There are several perks to writing a food blog, the best being the excuse to have delicious cakes, like this almond chiffon cake, in the house at all times. The only person who has an issue with this is my personal trainer, but I just remind him what job security it is for him. I also have an extensive (300+) cookbook library that I attribute to “research” when my husband asks where we will put them all, now that my book shelves are over flowing. Then there are the products companies send me to critique and review. I have received everything from peanut flour (which I adore) to a confectionery funnel (which is for portion control of pancakes and other runny stuff. Really, you have to make your pancakes the exact same size???). I will never review or endorse a product I don’t actually love and find value in.
Now back to the baking…this cake was inspired by my trip to Italy this past summer. The man who owned the home we rented introduced me to his favorite cookie, the ricciarelli. They are made from almond paste and egg whites baked into little rich clouds and dusted with pure white confectioners’ sugar. I was completely addicted to them after the first bite. They are available all over Tuscany and when baked fresh you want to sing their praises. The stale ones you buy in the tin are to be avoided and unfortunately that is what most of us have tried. After writing this description I realize I need to create and post a recipe for the actual cookie, but for now I have a cake that it inspired. It is light and spongy, but at the same time decadent because of the almond paste. The cake is great on its own with a cup of coffee for breakfast or with ice cream or coulis for dessert.
For recipe…
Ricciarelli cookies on the counter in San Gimignano (the best I had).
A typical day’s sampling of the local Tuscan bakery.
(My average breakfast when traveling. Now you see why I need the personal trainer.)
Ricciarelli (rich-ee-a-relly) Chiffon Cake
2 cups (220g) Cake Flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
7 ounces (200g) Almond Paste
5 egg yolks
1 cup (200g) sugar
1/2 cup (118 ml) oil (I used 1/4 cup olive oil and 1/4 cup vegetable oil)
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
8 egg whites
confectioner’s sugar for the top
To make the cake: preheat the oven to 350 degrees
In a medium bowl stir together the flour, baking powder and salt, set aside. Cream the almond paste until smooth and then add egg yolks, 1/2 cup sugar, oil, water and extracts. Cream together until smooth, about 3 minutes, set aside.
Whip the egg whites until foamy then add 1/2 cup sugar and whip until stiff peaks, they should be stiff enough to hold onto the whip when lifted out of the bowl, but the peak will be soft enough to flop over like a dairy queen ice cream cone. (If you over whip the egg whites they will not have any elasticity left to rise when they get to the oven.) Sift 1/3 of the flour mixture over the whites and fold it in gently using a rubber spatula. Repeat two more times with remaining flour.
Fold the egg white mixture into the almond paste mixture, again in 3 additions.
Place the batter into an ungreased 10-Inch Tube Pan
Bake for about 50 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.
Remove almond chiffon cake from the oven and invert the pan over the neck of a bottle to cool. This guarantees that the cake will not collapse while cooling.
Dust almond chiffon cake with lots of confectioners’ sugar and enjoy!
I don’t know if I have any “odd” kitchen tools… I just multitask with just about every utensil I own… my favorites are my food processor and my bamboo wooden spoons!
I actually have a package of potato nails. We were going through some boxes that the previous owner of our house left and I found them. Looks like they are from the 50s or 60s. Kind of neat but no I dont use them. *LOL*
Really nothing too strange in my kitchen … or at least not to me. Maybe I am partial to the odd ones and can’t see past my attachment to them. 🙂
I love my brand new All-Clad pans. How did I ever cook without these?!
I think reading the list was great fun! What a lot of “interesting” stuff.
I have a glass microwave popcorn popper, but I love the stuff I make on the stove with a bit of oil, so it never gets used and just takes up precious space in my already too full cupboards! Anything with almond paste is just the best!!!
My best tool is the large steel wok we got in Chinatown, San Francisco 40 some years ago. Moving to Kentucky it tried to rust. Now it is seasoned wonderful tool. Strangest – my husband bought a tool at an auction, iron with wooden handle. One side was diamond shaped, I assume for cubing meat, the other side had a blade like thing, I would guess for cracking bones. It was too diabolical for me, had to go. I love bread baking more than sweets.
My bozo the clown, enamel baby spoon. It gets all of the little last bits out of jars:)
The oddest kitchen gadget that I have is a soft bristle brush in the shape of a mushroom – to clean mushrooms. I don’t use it often!
Inherited from my mother: about 8 million wooden spoons (not strange except in quantity), two tiny eggbeaters/whisks (about four inches long and no thicker than my thumb at the largest part), and some sort of Swedish pancake maker.
