I have been making this recipe for over 30 years. It is ina book I keep of hand-written recipes and the more beloved they are, the more stained the page. The page for this recipe is very stained! It is a deceptively easy recipe, but if you don’t use the best quality ingredients – and all of them – then please do yourself a favor and make something else. For years I would scrupulously write down recipes for people only to have them later complain to me that it didn’t taste like mine when they made it. After trying to determine the problem, I found out that they decided to not use real butter or left out the bourbon or cut the sugar or didn’t add the coffee to the chocolate. It finally got to the point that I stopped giving out recipes. Make this cake as written and you will not be disappointed.

This wonderful almond shortbread cake is best made at least one day ahead and will keep at least a week if it isn’t all eaten up. It can be cut into thin slivers for those forever on a diet and becasue it is so rich, a little goes a long way. This would take a starring role for any “high” tea and goes equally well with coffee or a little dessert wine. Unfortunately, I have no recollection where the recipe originated, so my apologies to that cook. I have made a few minor changes to it over the years as I do with most things.

Gateau Breton

Yield: One 9-inch cake that will easily serve 8-10

Ingredients

1.25 cups of unsalted butter, at room temperature (2.5 sticks)

3/4 cup granulated sugar (I always store my sugar in a glass jar with a few vanilla bean pods embedded)

1 large egg

2 large egg yolks

1/3 cup ground almonds (they can be blanched or unblanched – both work)

1.5 teaspoons vanilla paste or vanilla

1 Tablespoon Kirschwasser (cherry liqueur, which is also wonderful for mascerating fruit)

1.75 cups all purpose unbleached flour, sifted

1 egg yolk mixed with 1 teaspoon of ice water or milk and lightly beaten

2 Tablespoons sliced almonds (with skins or blanched)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and lavishly butter a fluted flan pan with a removeable bottom. (If you don’t have one, buy one. They are so useful.)
2. In the bowl of a standing mixer, with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. (I have done this entirely by hand, but the results are better and it is so much easier with a standing mixer and if y ou intend to do much baking you should really get one. I had one that lasted over 30 years, so they are an investment.)
3. Beat in the whole egg and 2 egg yolks one at a time.
4. Beat in the almonds, kirsch and vanilla. And then fold in the flour using the lowest speed on the mixer.
5. Spoon the mixture into the lavishly buttered pan and using a spatula, spread it evenly. If you made this by hand, the batter will be stiffer and harder to spread – not impossible, but more difficult. It also won’t be as fluffy.
6. Brush the beaten egg yolk mixture of the top. I would suggest placing the pan on a baking pan since sometimes the butter can ooze through the bottom a bit. Bake until the top is golden, about 30-35 minutes. This cake is almost impossible to dry out because of the high butter content.
7. Cool in the pan on a wire rack and then carefully remove from the pan. When totally cool, wrap it well in foil lined with waxed paper or parchment.

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

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.