Strawberry and Apple Skillet Cornbread/Cake

I was inspired by a Food and Wine recipe for Strawberry-Rhubarb Cornmeal Skillet Cake, by baker and food writer Jocelyn Delk Adams. Strawbwrries, from the mainland greenhouses, are lovely this time of year. But as I have probably said before we have no rhubarb in Greece, so I decided to add apples instead.

I didn’t make the very intriguing rosemary whipped cream Adam suggests, which I will probably try another time, but opted for ice cream instead.

 

Since both Costas and I love the caramel base of the Apple and Quince Crumble I make often, I decided to repeat something similar here.

Needless to say, that I substituted again light olive oil for the butter in the original recipe, as I do all the time, and the result was absolutely great! Note that this cornbread/cake, unlike most other cakes, is best slightly warm, the day it is baked.

 

Serves 8: a 10-inch (26cm) skillet.

 

THE APPLE BASE:

2/3 cup sugar

 

2 tablespoons water

 

1/3 cup light olive oil, canola or sunflower oil

 

2 Apples halved, cored, and thinly sliced; I used Fuji.

 

FOR THE CORNBREAD/CAKE

1 cup All-Purpose flour

 

1/2 cup yellow cornmeal

 

½ teaspoon salt

 

1 teaspoon baking powder

 

3 large eggs

 

1 cup sugar, plus 2-3 tablespoons Turbinado or any light brown sugar for sprinkling

 

2/3 cup light olive oil, canola or sunflower oil

 

2/3 cup full-fat yogurt

 

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

 

1 ½ cup coarsely chopped fresh strawberries

 

Vanilla Ice Cream for serving (optional)

 

Place the skillet over medium-high heat and add the sugar and water. Swirl the skillet as it bubbles and gradually starts to color. When it is light amber add the olive oil, swirl the pan and spread the apple slices carefully, as they may splatter. Press with a wooden spoon and lower the heat. Simmer and don’t mind if some hard sugary pieces form; they will dissolve later as the cake bakes in the oven. When the apple slices have soften, after about 4-5 minutes, remove the skillet from the heat.

 

Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C).

 

Make the cornbread/cake: Whisk together flour, cornmeal, salt and baking powder in a small bowl until combined and set aside. 

 

In the bowl of a standing mixer, add the sugar and the eggs and work in slow to start with and increase the speed after 2 minutes; keep beating until light and creamy, about 5 minutes. Alternatively, you can use a hand-held mixer.

In a small bowl whisk the oil with the yogurt and add it to the egg mixture working on medium. Add the vanilla and gradually add the flours, continuing to beat in low, until completely incorporated. You will probably need to stop and scrape the sides of the bowl with a flexible spatula to make sure all flour is mixed in.

 

Pour the batter over the apples and carefully spread it with the spatula. Scatter the strawberries on the batter and sprinkle with the light brown sugar.

 

Bake for about 40 minutes or more, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool for 20 minutes before cutting to serve, accompanying with ice cream, if you like.

This cornbread/cake, unlike most other cakes, is best slightly warm, the day it is baked, but you can wrap the leftover in kitchen film and enjoy it the next day as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Apple and Quince Crumble with Caramel

I used apples, or apples together with quince instead of the pears Samantha Seneviratne suggests in NYT Cooking to make this quite wonderful crumble that has a caramel base enriched with cottage cheese, instead of cream. I omitted half of the flour, added breadcrumbs, olive oil and orange juice and the results were delicious, both with just apples, or adding some quince for texture.

Served with or without ice cream, this is a seriously addictive dessert.

 

 

SERVES 8 – 10  (more…)

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The Festive, Fragrant Olive Oil Bread from Provence

It is an old Mediterranean tradition to have several sweets on display during the end of the year holidays. Part of the traditional Christmas table in Provence this delicious olive oil bread is supposed to be torn into pieces with the hands and never cut with a knife.

From mid-December and up until after the New Year we usually keep on the festive table nuts and dried fruit, plus melomakarona and kourabiedes.  

 

BREAD Pompe S

BREAD Pompe cut S

Wikipedia refers also to the Sephardic Jewish tradition to serve various nuts, candied and dried fruits during Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year.  Catalans and Armenians share similar traditions. (more…)

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Yogurt and Olive Oil Cake with Citrus Fruits and Syrup

Light and aromatic, it is the perfect dessert that my mother used to make.

For the New Year I decided to dress it up, sprinkling with diced, caramelized citrus peels and pistachios; I also cut the year’s numbers on tangerine peels that I simmered in syrup before placing on the cake. 

See more New Year’s Cake recipes HERE and HERE

 

 

Bake the cake at least a day before you plan to serve it so the flavors  have time to develop. Cakes are best the day after!  

In our family it was simply called Tou Yiaourtiou (the one with yogurt), to distinguish with another, more elaborate festive dessert my mother and aunts prepared with store-bought lady-finger cookies and a heavy margarine-based cream –butter and heavy cream were not a common ingredient in Greece in my childhood years. 

 

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Only recently I realized that this, ubiquitous urban Greek dessert is the Gateau aux Yaourt the simplest French cake, the first one kids bake as the portions are measured in the yogurt pot. Obviously my family, as most other bakers in Athens, got the recipe from Tselementes’ book. He obviously copied the French cake, but substituted margerine (!) for the olive oil, calling it Yiaourtopita (yogurt pie) a name that many bakers use today.  

Whenever I have, I use lemons from my garden, or our local tangerines and oranges that are wonderfully aromatic. I suggest you seek organic fruits for this and my other recipes. 

 

See also my Orange, Lemon or Tangerine Olive Oil Cake which I make pulsing the whole citrus fruit, not just zesting it.  

 

 

For a 9-inch (23 cm) round or square pan

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Bebinca: Indian Sweet Potato Pudding/Cake

The recipe, by Mayukh Sen, was published in the NY Times Cooking, in a piece he wrote about chef Nik Sharma. “The lightly sweet pudding cake is an ideal fall dessert — a far less stressful alternative to a more labored pie,” Sen writes.

The mild taste of this unusual sweet is certainly a wonderful complement to the spicy Indian dishes; for my version I love to add crystalized ginger to give it a slight kick.

 

 

Mayukh Sen notes that Mr. Sharma riffs on a traditional dessert from the Indian state of Goa, using a base of coconut milk, eggs and sweet potatoes that are roasted and then puréed, perfumed with nutmeg. “…the addition of maple syrup is a distinctly American touch. (Mr. Sharma likes to make this for Thanksgiving.) Be sure to leave time for the bebinca to cool and set — at least 6 hours in the refrigerator, but preferably overnight,” Sen writes.

 

 

Yield: 8 servings

 

 

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