When I had knee replacement surgery about five years ago, I had a bad time of it. I was pretty miserable and I wasn’t eating. My husband was always looking for treats to entice me and cheer me up. There is a little food shop with a small counter a couple of blocks from our house that makes breakfast and lunch and they sold a ricotta rum pound cake with chocolate chips. Well, it turned out that I was always happy to eat that! It set me on a quest to find a good recipe for this delicious pound cake that I could make at home. I found a ricotta pound cake that Giada made and used that as my base. It’s fabulous with coffee, tea or a dessert wine, but no one will stop you if you have it with a glass of milk.
Ricotta Rum Pound Cake adapted from Giada De Laurentiis
Yield: One 9 x 5 inch loaf
Ingredients
1.5 cups cake flour (I like King Arthur brand)
Grated zest of one navel orange
2.5 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoons Kosher salt
1.5 sticks (3/4 cups) of unsalted butter at room temperature
1.5 cups whole milk ricotta
1.5 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 Tablespoons Dark Rum
3/4 semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips (do not go over 63% cacao)
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease or PAM a 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pan and line the bottom with waxed paper which is then also greased or sprayed with PAM.
- In a medium bowl, combine the flour, orange zest, salt and baking powder and stir to distribute the ingredients. Measure your chocolate chips into a small bowl and spoon a couple of Tablespoons of the flour mixture over the chips to coat them. This will prevent the chips from sinking to the bottom of the batter while baking.
- Using an electric mixer, cream together the butter, ricotta and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. You should still see some ricotta lumps. With the machine running, add the eggs one at a time.
- Add the vanilla and rum and mix until combined. Add the dry ingredients, slowly, mixing just until incorporated. By hand, using a spatula, fold in the chocolate chips, dusted with flour. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan.
- Bake until a toothpick comes out clean and the cake is beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan, about 75-80 minutes. Let the cake cool in th epan for 10 minutes and then transfer the cake to a wire rack to cool completely.
Wrapped tightly, this cake will last a week.