Summer fruit, summer dessert. Berries, nectarines, plums, grapes. Shortcake, pie, upside down cake, jam and jelly.
Fruit cannot be compromised by ingredients in any way, but flavors must be enhanced.
The focal point is fruit. Spices, juices, textures, subtle flavors all add to the experience. Ultimately, simplicity seems to be the best.
The problem is, most desserts are laden with fats, such as butter, and too much sugar. Where to compromise? What to make?
Upside down cake! Simple and easy, and with the right ingredients, neither too sweet, nor loaded with the “wrong” fats. Solution, then? An olive oil cake.
Summer Fruit Upside Down Cake
Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour 9 inch circular cake pan. Fresh seasonal fruit – your choice! I used red plums, some ripe, some toward the green side – great sweet and sour combination. You could also do berries, strawberry-rhubarb combo, peaches, nectarines. In winter, go for apples and pears. Maybe add some chopped nuts or raisins in winter.
2-3 c. fresh fruit
2 T. white sugar
1 tsp. orange extract (I used Penzey’s)
Mix all of the above together, set aside. Stir occasionally, while creating the cake batter, if you think about it.
1.5 c. white or whole wheat flour
1/3 c. corn meal (yellow or white)
2 T baking powder
1/2 t salt
Mix together in a bowl. Set aside.
2/3 c. extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. orange extract
3 large eggs
3/4 c. light brown sugar
Whisk all liquid, eggs, and sugar together till thoroughly blended.
Add 1/3 flour to oil-egg mixture, mixing thoroughly, but do not over mix. Continue adding 1/3 flour to mixture until all flour mixed in.
Spread fruit over bottom of pan. Spread cake batter over fruit. Bake in oven 20 minutes, check, turn pan if necessary. Bake another 20 – 30 minutes until toothpick inserted in cake comes out clean.
Remove baked cake from oven. Run knife around edge of cake in pan. Jiggle pan to loosen fruit at bottom. Place large plate over top of pan and invert. Knock on bottom of cake pan to loosen cake – I used a wooden spoon. Remove the pan and scoop anything sticking to the pan back onto the cake – don’t be shy, make sure to taste it, too!
Cool. Serve with whipped cream, creme fraiche, or yogurt.
Years ago I met a young Finnish woman named Sirkku, and she made what she called Karelian Pies. I’ve never forgotten them, but never really knew how to make them. What I do recall is that the filling was a buttery, creamy rice – unlike anything I had ever tasted before – in a rye dough square that had finger prints on the edges, and was turned over, corner to corner, to contain the rice. I thought they were absolutely delicious.
Move ahead to the days of the internet and instant gratification. I decided to look them up, and came across this recipe for the pies at Tofu for Tea:
Karelian pies (makes 12-14 small pies)
120 g rye flour
30 g plain flour
1/8 tsp salt
120 ml water
190 g white rice (she used sushi rice, I used Arborio)
500 ml milk
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg (optional)
If you don’t have a scale, try to keep the portions similar for wet / dry ingredients. Luckily, I do have a scale, and it worked out nicely. Use Google to get equivalent non-metric measurements.
Choose a good dark rye flour. Bob’s Red Mill is one I use for all sorts of baking, and it is always really tasty. Other brands exist – see what is out there.
Sift together the rye flour, plain flour and salt in a bowl, or use a whisk to blend the flours and salt. Add the water to the flour by making a small well in the middle, and stir with a spoon as you pour the water into the well. Dough will be soft and moist (and I think would be great for crackers!).
When all is combined, mush the dough together into a ball and transfer to a board dusted with flour. Roll the dough into a tube, cut in half, and roll out until long and thin. My final dough looked like two long tubes, each about 14 inches in length, and about an inch in diameter. Divide into 12-14 pieces.
Making sure you have plenty of flour on your hands and the board, roll the sliced tubes into balls. As with pie dough, it is really important to work with a lot of flour, and dry hands. Flatten each ball slightly, and with a floured rolling pin, very gently flatten the balls into oval shapes. Flip the dough over after 3 or 4 rolls with the pin, and never put more pressure on the edge of the dough with the pin – you want a light touch. Spread the dough out from the center to the edges until it is about 1/8 inch thick. Transfer to cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. If the dough gets smooshed into the board, or sticks to the rolling pin, scrape it off, and roll it into a ball. Before reworking it into a flattened shape, remove the sticky dough left on the board or the pin, and redust everything with flour.
The rice totals about 2 c. dry. Put into a pan, rinse until clear, and then drain. Add 1 qt. water (or 1 liter), bring to boil, then drop to low, cover, and cook about 15 minutes. You will now have a rather watery mix of rice and liquid. Drain rice and water in a sieve for about 20 minutes. Return to pan, add milk (about 2 c.) and bring to light boil, drop temperature, cover, and maintain a simmer.
