Month: July 2023

Lemon Cardamom Semolina Cake

~ lisaandfrancescook ~ Leave a comment

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So a Persian Semolina Cake and a Lebanese Semolina Cake walk into a bar…. But seriously, I took two delicious cakes with certain common elements, made some tweaks and came up with this single wonderful Lemon Cardamom Semolina Cake. Bright and lemony with that unique texture that you get with semolina cakes. The finished warm cake is soaked in a simple syrup perfumed with lemon and rose water. This permeates the entire cake, resulting in a dense, moist delicious bite. I topped it off with some lightly toasted pistachios and edible dried rose petals. For utter decadence, I served it with strawberries macerated in a bit of sugar and some lightly sweetened crème fraîche on the side. Do I have your attention yet?

This Lemon Cardamom Semolina Cake should rank right up there with the best of the semolina cakes. And while I admit to tarting it up a bit with strawberries and crème fraîche, it is wonderful all on its own. No embellishments are needed to enjoy this utterly lovely cake.

Middle Eastern semolina cakes, like basbousa are very common – and VERY delicious. They are usually soaked in some kind of simple syrup or a syrup sweetened with honey. Not only does the syrup add wonderful flavor to the cake, but it also makes the cakes able to last longer, particularly in warm climates where refrigeration wasn’t common until relatively recently.

These cakes stay moist for days and the flavors only intensify with each passing day. And as each grain of semolina soaks up the syrup, the cake takes on such a lovely, creamy texture. I find that if possible, I always make semolina cakes one or two days ahead of serving. This allows all of the wonderful flavors and aromas to meld into one delicious bite.

As anyone who reads my blog knows, I love Middle Eastern and South Asian cuisine. and I also love a great dessert. This Lemon Cardamom Semolina Cake is the perfect make-ahead dessert for Shabbat or any special dinner – especially if it has a Middle Eastern/Mediterranean theme.

And because this cake uses olive oil instead of butter or margarine, a whisk and a spatula is really the only equipment needed. There is no heavy creaming of the butter and sugar or tedious beating to incorporate air into the mixture.

But don’t wait for an “occasion” to make this delicious cake. Take it on your next picnic. It will travel well and requires no refrigeration or special treatment.

For more semolina cake recipes:

Orange Semolina Cake

Lemon Semolina Almond Cake

Basbousa (Semolina, Coconut and Pistachio Cake

Simple Basbousa

Recipe

Yield: About 8 servings

Ingredients

Yield: About 8 servings

Ingredients

For the Cake

1.5 cups almond flour or almond meal

1.5 cups semolina flour

1.25 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

2 teaspoons ground cardamom

1/2 teaspoon grated/ground nutmeg

1 cup fruity Extra Virgin Olive Oil (Use a Lemon-flavored oil if you can. It will give even more punch to the lemon flavor.)

1 cup granulated sugar

2 lemons, zested

Juice of one lemon (Be sure to zest your lemons first!)

3 large eggs

Simple Syrup

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup water

1 lemon, juiced (From the 2 lemons zested in the cake)

1 to 2 Tablespoons rosewater (Optional, but desirable, but use a really good quality rose water so it doesn’t taste like pot pourri!) Alternatively you could use Orange Blossom Water.

Garnish

About 1/3 cup coarsely chopped and lightly toasted pistachios or blanched slivered almonds

about 2 Tablespoons dried, edible rose petals

Directions

Preheat your oven to 350 F.

Grease an 8-inch springform pan and line bottom and sides with parchment paper. (You could use a 9-inch pan for a flatter cake. Decrease the baking time by about 10 minutes.) Grease parchment. Whisk together the almond flour, semolina flour, salt, cardamom, nutmeg and baking powder in a medium bowl.

In a large bowl, whisk the oil, sugar, and lemon zest from 2 lemons together until combined. (This can also be done with a hand mixer.) However, you are not trying to beat a lot of air into the mixture. You just want everything well combined.

Then gradually add the eggs, one at a time, beating to incorporate, about 1 minute. Next add the dry ingredients and the juice of 1 of your lemons and whisk just until everything is combined. Do not over-mix. Semolina cakes are meant to be fairly dense.

Transfer the batter to the prepared pan. Place the cake on the middle rack, and bake until golden brown, approximately 45 to 50 minutes. (If you use a 9-inch springform pan, check your cake after 35 minutes.) Ovens really vary, so you can tell the cake is done if you lightly press the top of the cake — it should feel lightly springy when done. (I baked mine a few minutes longer than I should have ideally, although with the syrup it is fine.) Allow to cool for 20 minutes or so in the pan before removing the ring and transferring the cake to a cooling rack.

Using a toothpick, poke holes all over the top of the cake. Spoon or brush ALL of the simple syrup (See below) over the cake. (I like to put a pan covered in foil under the cooling rack to collect the inevitable dribbles and to make clean-up easier.) It might look like a lot of syrup, but it will all get absorbed into the cake after a few minutes. Not only does the syrup add flavor but it is necessary for keeping the cake moist and contributes to the overall texture of the cake.

