Stracciatella Rosemary Olive Oil Cake, Until Morale Improves

My kitchen and I are still getting used to one another. 

A recent roast chicken came out looking as though it had spent late summer in Saint Tropez without a drop of sunscreen, arriving leathery and suspiciously dark.  Cast iron seems to be the only sensible option for the stovetop.  And I am occasionally cutting burnt edges off broiled toast. 

I’m half tempted to post a threatening sign above my oven that reads: “the cooking will continue until morale improves.”  But then again, I have cake.  Cake has not given me problems. Go figure. 

And—whoa—this most recent recipe is really something.  It came about because I was in the mood for cake (when is one not?), but had frozen butter to contend with. Not one to give up on dessert—and not feeling particularly patient—I downshifted and went searching for a rich, oil-based sweet instead.  A magazine clipping for Kim Boyce’s spelt olive oil cake (with chocolate) was the front-runner.  Until I realized I didn’t have spelt.  Or whole wheat, for that matter.

I found a quick fix in The Babbo Cookbook, which promised a rosemary olive oil cake worthy of a midday glass of wine.  (I took them up on this, and did not regret it.)  So I came up with a compromise between recipes.  Boyce had to pardon the dearth of whole grain, and Babbo had to make room for chocolate.

The result is dessert in perfect harmony.  The rosemary is present, without being overpowering; it offers a nice herbal note that keeps the chocolate in line, but doesn’t fight with it.  Instead of chunks or chips, I shaved off Stracciatella-like shards from a salted almond Taza disk.  This way the chocolate lightly flecks, rather than invades.

To assuage any worried souls that I have been eating very little but cake the past few weeks, fear not.  I have instituted Roast Chicken Fridays.  Wherein I become a tragic soul who stays in, does laundry, reads some Malthusian theory, and vows to continue chicken roasting until the results are decidedly less tanning bed-esque.

Oh.  And I also finish the night in the company of rosemary cake with wispy chocolate bits, and a glass or two of wine.  Because Babbo said so.  And they have yet to do me wrong.

Stracciatella Rosemary Olive Oil Cake

Adapted from The Babbo Cookbook

Ingredients:

butter for the pan

4 eggs

¾ cup sugar

2/3 cup quality olive oil

2 tbsp finely chopped rosemary leaves

1½ cups all-purpose flour

1 tbsp baking powder

¾ tsp kosher salt

2 oz salted almond dark chocolate (or other chocolate of finest quality), thinly cut into shards or shaved

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Butter a 10-inch loaf pan (I used a 10 x 3 inch pan, which is a bit narrower than usual, and had enough leftover batter to make 1 cupcake, as well); set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the eggs with a whip attachment for about 30 seconds; add the sugar and whip until foamy and pale yellow.  With the mixer still running, slowly (carefully) add in the olive oil.  Fold in the rosemary.

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.  With the mixer on low speed, slowly add in the dry ingredients (about a third at a time).  Stop once all the flour has been added (it is okay to see bits of flour not yet incorporated).  Fold in the chocolate until the flour and chocolate bits are just combined (do not over mix).

Pour the batter into your prepared pan and bake for 35 to 45 minutes; rotate the pan halfway through the cooking.  The cake is done when golden brown and a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean after it’s inserted into the center of the cake.

Allow to cool briefly in the pan on a cooling rack and then run a knife around the edges of the pan to loosen the cake before tipping it out.

Notes:

-You may want to line the pan with parchment paper after you grease it (and then grease the parchment), to help ease the cake out.  Mine came out in one piece, but it was touch and go for a bit. 

-The original recipe bakes the cake at 325 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes.  I did not feel like waiting any longer than I had to.  

-The chocolate I used was 40% dark.  Also this isn't an overly sweet dessert, which makes it perfect as a snack or leisurely light breakfast.

Hazelnut Fig Biscotti for Old Souls

My younger brother just turned twenty-two.  What do you give a strapping Italian male who acts like he’s eighty and desperately tries to subvert his birthday each year?  Why, you give him biscotti. 

Well, first you stalk him until he gives you his new address.  You say that he’s only making it harder on himself.  That he’s prolonging the inevitable.  That he might as well just give up, give out the goods, and get it over with. (And then you promise that you won’t mail anything too ridiculous.)

Sending something edible tends to be a good idea in a delicate scenario such as this one.  I have had these cookies on my “t0-make” list.  But I pictured a giant eye roll at the sight of a box of snickerdoodles.  So I settled in on biscotti.

