Zucchi'nis Cake

When a giant zucchini the size of Endeavor showed up on my front door step, I felt like a kid who had lost a tooth and woke up to a visit from the tooth fairy; only I had done nothing, nothing, to warrant such gifting. I had a hunch who the Zucchini Fairy might be, first eliminating obvious possibilities such as Zooey Deschanel (she famously has a zucchini patch), or some weirdo down the street.


In fact, it was my compadre, Lisa Kirk, who had just acquired a community garden in Venice after a lifetime of a waiting list.  She was newly endowed with zucchini the size of WW2 bombs, and lots of them. Apparently, she was hitting the neighborhood hard, dropping zucchini on door steps like some sort of raid, and I was so happy I was hit. It offered the perfect opportunity to closeout summer produce by making an "end of summer" cake: zucchini cake.

Mind you, I didn't have a recipe in my back pocket but David Lebovitz always has one in his. I found the perfect recipe on his namesake blog: a zucchini cake from the esteemed pastry chef Gina Di Palma of the Mario Batali camp; and set about my cake-making business. I knew it would be something.

Something for me to screw-up. Well, sort of.

I followed the instructions, adding some lemon zest to the batter, as Lebovitz suggested, and greased and floured my tired grooved bundt pan, and proceeded to bake the cake. It was incredibly lovely until a certain turn of events. When I placed the cake in the oven I turned the oven off. I did. I turned it off. Big time loser situation... and all I can say for myself is that I was really tired. I had taught a cooking class that day and was so energized I decided to come home and clean my house and organize my fridge and polish the hardwood floors and... bake a cake and photograph it! Why not??? And why not forget to set a timer as I laid down with my cup of afternoon tea...

I woke up and didn't smell cake and zombied myself to the stove and got extremely WTF and heated the oven and finally baked-off the cake, like a normal person.

And with that, a small tragedy was just around the corner...

As I flipped the baked cake out onto a wire cooling rack, with the intention of turning it out to cool, I could feel that the weight of the cake had not fully shifted onto the rack. In fact, the top of the cake would not budge and stuck to the inside of the pan... super mad face. I am sure my tepid-oven-nap-session was to blame for this. Lame, for sure.

But it was not my first "lost" cake and I knew exactly what to do. After a few curse words, a glass of milk, and some lost cake pieces, I went about my business to save it. All I had to do was trim the cake flat with a serrated knife and remove the craggy pieces; then flip the cake once more so that the bottom of the cake was now the top. Dress it with the lemon sugar glaze and it was as good as new. No one would ever know. Until now.

And best of all? It was the best zucchini anything I had ever had, earning a permanent place in my baking repertoir, scraps and all.

Good Luck, XO

Gina DePalma is the master creator of this cake and you can find it in her book, Dolce Italiano: Desserts from the Babbo Kitchen, or on David Lebovitz' blog, as I did. This is almost the same cake that Lebovitz posted, only that I substituted grape seed oil for olive oil. As much as I enjoy olive oil in cakes, I didn't have enough for the recipe. Either way its an incredible cake. You'll see.

And a side note about preparing the cake. Typically, one would prepare the cake pan first so that it is ready for the fresh cake batter. I have a weird habit of letting the batter rest a little while I prepare my cake pan... what works for me may work for you.

Zucchini Cake with Crunchy Lemon Glaze

serves 12-16 mouths

Cake

1 cup almonds, pecans, or walnuts toasted, I used walnuts
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 cup extra-virgin olive oil or grape seed oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
zest of one lemon
2 1/2 cups finely grated zucchini

Crunchy Lemon Glaze

1//4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 cup powdered sugar

here we go...

preheat your oven to 350', and do not turn it off

a giant zucchi'nis... haha!

finely grate the zucchini

measure the dry ingredients except the sugar, into a colander: flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg...

and sift, breaking down every little lump

ta da...

combine with a beautiful whisk, such as this, bragging...

toast your nuts and chop finely, by hand or by sheer food processor-speed, be sure to pulse

pulse! avoid pulsing into a paste...

