Almond Torte

Dessert, my friends, is where it's at.

This really shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone with tastebuds.

This recipe comes from the genius of Alice Waters, chef extraordinaire of Chez Panisse. We have my mom to thank for this one as she told me about this cake after having it a couple of times. I am thrilled to call it a new staple! Every home chef needs go-to recipes and this is my new dessert of choice. 

Serve this cake topped with a dusting of powdered sugar, fresh berries, and/or vanilla ice cream.

Or eat it for breakfast. It's versatile. 

Almond Torte

     from Alice Waters

     yields 1 9-inch cake - use a springform pan

Ingredients

1 cup cake flour

1½ tsp baking soda

pinch of salt

1¼ cups sugar

7 oz. almond paste, at room temp

10 oz. butter, at room temp

1 tsp vanilla

6 eggs, at room temp

powdered sugar for dusting

Directions

Preheat oven to 325°F.
Grease and line a 9 inch springform pan, set aside.
In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
In another bowl, combine the almond paste and sugar until the almond paste is in very small pieces. 

Using a standing mixer, beat the unsalted butter until light.

Add the almond and sugar mixture to the butter and cream together until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla extract and the eggs, one at a time. Scrape down sides of the bowl making sure everything is thoroughly combined.

Gradually add in the flour mixture until just combined.

Pour into the prepared cake pan and bake for one hour, 

until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool completely before serving.

The most perfect slicing you'll ever encounter.

Serve with powdered sugar on the top or with whipped cream. You don't need much, just a tad. The cake is the start of this show.

Enjoy!

Cognac Banana Bread

If you're anything like me you don't know much about brandy. It's made from wine and you sip it from one of those bulbous glasses, right? Thus begins and ends my understanding of brandy.

For this recipe you don't need to know anything about brandy other than Cognac, a French variant of the spirit, is used and it is a wonderful flavor enhancement. Use whatever kind of brandy you have on hand, there's only a spoonful in the recipe.

Sweet breads, or quick breads, such as banana, pumpkin and ginger bread are easy to make but also pretty easy to goof up. Tips for baking these kinds of breads:

• don't over mix your ingredients - mashed bananas shouldn't be creamed, you want some lumps
• ingredients should be a room temp unless otherwise specified
• break those eggs into a small bowl before adding to the mixer - eliminates your chance of eggshell chips
• throughly grease your pans - nothing is more disappointing than a perfect looking bread or cake that betrays your love by sticking to the pan

Cognac Banana Bread

     makes 1 loaf

     inspired by Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients

4 ripe bananas, roughly mashed

⅓ cup melted butter

1 cup brown sugar, loosely packed (I prefer dark brown sugar but use what you like)

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 tbsp Cognac

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp nutmeg

½ tsp cloves

1 tsp baking soda

pinch of salt

1½ cups flour

Directions

Preheat your oven to 350°F. 

In a large bowl, stir bananas and butter together. Add the sugar, egg, vanilla and Cognac, mix until all is incorporated before adding the spices. Lastly, fold in the flour until just combined. 

Chunky, mashed banana & melted butter

Pour your badder out into a greased loaf pan and bake for 50 minutes. The banana bread won't be fully baked but remove the bread from the over and lightly sprinkle a spoonful of sugar over the top. This will give the bread a crisp, crystalized top. Return to the oven and continue backing until a toothpick comes out clean, another 5-10 minutes.

Let cool. Serve warm, serve cold, toasted with jam, toasted with butter. I really enjoy the chunky bits of banana throughout the bread. Looking forward to making this one again and again. Hope you enjoy it, too!

Mmmm mmm good!