orange-scented banana layer cake

carrie:  and when we go to star, we could get –
me:  pork loin!
carrie:  yeah, that too…but i was thinking of ice cream.
(24 hours later)
carrie:  last night i had a dream about rare meat…i think it was the pork loin.

* * *
i am having a minor allergic reaction to the tiny bit of chocolate-hazelnut shortbread dough that i ate. hmph. well, now the shortbread is in the oven and it shall be mine. hopefully the tea i’m drinking will make the itch in my throat go away. i sweetened it with lyle’s golden syrup, which i used last sunday to make a caramel sauce. it’s one of those british things you’ll only understand when you use it. but it’s perfect for caramel sauce – it just has this kind of caramel-sweet flavor to it. it’s also the thickest liquid i’ve ever seen in my life. shake it, and it just doesn’t move at all. wonder why it’s so viscous. it’s not as good a sweetener as honey, but it does the job, and when else am i going to use it?

the story about the pork : a couple days ago i came home to find carrie scarfing down some focaccia from star. while browsing, she came upon a pork loin sale – huge pork loins for $1.99/lb. we didn’t go last night, but as of last night’s desperate-must-have-ice-cream-and-tosci’s-is-closed run, we are proud owners of a ten-pound pork loin. it was the runt of the lot, but had the best marbling and the least fat on top. we have plans for this pork loin…

* * *
(the shortbread comes out of the oven.)

carrie:  we’re missing one thing.
me:  what?
carrie:  milk.
me:  we have cream…

* * *

whoever combined chocolate and hazelnuts was a genius. a genius. such a genius. the recipe we used was from the past issue of gourmet (which still has ugly covers, by the way), and the only substitution we made was hazelnuts for almonds. the almonds are probably a little more subtle and don’t whack you upside the head like the hazelnuts, and certainly wouldn’t draw as many comparisons to the ferrero rocher candy, but in all reality i prefer hazelnuts. they do taste a bit like the candy, but so does every other chocolate-hazelnut combination. the shortbread is tender but crumbly (note that this is when the shortbread is about 15 minutes out of the oven), and has, in addition to the chocolate-hazelnut flavor, a nice, rounded buttery flavor, and a bit of a crunch from the granulated sugar. i really like recipes like this one, where each ingredient has a clear and simple role in the flavor of the finished product, whether it lends something to texture, smell, or aesthetics.

to go back a few days to the place where i left off in my previous post, let’s talk about the banana cake i made for alice’s potluck. it was saturday night, i was tired and had no intention of going anywhere, but i wanted to make a banana cake. so…after perusing epicurious, i found a cake that perfectly suited the ingredients i had on hand. more specifically, i combined two recipes – one for a banana layer cake that used oil (not butter, of which i had half a stick left in the house) and one for a chocolate buche de noel. i used the layer cake from the banana cake recipe, and the gelatin-stabilized, orange-zested whipped cream from the buche de noel. the whipped cream is fantastic because it has very little sweetener in it, and so it’s really a fantastic foil for anything that’s heavy or really intense. i didn’t have any vegetable oil, so i used olive oil and crossed my fingers (it was fine). i also didn’t have any vanilla, so i used orange oil instead, thus making the commitment to a banana-orange cake rather than a straight banana cake. the original idea had been a boston cream pie, essentially, with banana cake in place of the vanilla sponge cake – kind of like bananas foster as a cake. i thought the pure flavors of the cream and a caramel sauce would be great with the banana cake. as it happened, i added another flavor that maybe wasn’t really the right thing to do, but it went over fine at the potluck.

i had bought the cream – four pints of it, mind you – when it was on sale at star market, 2 pints/$3. quite the deal, though perhaps not when you go through said pints of cream in a week and a half. good thing i didn’t eat all of it myself, huh? anyway, the abundance of cream gave me the vision of thin layers of cake sandwiched with layers of pillowy whipped cream. it was saturday, though, and the potluck was on sunday, so i stabilized the whipped cream for two reasons – one, so that it would hold up overnight, and two, so that the cream would withhold the pressure of the heavy cake.

