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Rosemary Orange Polenta Cake: Day 2 Irene’s Beans

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So glad everyone liked the donuts! Thank you for all your comments and tweets! The second installment is a delicious coffee cake, that takes no special ingredients and only minutes to get into the oven. Then once in the oven it fills the kitchen with a beautiful aroma of orange and rosemary.
For a little added texture I used a coarse cornmeal. This renders a hearty crunch to the crumb of the cake, and the sugar/rosemary topping adds a sweet crunch to the top. It might seem a bit rustic for some, but I like to sink my teeth into a good coffee cake, and the balanced flavors gives it some grace.
I used fresh rosemary from my window box, but dried would work fine here too. Rather than add rosemary into the batter, I left it for the topping, which infused the cake with the aromatic without overpowering it- allowing the zesty orange to shine through.
The coffee pairing for this (sounds like a wine pairing, doesn’t it?) is Irene’s Barundi Yandaro. It’s a medium bodied roast that Irene describes as having chocolate notes with spice, I sensed it as an earthier robust with spice and some sweet high notes. These beans come from East Africa where the coffee industry is emerging and taking itself very seriously. You can count on quality beans and a rich robust flavor.
The rosemary is a nice compliment to this coffee and the orange zest in the cake gives the sprightly lift it needs to highlight the top notes.
And for the record- if all this nuancing of flavors has you holding your head- forget about it! Enjoy the coffee, enjoy the cake- and have another slice on me.
Rosemary Orange Polenta Coffee Cake
10-12 slices
 
.5 c neutral olive oil
2 large eggs, room temp
1c sugar
zest of one orange and it’s juice
1.5c all purpose flour
.25 c coarse cornmeal
2t baking powder
1t salt
 
2T rosemary
4T sugar
mini pinch of salt
 
Preheat oven to 350˚ and prepare either an 8″ cake pan or 4″ wide loaf pan. Grease pan with oil and line with parchment paper (I used a paper bag) and grease that too.
 
In a large bowl, combine the flour, zest, cornmeal, bp and salt. Stir thoroughly.
 
In separate bowl whisk together olive oil, eggs, sugar and orange juice.
 
Pour the egg mixture into the dry and gently but thoroughly mix batter.
 
Spoon into the prepared pan and distribute evenly.
 
On cutting board combine the sugar and rosemary. Mince the rosemary with the sugar. This is why the fresh is so lovely, it will impart some of it’s oils and aromas directly into the sugar. Sprinkle this mixture over the top of the cake.
 
Bake in the center of your oven for approx 40 mins until the center of the cake springs back to the touch or a tester comes out dry.
 
Cool for 5 mins then gently, so as not to mess the sugar topping, remove the cake and cool on rack until ready to serve.
 
When I stored my leftover cake I simply wrapped foil around the sides, leaving the top exposed. The cake may stale a little overnight, which is fine for a coffee cake, but more importantly, it preserves the crunch of the topping, which is definitely the best part.
 
 

5 Days of Coffee and Sweets with Irene’s Beans: Crumb Cake Donuts

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Coffee was never a drink that was associated with my friends Irene and Andy. Wine yes, beer definitely! But now they are in the coffee bean roasting business, Irene’s Beans– and even though Irene is late to the coffee drinking party- her beans are quite delicious and her passion as intense.
After a full adult life without coffee, a chance cup post dinner in Mexico opened the heavens for Irene, and got her onto this new path. Her beans come from many different places, including Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Barundi and from where I am writing now, Antigua, Guatemala.
Irene sent me 5 different beans, all with very different flavor profiles. They are all so yummy that I felt it best to showcase them all. So for the next 5 posts I will feature a different sweet to go with each of Irene’s Beans.
The first of the five coffees is the Mexican Altura which started the craze. It has a fruity, caramel aroma with a hint of chocolate. I paired it with a baked cake donut, that has a hint of brightness from the buttermilk in the recipe and a simple, crunchy, crumb sugar topping that offsets the bitterness in the coffee.
Though I truly adore donuts- and fresh out of the grease is truly the ONLY way to go- but they can be such calorie bombs, which is only insulting because who can eat only one? This baked version is surprising and light for the heftier cake version, as opposed to a yeasted version. The cake part itself is also not terribly sweet, so the sugar topping adds a nice texture and zap of sugar.
To make these I purchased a donut pan Though I am not a fan of kitchen gadgets with a singular purpose, this pan is so worth it. The donuts turned out perfectly and slipped out of the pan with ease. I’m also going to confess, that the fact that the pan only made 6 donuts was a blessing- small batches are the way to go, and even sticking to eating two is difficult.
Baked Crumb Cake Donuts
(adapted from Wilton Recipe)
makes 6
 
1c all purpose flour
6T granulated sugar
1t baking powder
.5t salt
6T buttermilk, room temperature
1 large egg, room temperature
1T neutral olive oil
1t vanilla
 
6T granulated sugar
3T all purpose flour
2 T neutral olive oil
pinch of salt
 
.5c Confectioner’s sugar for dusting
 
Preheat oven to 425˚
 
In large mixing bowl combine flour, sugar, bp, and salt. Stir to combine.
 