Simple Syrup

  1. In one easy step, combine water, sugar, juice of 1 lemon, and rosewater, if used, in a pot. Cook it over medium-heat until the sugar is fully dissolved, for 4-5 minutes.
  2. Then continue cooking the syrup on medium-low heat for an additional 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Mixed Berry Galette

~ lisaandfrancescook ~ 1 Comment

Due to the unprovoked, criminal and seemingly endless brutal war of annihilation against Ukrainian civilians by Vladimir Putin and his army and the worsening humanitarian crisis, please consider helping by following the link below. There are a number of reputable aid agencies from which to choose. Many of these agencies will also help victims suffering the devastating effects of natural disasters.

Support Humanitarian Efforts in Ukraine

Berries, berries and more berries! While it’s true that these days berries are available in grocery stores pretty much all year long, summer is indisputably berry season. If you are like me, we can’t get enough of them. And I love them all – blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, watermelon berries….

As I mentioned in my previous post, I also really enjoy a good dessert. Nothing cloyingly sweet mind you, but definitely dessert. A galette is perfect. It’s simple to make and by its very nature its rustic and unfussy. A basic pastry rolled out, filled with the fruit of your choice and folded up. If the juices run over a bit, no problem. Eaten warm straight out of the oven with a bit of ice cream or crème fraiche or just at room temperature.

This Mixed Berry Galette used the berries that can almost always be found in my fridge. The proportions don’t really matter too much as long as the weight is about the same. I do think that the majority of the berries should be of a slightly firmer variety such as blueberry, strawberry or blackberry. Raspberries are very soft and are fine to use as an accent, but are likely to bake into jam. But don’t overthink this. Just make it and enjoy.

The amount of sugar is pretty minimal and the lemon zest and juice brightens up the berry flavor. While you can use a pastry from your store’s freezer section, it really is simple to make this dough. I did experiment just slightly by adding a teaspoon of a raspberry balsamic vinegar that I had on hand to the dough instead of the usual apple cider or distilled vinegar. Just to layer in the berry element. It didn’t make a huge difference, but it just added a certain sumpin’ sumpin’.

As with any berry dessert, you want to bake the pie, galette or cake until the berries begin to bubble and ooze some liquid. If you don’t do this, the juices will continue to run once the finished product has cooled. Not horrible, but generally not desirable.

This Mixed Berry Galette is soooooooooooooooooooo delicious, with it’s crispy, flakey crust and bursting berries that I decided to forego ice cream and crème fraiche. Don’t wait – just make this!

Recipe

Yield: About 6 servings

Ingredients

For pastry

1.5 cups (188 g.) unbleached, all-purpose flour

1 Tablespoon granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon kosher or fine sea salt

1 stick (8 Tablespoons or 114 g.) cold unsalted butter or vegan butter cut into 16 cubes

1 teaspoon of vinegar (distilled, apple cider or raspberry balsamic)

4 to 5 Tablespoons of ice water

For filling

4 cups (750 g.) cleaned berries (I used about 500 g of blueberries and filled in with blackberries, strawberries and raspberries to get to 750 g.)

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 Tablespoons unbleached, all-purpose flour

Zest of 1 medium lemon

Juice of 1/2 a medium lemon

1/4 teaspoon kosher or fine sea salt

For brushing the pastry

1 egg mixed with 1 Tablespoon of cream OR just brush with some non-dairy “milk” and leave out the egg

A sprinkling of either granulated or castor sugar (Demerara would also work)

Directions

For the pastry

This can be done by hand, but I used a food processor. Pulse the flour, sugar and salt (or mix with a whisk or even your hand).

Add the butter or vegan butter, and pulse just until the mixture resembles coarse meal with some pea-sized pieces of flour-coated butter. If doing this by hand, you can use a pastry cutter or two knives.

Drizzle in the vinegar and 4 Tablespoons of the ice water. Pulse just until the dough starts to come together. If doing by hand, mix until you take a Tablespoon of dough between your fingers and if you squeeze it, the dough holds together. Since flour and room humidity vary, you may need to add a bit more water. I didn’t, but it’s okay. Only add the absolute minimum! Using plastic wrap or waxed paper, push the dough together to form a disk. Wrap the dough and refrigerate it for at least an hour or up to overnight.

When you are ready to make the galette, remove the dough from the fridge. Allow it to sit for about 15 minutes. This should make the dough more malleable and will prevent cracking when you roll it out.

For the Galette

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (218 to 220 C).

Mix the sugar with the salt and lemon zest. Rub the zest into the sugar with your fingers.

Gently mix the berries with the flour, sugar mixture and lemon juice.

Roll out the dough onto a Silpat or parchment paper dusted with flour until it is an approximate 12-inch round. You can trim the edges for a more “finished” look or leave it rough if you prefer a more rustic look. Place the Silpat or parchment onto a baking sheet and carefully fill the center with the berry mixture. Push the berries out to about two inches from the edges. Then start folding over the dough, pleating it as you go around. The center should be left open.

Brush the pastry with either the egg wash or use the non-dairy “milk.” Sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until the berries are bubbling and the crust is browned. Now enjoy!