we also made a quiche. i made the crust from richard sax’s home desserts, and i was afraid the dough would never come together. finally it did, and then i worried that it would be tough. well, it was fine. it was flaky enough – it could have had a bit more butter – but quiche is rich enough without having equally rich pastry. this quiche was also made from what we had on hand on sunday afternoon (by which time my parents had replenished my stocks of butter) – a mixture of parmesan, cheddar, gruyere, and herbed goat cheese; eggs, cream, and milk; and broccoli, onions, and caramelized onions leftover from making pizza. it turned out well, though, despite the slapdash nature of putting it together. i like quiche and bread pudding because you can really mess with the ratio of eggs and cream before it ruins it. quiche is certainly more susceptible to mediocrity than bread pudding, because the egg-cream custard is front and center, but it’s still pretty flexible. i can’t remember the last time i’ve ended up with a bad quiche with respect to the filling.

life in the cutcat kitchen has been fairly uneventful since the potluck. yesterday carrien and i made dinner, though. we made a spinach-cream sauce for pasta (bucatini rigate) from our incredibly sandy boston organics spinach, our remaining pint of cream, parmesan cheese, onions, and rosemary that we sneaked home with us from central kitchen – it had had a former life as a garnish. the sauce, loosely based on the spinach cream sauce from how to cook everything, was fantastic. i really like the combination of spinach, cream, and onions in the first place, and the rosemary was a surprise welcome addition. add the salt of the parmesan cheese, which also thickens the sauce, and you have a great, viable pasta sauce that’s more than creamed spinach. we also boiled some green beans and broccoli and tossed ’em with olive oil. can’t go wrong there.

and without further ado, here are some recipes.

orange-scented banana layer cake

1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup mashed ripe bananas
1/2 cup olive oil or vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1/4 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon orange oil
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

4T boiling water
2t gelatin
2 1/2c cream + 1/2c cream
1/8c to 1/4c sugar
2t orange zest

caramel sauce (optional)

1. mash the bananas coarsely, add sugar, and whip with an electric mixer until smooth. add the oil and beat until smooth. add eggs, buttermilk, and orange oil, and beat until smooth.

2. sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt. add to the wet ingredients and mix until combined. grease and flour two 9″ cake pans and divide the batter between the pans. preheat the oven to 350F and bake the cakes for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown on top and a tester comes out dry. cool the cakes and then split into two layers each.

3. to make the whipped cream, sprinkle the gelatin over the boiling water. let stand 10 minutes. heat the 1/2c cream until warm and then slowly stir into gelatin mixture. let the gelatin mixture cool to room temperature. whip the 2 1/2c cream until it reaches soft peaks. add the orange zest and sugar and whip until combined. add the gelatin mixture and whip to stiff peaks. if the gelatin mixture is not at room temperature, the whipped cream will curdle; stirring the gelatin mixture will help it cool down.

4. assemble the cake : place one layer on the cake platter. smooth about 1/4c caramel sauce on the layer, if you’re using it. spread a quarter of the whipped cream (1 1/2 to 2 cups) on the layer and repeat until you have used all of the layers. you’ll have four layers of cake and four of cream, ending with a layer of cream on top. refrigerate at least two hours, and preferably overnight. before you serve the cake, drizzle it with caramel sauce.

[makes 10-12 servings]

caramel sauce  (from the pie and pastry bible, via epicurious)

1c sugar (7 ounces = 200 grams)
1T Lyle’s Golden Syrup (refiner’s syrup) or corn syrup (0.75 ounce = 21 grams)
1/4c water (2 ounces = 60 grams)
1/2c heavy cream, heated (4 ounces = 116 grams)
2T unsalted butter, softened (1 ounce = 28 grams)
1t pure vanilla extract (i generally omit this)

1. in a heavy saucepan (with a 5-cup or larger capacity), stir together the sugar, syrup, and water until the sugar is completely moistened. heat, stirring constantly, until the sugar dissolves and the syrup is bubbling. stop stirring completely and allow it to boil undisturbed until it turns a deep amber. immediately remove it from the heat and slowly and carefully pour the hot cream into the caramel. it will bubble up furiously.