combine the eggs, sugar, oil and lemon zest and mix with a whisk, hand-mixer or stand-up mixer, for about 3 minutes until light and fluffy

be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl to be sure everything is incorporated

don't forget your vanilla, once the mixture is well beaten

a piece of parchment is an old trick pastry chefs use to pour the flour into the mixer, evenly, and no mess

try it

just tip it in... and pour evenly while the whisk turns on medium speed for 30 seconds

what's next?

add your finely chopped nuts and finely grated zucchini, gently folding with a spatula, careful not to over mix the cake batter

grease your bundt pan with melted butter, then dust with flour until every crevasse is covered...

and knock out the remaining flour

fill your prepared cake pan with the cake batter...

and bake for 45-50 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean and the cake pulls away from the sides

let the cake cool for 10 minutes... and flip the cake out onto a wire rack, hopefully not like this!

don't cry... make the lemon glaze

and drizzle with lemon sugar glaze... yum...

even better the next day when mom comes to town, xo

no one can see this pretty thing's missing parts... smile

it is and was as good as it looks

front cover of Gourmet? absolutely...

and don't foget these... 

It's a Bread Revival

This is not a freshly baked loaf of bread. On the contrary. It's a tired old loaf from Trader Joe's that was forgotten during our end of summer heat wave. No one wants toast when it's 100 degrees. I could have wrapped it in plastic and froze it, as I usually would have done; pulling it out to defrost when I was ready. But I didn't. Instead, I left it wrapped in the back of the fridge, to harden like an old leather boot. Was it salvageable? I had no idea. I just needed two slices with my tea...

I have saved many loaves over the years with this one being one of the driest, densest I've attempted to revive; and with nothing to lose, why not make some toast, anyway? At the very least someone will learn how to save a perfectly good loaf of bread.

First, the mission: to reconstitute this thing back to life. We are looking for moisture and slice-ability. Secondly, we want to eat it. I prefer toasting older bread in slices; bringing out the last of its qualities, and maybe even erasing some of its tiredness.

Here is my most simple revival; an elementary technique I have done a hundred times over. But you will need a microwave. Yes, disparaging chefs, a microwave. Hey, if Ferran Adria can use a microwave to bake-off sponge cake... validation right here:



It's not a big deal, the bread is practically dead anyway; just be sure to stand far away from the microwave, like, in the next room.

And if you are a luddite, as we should be, I'm sure you'll find the time to defrost, naturally. It could take at least an hour in a cool kitchen. 

Bread Revival

1) Microwave the loaf in 30 second increments until just market-fresh soft. I find that 90 seconds is usually good enough. You do not want to loosen the bread too much, just soften it to the degree of slice-ability. Avoid a sweaty, steamy loaf, at all costs. It will be spongy.

2) Next, you have two choices: slice and toast to order, or bake the half or whole loaf in a 350' oven for 15 minutes, then slice.

Slicing

Having the right knife is the most important factor when working with whole loaves of bread. People use the wrong knives all the time resulting in injury, or even worse, ruining a good loaf. The wrong knife is a chefs knife, or any knife that is not serrated. Serrated is the only knife one should use for slicing bread.

When you have purchased your serrated "bread knife" from Bed Bath and Beyond, very affordable, remember to gently "saw" the bread. Never push down on the bread, as you will smash it's delicate crumb into a gluey mess.

Update

I can now slice bread with my less dominant left hand... And right dominant hand is less lame everyday(!)

the tired, old boot

the resuscitation begins

the mighty serrated knife, emblazoned with my alma mater

slice and toast up... 

wish I had eggs...

My Godmother: Bay Cities Italian Deli

Sometimes it's too darned hot to cook and if you live on the west side of Los Angeles you probably don't have "air". We brag about our breezy west side weather all the time but occasionally the beach hits close to triple digits and you know what that means: your beautiful beach bungalow is a sweltering 20 degrees hotter than the weather report. Not so beautiful when you look like you've just ran a marathon for crossing your living room.

