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 was looking for a new cheese grater. Unable to find exactly what I wanted I bought a potato grater with huge grating holes. I LOVE IT! It makes such quick work of grating cheese. Twice as fast as using the smaller-holed cheese graters. And it all melts all the same. Would recommend it to anyone. But I’ve never grated potatoes with it.
The ‘prep taxi’ is the strangest gadget I have. I have never used it as I find my hands are the best tool I use to transport chopped food where it needs to go!
I bought a shrimp deveiner once because a friend was having a party and I had volunteered to devein the 5 lbs of shrimp she bought. It was basically just this red plastic thingy and naturally it totally didn’t work. Needless to say it’s been sitting in the bottom of my cooking utensil drawer taking up space.
My oddest kitchen gadget is a mayonnaise maker from the 1950’s – a sort of jar with a screw on lid and a metal implement with a perforated metal piece and a stem that you pump up and down within the jar to make the mayonnaise. Something like this: http://www.etsy.com/listing/26933035/1950s-glass-wesson-oil-mayonnaise-maker
I don’t actually use it, but it looks great with some of my other vintage glass pieces. 🙂
The oddest thing I have in my kitchen is a postal scale. I “borrowed” it from my husband since he hardly uses it. I know it works the same way but it doesn’t look “kitcheny” and it makes me laugh every time I get it out. And lately I’ve been using it a lot!
I’d have to say the oddest piece of equipment that I own is a dutch dough whisk. Not only because of its shape but because so few people have ever heard of them. Do I use it? Heck yeah!
My oddest kitchen tool is a sushi mold. I’ve used it a couple times and it does work…but I think I’d rather just go out to sushi!
My oddest tool is a banana slicer – it is made of plastic and the shape of a large/oversized banana. It then has little bars going horizontally so that you can quickly slice a banana by pushing it down on the banana. Which is funny, because bananas are so easy to slice that I have my 3 year old do it for me (with a plastic knife).
An empty juice can. And I do use it! I bake bread in it because it makes perfect slices for cute little round sandwiches or hamburgers 🙂 And I love it.
My oddest kitchen tool is an olive and/or pickle pincher. It is a tube with metal prongs on one end and a push button control. Very flimsy… It can’t handle anything heavy.
The oddest tool we have was a gift from a yankee swap party. It’s the EZ Cracker Egg Cracker with a bonus egg separator attachment. We’re saving it for the next gag gift party.
When we moved to Montana from L.A. we were ever-curious to attend one of the many farm auctions that take place on weekends. When a box of vintage kitchen items came up for bid, my hand shot up. Got it for about $20 and it contained the neatest things. Among them, old sifters fluted dough cutters, an old-world butter churn and my two all-time favorite gadgets: A cherry pitter with an upper bucket for cherries that reminds me of a crane jib (I smell clafouti), that is heavy-metal and vice grips to the counter. Ditto, the apple peeler with a beefy hubcap-designed hand crank that also vice grips to the counter. If brought to mammoth scale, either could probably assemble cars in Detroit – being marvels of turn-of-the-century overkill in kitchen gadgetry. Still, I wouldn’t trade them for any flimsy plastic incarnation, and both use and treasure them.
Can’t say it is mine but I have to use it in the near future. It is a tandoorer oven to make naar bread. Still try to find out how to use this huge clay oven.
My favorite kitchen tool is my orange peeler.
I once had a Hello Kitty toaster. It made Hello Kitty face impressions on the toast. Too bad it wasn’t a good toaster.
I don’t have an odd gadget, but my favorite tool is my Kitchen Aid mixer.
I keep my down-hill ski googles in my kitchen for cutting onions, shallots and even green onions! My eyes are really sensitive and they work like a charm!
that tupperware tool for cleaning the cracks in lids…nope, never use it
The oddest kitchen gadget I have and never use is a dumpling/won ton folding thingie. You put a round of dough on it, add filling, then fold it closed and it presses the edges together. Gee, now filled dumplings sound good. Maybe I need to find it and put it to use!
My favorite is my new Cuisinart food processor because it’s been about 5 years since our old one broke. We can make anything from salsa to pasta sauce, cakes, like the recipe you have on this page. We’re having so much fun with it. 🙂
Nothing too odd, but I do keep lots of straws and bamboo skewers in my kitchen 🙂 I substitute the skewers for toothpicks when baking because I don’t like to get my fingers too close to hot cakes…
my 8 inch long tweezers. People see them and begin to question why i have them !
My mother-in-law recently gave me her pizzelle maker, which I haven’t used yet but intend to, soon. The other unusual thing I own is a kitchen sponge that looks like a fried egg; the yellow “yolk” pops out to be a tiny sponge. My daughter owned it but thought it was too cute to use, so she gave it to me. I haven’t used it either.
I don’t think I have anything unusual in my kitchen, but I do love small appliances and gadgets. I have a sandwich maker, a George Foreman grill, a potato ricer, and a multitude of other things I could live without but just love using.
My favorite kitchen tool is probably my tomato knife. I know that it’s not that unusual but I find it great for cutting so many things other than tomatoes that I probably use it more than any other gadget I have.