2. use a high-temperature heat-resistant rubber spatula, or a porcelain or wooden spoon to stir the mixture until smooth, scraping up the thicker part that settles on the bottom. if any lumps develop, return the pan to the heat and stir until they dissolve. stir in the butter. the mixture will be streaky but become uniform after cooling slightly and stirring.

[makes about 1 cup]

store at room temperature, up to 3 days; refrigerated, at least 3 months. to reheat: if the caramel is in a microwave-safe container at room temperature, microwave it on high power for 1 minute, stirring twice. if cold, it will take a few seconds more. alternatively, place it in a bowl in a pan of simmering water and heat, stirring occasionally, until warm, about 7 minutes.

notes
* refiner’s or corn syrup helps to prevent the caramel sauce from crystallizing when stirred. It also lowers the caramelization temperature.

* unrefined sugar, which contains a small amount of natural molasses — which caramelizes at a slightly lower temperature — provides a flavor that is deliciously reminiscent of butterscotch. the “impurities” in unrefined sugar can cause crysallization so if you use it, care must be taken not to stir the caramel too much.

* to further prevent crystallization, try not allow any sugar crystals to get on the sides of the pan, and be sure to moisten all the sugar with the water. stop stirring entirely as soon as it comes to a boil.

* use a pan that conducts heat well (such as unlined copper, aluminum, or anodized aluminum) so that cooking stops soon after it is removed from the heat. do not use a pan with a tin or nonstick lining, as its melting point is below that of caramel.

* soaking utensils in hot water will remove hardened caramel.

* after the caramel is prepared, do not stir it too much, as this may eventually cause crystallization.

pasta in a spinach-cream sauce

2T olive oil
1 large onion, sliced thinly into rings
10 oz fresh spinach, washed
1c cream
salt + pepper, plus a bit of sugar
1/2T fresh rosemary, chopped fine (optional)
1/2c microplaned parmesan cheese (please don’t use pregrated or kraft parmesan cheese)
1/2 lb to 1 lb pasta (preferably a ridged long noodle pasta)

1. heat the olive oil in a medium skillet, over medium heat. when it’s hot, add the onions and stir. saute until soft and translucent, about 5-7 minutes. add the spinach (it might overflow the pan but pack it down) and cover it. let the spinach cook until it’s wilted. remove the cover and let cook uncovered.

2. add the rosemary. in a separate large pot, start heating water to cook the pasta. when the water is boiling, add the pasta and cook it (drain it when it’s done). let mixture cook until the water has almost completely evaporated. as it cooks, break up the spinach into bits with a spatula (it should be soft enough for this to be easy).

3. add the cream and simmer until the mixture is fairly thick, about 10-15 minutes. add salt, pepper, and sugar to taste. stir in the cheese until it’s cooked. toss the sauce with the pasta and serve.

[serves 4]

chocolate hazelnut shortbread

1/2c whole hazelnuts
1c flour
5T sugar
2T cocoa (preferably valrhona – this is not a recipe in which you could use cheap cocoa)
1/4t salt
1/2c butter

1. pulse nuts with flour, sugar, cocoa, and salt in a food processor or blender until very finely chopped. if you’re using a blender you might have to stir up the ingredients a couple times so the mixture is fairly homogenous.

2. if you’re using a food processor, add the butter in small pieces and pulse until a dough forms. if you’re using a blender, dump the dry ingredients into a medium bowl and cut in the butter until a dough forms – don’t overwork the dough.

3. press dough evenly into an ungreased 9″ square baking pan. cut dough into 16 squares with a sharp knife, then cut squares diagonally to make a total of 32 triangles (optional – you can make whatever shapes you want, but follow this cutting process).

4. bake until cookies are dry to the touch, 15 to 17 minutes. while cookies are hot, recut in the pan. cool completely in the pan.

[makes 32 small cookies]