Ingredients
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp sugar
1 stick butter -- softened,
1 unsalted
2 egg yolks -- room temp
1 tsp orange zest -- finely
1 grated
1/2 tsp lemon zest -- finely grated
1/2 vanilla beans, or 1 tsp van
1 extract
2/3 cup natural almonds
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal, or course
1 polenta
1/4 cup cornstarch (yes 1/4 cup!)
1/2 tsp baking powder
4 egg whites -- room temp
2 tsp confectioner's sugar
1 sweetened whipped cream
Directions
Preheat oven to 325. Generously butter an 8" X 1" square baking pan.
In a large bowl, combine 1/2 cup of the sugar and the butter, egg
yolks and orange and lemon zests. Scrape seeds from vanilla bean
into mixture, or add extract. Using an electric mixer, beat at high
speed until smooth, light and creamy, about 2 minutes.
In a food processor, finely grind the almonds with the
cornmeal/polenta, cornstarch and baking powder.
In a medium bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites with
the remaining 1/4 teaspoon sugar until they form soft peaks. Gently
fold the dry ingredients and 1/2 the beaten egg whites into the
butter mixture; then fold in the remaining egg whites unti just
incorporated.
Gently scrape the batter evenly into the prepared pan and bake for
about 30 minutes, or until the top of the cake is golden and a cake
tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer pan to a
cooling rack for 10 minutes; then invert the cake on the rack and let
cool completely. Sprinkle with confectioners sugar, cut into 6 pieces
and serve with topping. -Richard Sax
Recipe By : From Food & Wine 1994
Servings: 6 servings
Polenta Cake Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Cake; Dessert
The History of Recipes
Historians have tracked the existence of recipes far back into antiquity, at least as far back into recorded history as pharonic Egypt, and quite possibly further than that. However, mostly, these early recipes were just primitive pictorial recipes for preparing food.
Fascinatingly, the oldest recipe in existence, according to academics are a few stone tablets in ancient Sumerian which recount the preparation of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as making people feel `wonderful`. As our culinary historical trip moves to more modern times we find a couple of interesting books which were published in the fourteenth century : a cookery book published under the title `Forme of Cury`, and another entitled `Curye on Inglish`. Amusingly, they are unconnected to the curry that is served today, but rather descriptions of the types of food prepared by the chefs of the upper classes of the period. Over the next few centuries, the powerful and rich houses competed with each other to offer the most extravagent banquests, and as a consequence, the best chefs and their collection of recipes were at a premium. Even so, it was during the 19th century that formal cookery and recipe publications really came of age. Mrs Beeton in the UK, and the equally famous Fannie Merritt Farmer in the USA, devoted their lives to assembling, verifying, and publishing recipes for their fellow cooks to enjoy. The introduction of television gave us TV cookery programs and the demand for the spin-off recipe books. Which pretty much brings us up to date and the invention of computers and the internet, permitting us all to access thousands of recipes just like those on our web site. |
We hope you enjoy this Polenta Cake recipe.