Strawberry Cake (Kuchen)

~ lisaandfrancescook ~ Leave a comment

Due to the unprovoked, and seemingly endless brutal war of annihilation against Ukrainian civilians by Vladimir Putin and his army and the worsening humanitarian crisis, please consider helping by following the link below. There are a number of reputable aid agencies from which to choose. Many of these agencies will also help victims suffering the devastating effects of natural disasters.

Support Humanitarian Efforts in Ukraine

“Summertime and the livin’ is easy

Fish are jumpin’ and the cotton is high”**

Or perhaps

“It’s too darn hot

It’s too darn hot

I’d like to sup with my baby tonight” ^

You get the point, right? No one wants to slave over a hot oven or be stuck inside when summer calls. And thanks to climate change, the world is suffering increasing heat, with temperatures reaching dangerous levels. But I do enjoy a nice dessert, especially on Shabbat.

This easy Strawberry Cake doesn’t require any special equipment – not even a mixer. It can be made with pretty much any available fruit and is good just as is. This is not a showy cake – kuchen, a simple butter cake, never is. But, it also can be dressed up with some crème fraîche, ice cream, whipped cream or simply a snow of confectioner’s sugar.

I’ve taken to making my own crème fraîche, which is easy to do, and some generally can be found in my fridge. I flavor it with vanilla and some confectioner’s sugar – not too much. Just enough. But, of course, crème fraîche is available in many grocery stores ready-made these days.

The butter and sour cream keep the cake moist. And the lightly macerated strawberries ooze their delicious juices into the cake. I macerated more strawberries than I needed to cover the top of the cake and used the leftovers when serving. The batter is lightly perfumed with freshly grated lemon zest and nutmeg, a delightful combo.

A springform pan was used for easy presentation, but the cake could also be baked in a square baking pan and served right from the pan. The original recipe called for a 9-inch round pan, but I made mine in an 8-inch round. It makes for a slightly higher cake and took a bit longer in the oven, but I was happy with the results.

Strawberry Cake (Kuchen) will keep for a few days covered. The cake will become more a bit custardy as time goes on and the fruit juices permeate the batter. My husband would say, “And this is a bad thing?” But, I would be very surprised if your cake lasted that long once people have enjoyed a taste.

For another delicious and adaptable kuchen recipe:

Plum Kuchen (Butter cake)

^ It’s Too Darn Hot from Kiss Me Kate. Songwriter: Cole Porter

** Summertime from Porgy and Bess. Songwriters: Ira and George Gershwin, DuBose and Dorothy Heyward

Recipe

Yield: 6 to 8 servings

Ingredients

Strawberry topping

2 cups (334g) strawberries, sliced into 3 slices each (I made more to use as a topping when serving)

2 tablespoons (25g) granulated sugar, divided

pinch of salt

Cake

1 1/4 cups (150g) unbleached all-purpose flour

1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon kosher or fine sea salt

6 tablespoons (85g) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup (198g) granulated sugar

Zest of 1 lemon

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg, preferably freshly grated

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1/2 cup (113g) sour cream

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350°F with a rack in the center. 

Grease an 8” or 9”- inch round springform pan or an 8”- inch square. Line the bottom with parchment and lightly grease. 

To make the strawberry topping

In a medium bowl, toss the strawberries, 1 tablespoon of the sugar, and the salt to combine. Set aside while you prepare the rest of the cake. (Reserve remaining 1 tablespoon sugar for topping the assembled cake. I added probably another cup of strawberries, but did NOT add any additional sugar.) 

To make the cake

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. 

In a large bowl, cream the butter, sugar, lemon zest, and nutmeg until creamy and homogenous but not necessarily light or fluffy. You can use a hand or standing mixer but if your butter is at room temperature, why create more dishes than needed?!

Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping the bowl as needed. 

Add the sour cream and vanilla; beat to combine. 

Add the flour mixture and beat just until everything is combined. Do not over-mix or your cake will be tough.

Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and spread evenly. Distribute the strawberries over the batter in a tight, single layer, leaving behind the juices in the bowl. Save any leftover liquid and strawberry slices for snacking or for serving with the cake.  

Sprinkle the cake all over with the remaining 1 tablespoon sugar from the topping. 

Bake the strawberry cake for about 1 hour or until the top is deeply golden brown. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer it to a wire rack. Run a thin flat blade around the inside of the springform, if using, and open the spring. Remove the ring and using a spatula, lift the cake onto the cooling rack to cool completely. Once cool, you can sprinkle the cake with confectioner’s sugar, if desired.

To make Homemade Crème Fraîche

In a clean glass jar, pour one cup of heavy cream (preferably with no thickeners added). Add 3 Tablespoons of any cultured milk milk product such as buttermilk, kefir or even whole milk yogurt. Leave in a dark, room temperature place, shaking the jar occasionally until desired thickness. Depending on the warmth of the room and the quality of the cream, this can take between 24 to 36 hours. Once the desired thickness is achieved, you can add a healthy teaspoon of pure vanilla bean paste and about 3 Tablespoons of confectioner’s sugar. Stir through and refrigerate. This will keep for up to 2 weeks in the fridge.