Many years ago when I was at university, I would often find myself up wide-awake on Saturday mornings. Although I would like to say that it was the result of some sort of midnight revelry, more often than not it was due to my incessant insomnia.
My flatmates were usually sound asleep and wouldn’t be up until 10 AM at the earliest. In the fall and the winter season, to pass the time and heat myself up from the morning cold – i started baking.
This blackberry cornmeal cake was a bit of a morning treat for neighbors and friends. I’ve tried many variations over the years, but found the recipe from Huckleberry’s in Santa Monica, California to be quite serviceable. Obviously this is under Zoe Nathan’s copyright and I make no claim to the recipe itself.
Ingredients:
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour, spooned and levelled
- ¾ cup cornmeal
- 2¼ teaspoons baking powder
- ¾ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 cup + 2 tablespoons whole plain yogurt
- ½ cup + 1 tablespoons ricotta
- ¾ cup + 1½ tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed, at room temperature
- ¾ cup + 3 tablespoons sugar, plus 2 tablespoons more
- 1½ teaspoons kosher salt
- 2 eggs
- 4½ tablespoons canola oil
- 3 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 tablespoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup fresh blackberries
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Proceed to line and grease a 10 inch round cake pan.
- Using a mixer, cream the butter and add sugar/salt at medium speed until contents are light and fluffy.
- Add eggs in, one a t a time, beating each into the mixture.
- Add canola oil, maple syrup, and vanilla into mixture at Low Speed.
- Stop mixing and add flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, yogurt, and ricotta. Proceed to mix until contents are incorporated – don’t overdo this segment.
- Pour mixture into 10 inch pan and top with blackberries.
- The baking time should be around 1 hr.
- Sprinkle sugar on top if so desired.
On occasion I would serve this blackberry cake with a vanilla enhanced poached pear for my guests. It usually makes for a lovely afternoon dessert.
Ingredients:
- 4 Pears, skinned.
- 2 cups of sugar – although this is variable to your tastes
- 1/2 vanilla bean, split
- a cinnamon stick
Directions:
- Add sugar, cinnamon stick, and vanilla bean to 5 cups of water in a saucepan large enough to accommodate the size of your pears.
- Peel pears. Leave the stem on as you will need to lower the pears into the infusion created at high heat. Be sure to core the pear with a pairing knife .
- Lower pears into boiling infusion. Turn pears over every 5 minutes. After 20 minutes, turn off the heat and let the pears cool in the liquid.
- Place pears onto service plates. Reduce the liquid the pears were soaking in to about 1 cup and pour contents onto pears.
Echo House 