So, you load up on watermelon and head out to eat in search of cool a breeze and air-conditioning. And there is no place better than the venerable Bay Cities Italian Deli and Bakery. On a hot day no one minds waiting 30 minutes to place an order. The air is on blast and the cool Pelligrino is in the case behind you. In fact, I have waited a damned long time to place my Godmother order because it is worth every minute of every day. Who that Godmother was or is, I do not care, for she's mine now. Her cold-cut combo is perfection. Mortadella meets coppacola, ham, prosciutto, salami and provolone; and piled just so with "the works": onion and pickles, shredded lettuce and tomato, and an Italian spicy pepper salad that is down-right addictive.



And let's wax a little about the bread. The bread is baked fresh on the half hour and the rolls are airy, crusty and chewy.


Just don't go on Monday.

MONDAY CLOSED.

Lake Party ~ Savory Bread Pudding with Manchego, Chorizo and Challa?

Cooking lakeside with awesome people is as fun as it sounds. And even twice as much fun when you have an air-conditioned RV with a hallway kitchen and one of those 1940's pullout drawer cutting boards. Us cooks love that sorta thing. And to make matters better, the only kitchen tool I brought along was a box grater that I threw into the trunk of my car at 4 AM before my 5 hour drive to the lake. Oh, it was gonna be fun.

And better yet, in the midst of loading bags of groceries, a boat and paddle boards Max forgot her tools, too. Like somebody said: great minds think alike. Or possibly, great minds get overwhelmed... Whatever. We just like a challenge anyway, or at the least don't mind one, and certainly wouldn't be chefs if that weren't the case.

But we did plan a menu and had much forethought about what meals would make our lake-crew happy in the 108 degree heat in Arizona. We factored in lake activities, sun exposure, laziness, and built a menu just a few days after Max and her guy Marco stepped off a plane from Peru, from Peru to Costco to the lake, amazing. We would keep it easy and guilty with lots of chips and dips, cheese and salami; tacos with margaritas; sangria; sandwiches for the boat and a big Chinese chicken salad... all kinds of goodness. We wrote our lists and headed to the market. 

I was responsible for a few meals with a suggestion from Max, it was her birthday weekend, to bake-up some bready, cheesy, custardy, sausagey mess for Saturday's brunch. It would be the perfect followup to Friday night's frozen Margaritas and pair real nice with morning mimosas. Plus, we had an oven and air-conditioning. Why not take advantage? Three things immediately came to mind: Manchego cheese, Spanish chorizo sausage and a braided loaf of challa. I would set it up the night before and bake it off in the morning while we nursed our coffee. Simple and lazy. 

So, when Max unhinged that cutting board from its cabinet, on Friday evening, laid it on the table and starting sectioning oranges for sangria with a knife that had probably never had an edge, we all laughed ourselves to tears. Marco blended the drinks and Deborah squeezed avocados from their skin into the only mixing bowl in the kitchen, a "Dorito" bowl... It was darned funny as we crowded around the kitchen table with four dogs at our feet; in wet bathing suits; with Max's mom and dad; and Deborah singing her anthem "this is how we do it", Montell Jordan; you can find it on Youtube, best affirmative dance song ever...

And we did it.

Here it is:

Savory Bread Pudding with Manchego, Chorizo and Challa 

It's a lazy persons recipe because you can throw it together the night before and bake it in the oven the next morning and feel like a champ. And the ingredients are simple:

6 eggs

2 pints of half and half

1 cup of shredded Manchego

1 cup of shredded Gruyere

1 loaf of braided challa bread

1 Spanish chorizo sausage

Salt and pepper

*marmalade onions-- I had some in my freezer from my Onion Marmalade post

pull the bread apart and remove the crust; it's easy

grate your cheeses and slice your sausage

make a custard by combining the eggs and the half and half; don't forget to season with salt and pepper

top the torn bread with the shredded cheese, chorizo and pour the custard of the top, pressing it down with the back of a spoon to evenly moisten and mix

if you have it, crown with onion marmalade

cover with foil and rest in the fridge over night

bake at 400' for 35- 45 minutes and make your coffee

And to be extra guilty, serve with a side of bacon; Max's dad Bo had some good stuff

And again, happy birthday Max, xoxo