In separate bowl, combine buttermilk, egg, olive oil and vanilla.
 
Similarly to making pancakes, pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir swiftly and only until incorporated. The acid in the buttermilk will react with the bp immediately and you don’t want to beat that down.
 
Carefully spoon the batter into each of the rings and using the back of a spoon, spread evenly.
 
In a separate bowl combine the flour, sugar, salt and oil for the topping. Mix together with your fingers and pinch into lumps. Feel free to adjust ratio here to get that effect.
 
Distribute the crumb topping over the donuts evenly. These are not the traditional heavy crumbs, they are more of a crusting and not a heavy layer like in a coffee cake.
 
Place the pan in the middle of the oven and bake for approximately 12 minutes. The donuts should spring back to the touch when pressed.
 
Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 2 minutes. Then remove the donuts onto a cooling rack. Wait another 2 minutes and then dust with powdered sugar.
 
 
 

Seeded Rosemary Fig Crackers

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I’ve become a little cracker crazy. Crackers and cheese have always been a weakness of mine, so it’s no real surprise. I’m just having a grand time making different versions of different types. It’s just insane how quick and easy they are to make (ok the matzoh were a little bit of work), but look how beautiful these are!
My “herb garden” that I have growing in a window box on my sill is flourishing quite remarkably well. So much, in fact, that I have to trim it back (read: whack it back) every few days. Such things as Mint and Lemon Verbena are slipping into ice tea glasses on a whim- delightful!
In amongst my thyme and lemon balm, and the aforementioned mint and lemon verbena, there is a rough tuft of rosemary- also in need of some pruning. So that became the impetus here.
But the real impetus is the preparations for the weekend. I’m heading out of the city tomorrow to go visit my dear friend Kate Kennedy at her B&B Gosling Pond up in Kenoza Lake, NY. It’s an easy drive out of town to her property of 6 acres, a lake and her brood of animals. Kate just adopted 4 young quail to replace her beloved Pat, who passed recently, and I can’t wait to meet them. They are quite the mascots and Kate has a beautiful passion for them.
Kate is an amazing designer and artist and a friend of mine for more years than either of us would probably like to admit. She was definitely a big supporter of my early days in the East Village when I was getting my cake business up and running. It’s exciting to see her branch out of the city (well she’s been there for awhile now) and get into this new venture.
I also love what Kate is doing with the B&B by supporting local agriculture and local food artisans. Eggs from one friend down the road along with breads and baked goods from another, are a part of her breakfast fare. She has people come from far and wide to visit with her, along with a few celebs that need discreet getaways.
I promise to take photos over the weekend and share.
So all this was a roundabout way to say that I am putting together a little hostess bag for Kate and my seedy crackers will fit right in. I taste tested them, as shown above, with some Mangego and a drizzle of truffled honey, and creamed goat cheese with sliced strawberries.  The crackers have a great texture from the seeds, and the fig give it a little chewiness and sweetness. Really good.
Seeded Rosemary Fig Crackers
made 100 slices for me
 
2.25c AP flour
2t baking soda
.5 t salt
.5c honey or agave
2c buttermilk
1.5c chopped dried figs
.5c pistachio nuts
.5c pumpkin seeds
.25c flax seeds
2T fresh chopped Rosemary
 
Preheat oven to 350˚ and grease 2 3×8″ loaf pans
 
In medium bowl combine buttermilk and honey. Warm slightly in microwave for 1 minute to melt honey into buttermilk
 
In large bowl combine flour, soda, salt and the nuts- leave the figs aside for a moment.
 
Stir in the buttermilk and give a quick few strokes- then toss in the figs. The acid in the buttermilk and the backing soda will react. It’s important not to over mix here, just mix until incorporated.
 
Carefully spoon into baking pans and bake approx 30 mins until golden and tight to the touch.
 
Allow to cool completely and reduce oven temp to 275˚
 
With a fine serrated knife slice the loaves into thiiiiiin slices and place on cookie sheet. No need to grease the sheet.
 
Toast in the oven for approx 15 mins then flip over for another 5. Keep an eye on this since the thickness of the slices will determine the actual time.
 
Store in an airtight container until ready to serve.