When I decided I'd make this the first time, I bought a set of sieves in order to execute the recipe exactly as written. Finished with the cake, I got all lazy and skipped the berry sauce. Then I wondered two things: whether sieving the flour really makes that big a difference and how the cake would be when coupled with the fresh berry sauce as intended. Let's find out.
Toasted Almond Pound Cake with Fresh Berry Sauce
from Cooking Club of America
click to print
CAKE
3/4 c unsalted butter, softened
1 c sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 c sifted cake flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 c sliced almonds, toasted, ground
1/4 c sour cream
SAUCE
4 c fresh raspberries, divided
1/3 c plus 1/4 cup sugar, divided
1 tsp lemon juice
2 c fresh blueberries
Heat oven to 350°F.
In large bowl, beat butter at medium speed 1 minute or until smooth and creamy.
Add 1 cup sugar; beat 5 minutes or until light and fluffy.
After adding the sugar to the bowl, I realized I needed to toast my almonds and got going on them.
The almonds were placed on a baking sheet and baked in the hot oven.
Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Beat in almond extract and vanilla. Scrape down sides of bowl.
In medium bowl, sift together flour, baking soda and salt.
And then I remembered the almonds were still in the oven, 12 minutes later!
The almonds were allowed to cool momentarily before they were transferred to a blender jar and ground.
Stir ground almonds into flour mixture.
Beat sour cream into batter at low speed.
Continuing at low speed, beat flour mixture into batter for 10 seconds.
Finish stirring batter with rubber spatula until completely blended.
Grease bottom of 9x5x3-inch loaf pan with shortening; sprinkle with flour.
Spoon batter into pan. Level with spatula; tap pan firmly on counter to settle batter.
Bake 45 to 55 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean and edges of cake pull away from sides of pan.
This cake baked for 58 minutes.
Cool on wire rack 10 minutes. Run knife around edges of pan; invert cake onto wire rack. Cool completely.
To make sauce, place 2 cups of the raspberries in blender and puree.
Press through fine mesh strainer or pass through food mill using finest insert.
The puree was smooshed across the sieve until only a seed paste remained, which took 6 minutes.
After the seed paste was removed from the sieve interior, a clean spatula was used to scrape the seedless raspberry puree from the bottom side of the sieve.
Add 1/3 cup of the sugar and lemon juice; whisk to combine. Transfer to a small bowl for serving.
In medium bowl, toss together remaining 2 cups raspberries, 1/4 cup sugar and blueberries.
Serve cake with berry sauce.
The cake was just gorgeous with the berries on it, don't you think? And there were probably enough sauce to drench each slice of cake and berries enough for each bite. But that was a little too much sweetness for me. Believe it or not, I preferred the cake without the toppings.
Thoroughly toasting the almonds, to the point where I was concerned they'd taste "too" toasted, turned out marvelously, really making the almond flavor much more pronounced, improving the results when comparing the cake to the last time I made it. And the cake offers enough moisture by itself that it doesn't need the sauce or berries.
Certainly, the vibrant fruit bring some elegance to the dish. Next time I'll cut the quantity of sauce to half and reduce the quantity of sugar used on the berries, maybe to 1/4 c or even less. Maybe with reduced sugar on the berries the original quantity of sauce (and the total quantity of sugar in it) wouldn't seem so much?
It turns out that using a sieve to sift the ingredients did make a difference. The cake was a little lighter and rose a little higher. That said, I wouldn't feel that the recipe is impossible if you don't have the specified equipment. It will make it hard to make the sauce as written if you don't have a way to get the seeds out. Consider baking the cake and then determining if seeds in your sauce is a deal breaker. I bet not.
Cost:
- unsalted butter: $0.59
- sugar: $0.57
- eggs: $0.95
- almond extract: $0.49
- vanilla extract: $0.04
- cake flour: $0.66
- sliced almonds: $2, SWAG
- sour cream: $1.12
- raspberries: $5.33
- lemon: $0.69
- blueberries: $1.93
Total: $14.37 or $1.20 for each of 12 servings.
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