Check your pot and stove top as milk boils over very easily! As an aside, this is also an excellent base for stove-top rice pudding, but the crock pot works better because it doesn’t boil over.
The flattened rye dough doesn’t need to be covered with a damp cloth while the rice cooks. You might consider cooking the rice and making the rye dough while the rice cooks
Once the rice is cooked, stir it up with the grated nutmeg. You might consider a little butter as well, if you like that richness. The nutmeg adds a really nice touch to the pies – no idea if it is traditional – and I imagine that, instead of nutmeg, some good, fresh herbs would be nice, such as fresh chervil or savory. Fill the pies with a nice mound of rice. You can fill each flattened rye ball, and then do curl the edges of the dough up and around the rice, or do it individually. Keep your hands dry, so I suggest just dusting them with white flour. Pinch the dough together around the rice. When you have made all the pies, left over rice can be added carefully to the pies.
Melt a couple of tablespoons of butter in a dish and stir in a bit of milk. Brush this over the rice and on the rye dough.
Preheat the oven to 210 C / 400 F. Bake for about 20 minutes. I had two racks, so I switched the racks half way between, at the 10 minute mark. Cool on the pans, or move to wire racks. When completely cooled, store in a container in the refrigerator.
Notes
It took about 1.5 to 2 hours to make these. They are rather tasty, and certainly not something most of us eat every day. I imagine they would be very nice as a side dish, say with fish or a good green salad. By themselves, they can be a bit bland, but with a good pairing with other foods, would work out very nicely. Personally, I really like them, and when I want something to do, they could be just the perfect thing to keep my hands out of the devil’s work.
Hot weather means a desire for cool food. What can be better than cold, homemade potato salad made from scratch with flavorful produce from your own garden – or the neighbor’s? Potato salad is actually quite good for you, especially if the mayo is homemade with virgin olive oil, or store-bought with canola or olive oil. The key, though, is a potato salad that is icy cold, and has bits of heat throughout. Radishes are excellent for this, as are homemade pickled onion, and a bit of hot pepper powder. If you have fresh hot peppers around, you might give them a try as well.
Recipe
4 Yukon Gold potatoes, about 3 lbs.
7 red radishes, diced
Pickled onions (homemade) – about 1/4 c. diced
5 celery ribs, finely chopped
10 green onions, white and green parts, finely chopped
3 hard-boiled eggs
1/2 c. mayonnaise
2 T. apple cider vinegar
Ground pepper, hot pepper powder, Mrs. Dash, Dijon mustard
Chop potatoes into 1/2 inch dice; bring to boil in water. Cook till firm. Drain, and rinse with cold water. Shake out excess water. Refrigerate.
Bring eggs to boil in salted water. Boil 3 minutes, then leave in hot water (not boiling) for another 10 minutes. Cool in running cold water. Refrigerate until ready to use, then peel and chop. Add to potatoes.
Chop all vegetables into fine dice. Stir into potatoes and eggs.
Dress with seasonings, mayonnaise and vinegar. Stir all together. Refrigerate for several hours.
Oh, I was exceedingly frustrated by the crusty, crunchy rye bread I made last week.
Rye Bread
I knew I shouldn’t cut it while warm because, delicious as any bread is fresh out of the oven – which is why rolls are so much better at times! – it ruins the final product if you don’t eat it all up at once. However, I did not give up, and read more on other sites, and in the end to follow the directions at another site – spray the crust and let the bread dry a bit in the oven, and then, wrap it in plastic overnight.
And there you go – perfectly behaved bread slice with a deliciious flavor, a nice crust, and the ability to support a nice bit of butter and whatever else you wish.
Before I continue, I do want to state that I don’t think the author of the recipe is to blame for my crust problem. I think that there are times when a recipe is not complete, or instructions are not followed correctly. Because this bread is not kneaded, there is less flour in the final product, and it is the first time I have ever made a bread like this. Working with pure rye is tricky, but a kneaded rye is actually workable. My inexperience is to blame as far as I am concerned . . . but continue reading, and let’s see if I can fix my problem.
Well . . . I have been reading about software, but reading and looking at a computer are fine for a short while. I would rather be outdoors, or baking, or something that requires physical activity. For some reason, Danish open-face sandwiches came to mind, and with that, came a search for the bread that lies beneath everything. Recipes abound, and it was a bit of a challenge to find one I liked. By far, the simplest was found on the blog Fahrenbite, and which I followed fairly closely. I even dug out my scales, which will do both pounds and ounces, kilos and grams, and switched it to metric.
