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!
My favorite kitchen tool is the lemon juicer that I got for free in a bag of lemons. I bought some lemons to make lemonade during the move into our first home.
Probably the strangest kitchen gadget I have is a stainless steel bar that I was given that is supposed to remove the onion and garlic smell from your hands. I’ve never been able to get it to work, and now its just hangs out in the back of my untensil drawer! I also have some cookie cutters given to me by my grandmother that look like ameobas, but I don’t think they are supposed to! I can’t figure out what they are supposed to be!
My weirdest kitchen tool is the Bel Fresh Cream maker, that will tun melted better and milk into cream. I also have a collection of star shaped gelatin molds from the 40’s, in case I want to have 15 people over for tiny gelatins
I have to say my strawberry huller. It is quick and I do not waste much of those lovely Louisiana strawberry. I also use on my creole tomatoes!
At our local Texas trade days fair, I discovered the E-Z Hook. It is a locally handcrafted, wooden handled stainless steel stick with a curved and very sharp end which is perfect for turning meat on the BBQ. Hard to describe, but they have a website if you are interested. We use ours all the time!
My oddest kitchen tool is an antique cast iron cornbread pan in the shape of corn on the cobs. I have two that came from my 100 year old great aunt’s kitchen. I’ve used them once, and the cornbread wouldn’t come out of the the little cob cavities, so I’ve given up. I can’t bear to get rid of them because they remind me of my dear Aunt Alice.
I had to have a silicone pastry brush and used it once. I think it is pretty much useless to me!!
Given limits on space, I really do keep only what I need. I guess I have a lettuce spinner that is used so infrequently that it ought to be moved out!
I have an old fashioned hand egg mixer that belonged to my great grandma. It’s quite handy but I get questioned everytime I use it.
My favorite is my trusty wooden spoon!
The strangest tool I have is a toast press that leaves the imprint of the Virgin Mary in the bread. My son bought it in appreciation of my “heavenly” breakfasts.
my husband has a fondness for squirrels… this Christmas, my girlfriend gave him a whisk with the center wires shaped like a squirrel!… very cute, almost too cute to use… but it hangs proudly next to my measuring cups!
My favorite tool is an old short metal spatula thingy with a wooden handle, made in Japan, to spread mayonnaise, butter, peanut butter, etc. The secret to this tool is that it actually BENDS, unlike the ones you see in the stores today, even though it looks identical to them. Everyone who uses it gets all beside themselves over it, and I have to keep an eagle eye on it so it doesn’t mysteriously disappear. I use it probably every day. It is also serrated on one side, so it’s great for slicing your toast after you butter it.
I collect kitchen gadgets, so I have quite a few oddballs. I think the Elvis Presley toast imprinter may take the cake. Or maybe the massive collection of pancake molds. I only use them occasionally, but you never know when you might need a slice of Elvis toast or a pirate shaped pancake.
I love kitchen gadgets-although my husband thinks they are useless. My favorite are my measuring cups from Anthropologie-as they are soo pretty-pretty useless probably-I would never use them for baking-but I love looking at them.
I also have a German English cooking translation book-but do not own any German cookbooks.
That cake and those cookies love pretty good.
I purchased an Ebelskiver pan from Williams Sonoma. I had so much fun watching the demo that I just had to have it…of course I have not used it, but someday I will! 🙂
I think an avocado slicer. It slides in a avocado half and creates slices. A knife works better.
my silicone molds for shaped ice cubes.
I have a drawer full of odd little kitchen tools many that I inherited from my german grandmother. I have no idea what most of them are but hope that one day someone will open my drawer and explain them to me.
The strangest kitchen tool I have are those teddy bear shaped terra cotta figures you soak in water and put in your brown sugar so it doesn’t dry out. They work like a charm!
I don’t have any odd utensils or tools but I do have an extremely large collection of wooden spoons of all sizes as well as bamboo tools. The oldest wooden spoon belonged to my mother and has to be more than 92 years old.
The strangest piece of equipment in my kitchen is my husbands “ice shaver”, it is used for shaving big blocks of ice…you use the shaved ice to make snow cones type of drinks…I have no intention of using it and messing up my kitchen with a huge bloc of ice, if he wants to use if he can make the mess in someone else’s back yard as we live in an apt!
I made an impulse purchase of a marked-down scissor-like knife contraption with a build-in mini cutting-board. It’s pretty lame.
My strangest kitchen utensil is a bread tube that’s shaped like a flower. I used it once and it leaked. I’m not sure why it’s still in my kitchen taking up space, but it is.
My 4 year old daughter -also named Zoe – got a mini whisk for her play kitchen. One day while cooking with her, I couldn’t find our regular whisk, so I quick washed off hers and used it. I fell in love with the mini whisk and had to get my own after my daughter told me to stop using hers. My girl has gotten to be quite the cook and has led to us getting a crepe pan and crepe batter spreader (don’t know the real word) this Christmas so she could make crepes. They’ve already been used quite a bit.