And I’ll be honest.  I wasn’t sold on these guys when I first made them.  I had to bake them for so much longer than the recipe said, such a long time that I thought I sent the poor souls to an early grave.

But the next morning, I noticed an almost breakfast toast quality to them.  Like a piece buttered and scattered with cinnamon sugar.  With a little more of a snap. 

The toasted sugars from the second baking, once cooled, deepened the cookie and mellowed its spices. And, when dunked into a cup of coffee with a little cream, it offered about as much comfort as any cookie can.  So much so, that I made another batch this weekend.

This time, I just halved the hazelnuts and chopped the figs by hand, instead of blending some of the fruit and nuts in a food processor as the recipe originally suggested.  It resulted in a sliced cookie that was a little shaggier, a bit homier, but with a fig and hazelnut flavor that was more pronounced.  Either way, they promise a toasty gingersnap presence that will warm the souls of cranky old men.

So, little brother, I hope you didn’t give out a decoy address.  And if you did, I wish whoever is living in apartment 11C to be as old-souled as you are.  Make your birthdays be filled with biscotti for years and years to come.

XOXO

Hazelnut Fig Biscotti

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen by way of The Babbo Cookbook

Ingredients:

1 cup of whole hazelnuts

8 large Turkish (dried) figs, cut into small bite-sized pieces

¾ stick unsalted butter, softened

¼ cup granulated sugar, plus a few extra tbsp for dusting the dough

¼ cup plus 2 tbsp dark brown sugar, lightly packed

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

½ tsp almond extract

grated zest of a medium-sized orange

1¾ cup plus 2 tbsp all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp baking soda

½ tsp kosher salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp grated nutmeg

¼ tsp ground cloves

3-4 cardamom pods, smashed, shelled removed, and seeds ground (a scant ¼ tsp ground)

dash of ground ginger

1 egg white

Instructions:

To prepare the hazelnuts

Before you do anything, you’ll want to remove the skins of the hazelnuts.  (I suppose you could leave them on, but a birthday is as good a reason as any to spend the extra time and skin them.)  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Place the hazelnuts on an ungreased cookie sheet and toast them until you can smell them and their skins start to crack.  Remove the skins by placing the hot nuts in a dish towel and rubbing them together.  You’ll get about eighty percent of the skins off and will have to spend a little time removing the rest (it’s okay if you can’t get the final few off, just leave them out). Then slice the hazelnuts in half.

To make the biscotti

In a bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy; add the eggs, one at a time.  Add in the extracts and grated zest and stir with a rubber spatula until well incorporated.

In a medium bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices.  Slowly beat the dry ingredients into the butter mixture, until the majority of the flour has been well incorporated.  Remove the bowl from the mixer stand and add in the fig pieces and sliced hazelnuts and stir until well combined (there should not be any flour still visible).  The dough will be fairly firm and will be heavily studded with nuts and fruit.  Wrap it in plastic wrap and chill it until firm (about an hour).

After about 45 minutes, preheat the oven to 325 degrees and grease a cookie sheet with butter.  Whip an egg white with a wire whisk until foamy. When the dough is ready, roll the dough out on a floured surface until it is roughly the length of your cookie sheet and about five inches wide (you can do this gently with your hands).  Place the dough log on your cookie sheet, brush it with the egg white (you’ll have some leftover), and then scatter generously with sugar.  Bake for 20-45 minutes (the recipe said 20, but it seems to need a bit longer: for me it was closer to 45 minutes).  Once the log turns golden brown, is firm to the touch, and starts to crack: it’s ready. 

Let it fully cool and then slice the biscotti on a bias into roughly ½ inch slices.  Lay the slices sideways on the cookie sheet and cook them at 250 degrees until they turn a deeper brown, crisp up, become completely dried out. (This took me about an hour.)  You’ll probably want to start checking after 30 minutes and turn the cookies over from time to time so that they brown evenly on both sides.  Allow them to cool fully, ideally overnight.

Makes 15-20 cookies

Notes:

-I’ve already eaten five six since last night (oops). Technically, they'll keep at least a week in a ziplock bag or airtight container.

-These guys are lovely super crisp, so be patient with the second baking.  Here is the recipe I used from Smitten Kitchen (with pictures).  And, if chocolate is more your speed, try these guys, courtesy of grandma.