The most interesting thing about this bread is that there is no sourdough starter added to the dough. The entire dough ferments for two days, and the smell is mild and pleasant. No white flour is added, and the bread is not kneaded on a board or cloth to incorporate more flour. Instead, it is glopped into bread pans.
The video below is quite charming, and I used it as a basis for my choice not to knead in extra flour.
This video, as well, demonstrates the process. I love the bread cutter, and I expect you can buy one online, but a good, sharp knife and some skill with it should do the trick. The music is quite fun!
Okay, let’s begin. Plan on a 3-day process. The first day you mix up the rye dough, and set it aside, covered with a towel or plastic wrap. The second day seeds and / or rye kernels are set in water to soak overnight. On the third day, it is all mushed together and set aside to rise, and bake, and be eaten!
Day One
2.5 c. water
1 pkg. dry yeast
1.7 lb / 800 g / 3.5 – 4 c. rye flour (I use Bob’s Red Mill and Arrowhead Mills rye flours mixed together – both are great!)
Mix all of these together. Dough will be sticky and thick. If you are using measuring cups, it is a guessing game. I used the scale Josh uses when he weighs grain for beer . . . so 800 g. it was. Set this aside, and cover with a dry or damp towel, or plastic wrap. Ignore it for 2 days. I didn’t dampen my towel, so some of the top layers of dough was a bit dry, but ten minutes in the KitchenAid incorporated it into the rest of the dough quite nicely.
Day Two
Seeds of any variety. I used whole rye berries and hulled sunflower seeds. Other recipes suggest pumpkin seeds, and so on. You choose. I bought the rye berries at Whole Foods – about a cup or two – and had sunflower seeds on hand. Put your chosen seeds into a bowl, and cover with water. Since I didn’t know if they would swell up as much as dried beans, I was on the generous side with the water. Let sit overnight. Pre-soak amount of seeds and rye berries came to about 3 cups.
Day Three
Drain the seed mixture. Together, combine the rye dough and the seeds, and mix for about 10 minutes. I used the regular paddle on the KitchenAid (as seen in the second video) and let it run for about 10 minutes. While it was mixing, I added 1 tsp. salt, and with the mixer stopped, scraped the sides down at regular intervals. Even with the electric mixer, I beat the dough for about 10 minutes before turning it into pans.
The pans I used are called “pullman pans” and have lids to create square loaves. I did not use the lids, but needed a narrower loaf pan than my usual bread requires. They are about 4 inches wide, and rather more deep. With a big spoon, divide the dough between two pans, flattening the dough once you are done. The second video used sesame seeds across the top, but I just sprinkled some rolled oats randomly across the top. Once done, cover with plastic wrap and set aside to rise for 2 or 3 hours.
Rye flour has little if any gluten, so do not expect it to rise much. You will not have an abundance of bread from the flattened amount, but there will be some change.
Baking
Preheat the oven to 350 F / 180 C. Place the rack in the middle. Bake for about 1 1/4 hours, turn out onto wire rack, and cool. Do not slice the bread while it is warm – bread as dense as this will crumble and fall apart. Have patience!
Notes
Here in our beer-making household, we are out of dark malt! As a result, I did not have any coloring to add to the bread, so it is rather pale. The malt would add a flavor to the bread – next trip to the brew shop will result in a purchase of the darkest malt available. Some recipes had user comments – one added “brown coloring” to it, but I have no idea what that is, unless it is the equivalent of caramel coloring.
Open-face sandwiches vary, and you can find a lot of different ones online. Fahrenbite has some suggestions, and what also looks like a yummy recipe for Danish meatballs, known as frikadeller. Another blog with lovely photos, as well as a list of sandwich recipes, is Danish Open Sandwiches, known as smørrebrød.
Afterword . . .
These look lovely, and taste delicious. The problem is the crust – it is thick and crunchy, and the inside of the bread is very soft. Cutting through the crust is a disaster – a professional slicing machine may solve the problem, or letting the bread sit a day or two in a plastic bag to soften the crust. Other thoughts include baking the bread at a lower temperature – maybe 300 – and for longer, as well as possibly use unglazed ceramic pans.
As I write this, I have sprayed the remaining whole loaf – and the half loaf that did not get destroyed in trying to find a way to successfully slice it with different knives – thin filet knife, butcher knife, serrated knife. None were successful. Anyway, I have sprayed the loaves all over with water and placed them in the warming oven.
I got this idea from another recipe for this bread, which said to bake the bread for 2 hours, spray inside the oven every 30 minutes while baking. Then, when finished baking, leave the bread inside the oven for the next few hours as it cools, and now spray the crusts with water. Seems like they saw this problem . . . let’s see if spraying will help, or keeping in plastic for a few days. I expect mold could be a problem here, if not properly watched . . .
Ink, Yarn & Beer 