I’m so glad you’re back! Hmmmm…odd baking equipment….I don’t have anything that I would categorize as odd, but I love my Kyocera ceramic slicer and my bird’s beak knife for peeling apples and other fruit. A little unusual, but favorites nonetheless.
One old gadget I have had for years that I was handed down from my mother is a hand crank ice crusher. I don’t have an ice maker in my freezer so I make my own and just throw the cubes in the top portion and crank that baby – it’s very loud but through the years it has made many people happy. I don’t know what it is but the size of the crushed ice is just right. When my kids were small and if they were sick with a fever I would always make them a big glass of ice with juice. Just good memories of nurturing.
My oddest kitchen tool is a potato ricer that looks like a torture device and my favorite is my Kitchenaid Stand Mixer. I use the mixer for everything, including “mashing” potatoes!
My garlic press, never use it 😉
My oddest tool is the cherry corer that my grandfather gave me. It is wonderful and sturdy though! My favorite is my Kitchenaide mixer and my lovely new food processor!
How about I tell you about the mos useless item I have in the kitchen?? I LOVE anything Michael Graves from Target. All of his designs are so modern looking, just my style. Soooo one day I saw the coolest looking potato masher and I had to buy it. Kinda looks like a flower with holes in it. Worst. Masher. EVER. Yes, it mashed potatoes (kind of), but they would get stuck in the little holes in big chunks and literally after every time you mashed it down, you would have to unplug these holes. So, although I never use it, I let it sit in my utensil holder doing nothing but looking pretty!
I don’t have any particularly odd kitchen gadgets but my favorite is a silver serving spoon that belong to my great-great aunt, it’s actually engraved with her name…Fannie. Great aunt fannie’s spoon
My favorite kitchen tool is my KitchenAid. The oddest tools in my kitchen are many, many cookie cutters since I don’t/won’t make cut-out cookies any more.
my mini measuring cup for liquids. it measures up to two tablespoons and looks like a shot glass.
I have four large SEA SHELLS, about 4 inches in diameter. I cover the outside in foil and then melted chocolate. After removing the foil and the shell, I have beautiful chocolate shells/dishes to serve mouse or icecream. I’ve used them twice in the last 20 years. I bought them in highschool at Williams-Sonoma, and I still have them, taking up precious room in my kitchen drawers. I really should use them more; they make a lovely presentation.
The weirdest gadget I have is a beautiful, ornate, hand-carved set of measuring spoons. Unfortunately the metal they are made of has a large amount of lead in it, so you can’t actually use them for cooking, just decoration. Why would you make a kitchen utensil with metal that contains lead?
One of my favorite kitchen gadgets is my digital scale. I love it!
I have a vegetable peeling in shape of a monkey!
My oddest/favorite kitchen items?
First the cherry pitter I just found on a clearance shelf. I have yet to use it as its the middle of winter and cherries aren’t exactly in season, I hope it works, but the main reason I bought it was for my husband. Several years ago when we were young married college students and had a toddler (aka living on money fumes) we were invited by a friend to pick all the cherries we wanted off his tree. He hadn’t pruned it which meant a bazillion little cherries instead of a million normal sized ones. We picked and picked as our toddler toddled around the yard. We embarked on making a pie out of these tiny cherries! Little did we know the tedious task that awaited us. My hubby sliced and pitted a 9″ pie pan worth of cherries by hand while I made the crust. His fingers were stained red and we kept thinking there had to be an easier way to do this. And apparently there is, the pie was scrumptious, but we have yet to make another. With 4 kids cherries don’t last long enough to make a pie out of them!
Another gadget I love? My Barnes & Noble gift card that has been sitting in my wallet for over a year. Why buy when the library is closer than any bookstore? But I am excited to use it to buy your books! And a cookbook about bread is one kitchen ‘gadget’ that will get plenty of use!
My strangest tool but most sentimental is a tree branch with 6 tines coming off the main spoke, all cleared of bark. This was a gift from my Finnish grandmother and it’s used for mixing light batters like pancakes. Since my grandmother passed away many years ago, I don’t use it but display it in my kitchen perched on my Finnish flag clock.
I have a “thing” for kitchen gadgets and utensils. One of the oldest ones I have is an ice cream scoop that looks like a cow and moos when you scoop the ice cream. It was a wedding gift. I never use it because even though it’s cute, it’s made of plastic and not really good for actually scooping ice cream.
My favourite kitchen gadget is most certainly my coffee spoon…without it there is NO way i can make a great cup of coffee. My oddest kitchen gadget is can opener…looks funny, looks like it shouldn’t work…but it’s a pro.