemon, and a half cup of extra virgin olive oil. You're making cake, so don't use that really peppery Tuscan oil that burns the back of your throat. Use something that you feel is light and almost, well, buttery. Once that is mixed, in a separate bowl, combine 1.25 cups of all purpose flour, 3/4 teaspoon of baking powder, the same quantity of salt, and put it aside.
Finally, melt 3/4 stick of unsalted butter (Lots of 3/4 in this one, huh?).
Get your pan. The recipe called for a springform, but Annalena thinks that if you're willing to serve it from the pan, any 8 inch pan will do. Grease it. Use the paper from the butter.
By now, your egg and sugar mixture will have billowed into large, light yellow clouds. Gently, pour the olive oil mixture in, and let it get incorporated. Now the melted butter.
Off the mixer, fold in the flour, in 2-3 portions. Don't be guilty of overkill, but do make sure everything is incorporated evenly. Then move it all to your pan.
Ok, here's where we have the bad instructions, carini. The recipe calls for you to bake this cake for twenty minutes, then remove it from the oven. At that point, you spoon half a cup of that jam you made over the thing and swirl it through. When Annalena did this, the cake was already completely firm, and she was breaking the structure. Hence, she suggests you do it at ten minutes (doing it immediately is not a good idea, as you need to let the cake take on SOME structure, or you will get a jam clafouti. Not a bad thing, but not what you want).
If you do wind up in a situation as Annalena did, just glom your jam on top of the cake, and put it back in the oven for 20 minutes. And when it comes out, there you are. Perhaps not as pretty as a swirled cake, but it sure is gonna taste good. And it's something different to serve to yourself and your friends. And you'll have to because, as Annalena says, this will stale up pretty quickly.
Look for more of these fruit based recipes, ragazzi. Annalena is fascinated with this book.
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