Baking With Tom

One of my favorite things to do on a day off is bake while listening to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. One of my favorite songs is Breakdown.

When I moved to San Francisco seven years ago my palate was limited. I didn’t eat goat cheese. I didn’t like tomatoes, or avocado. To say the least, my food world was limited. But yesterday, I was about to order geoduck sashimi for lunch! It didn’t happen for a two reasons; 1. It was priced at 30 dollars a pound, while the required amount to purchase was at least 2 pounds, and 2. There were only 2 of us. Today, I made rosemary polenta cake with peaches and honey whipped cream for dessert. For dinner, we’re having enchiladas verde, refried beans, with guacamole and chips for starters. All made by ME! Okay, I didn’t make the chips, but 4 out of 5’s pretty good. A few years ago, I would have never considered a savory dessert, but today I’m excited to try it. I did turn 30 this year, so that may have something to do with my new found love of eating delicious, interesting food.

Paris recently gave me his recipe for homemade refried beans. I’m using it again tonight, and I’ve gotta say, I will never eat canned beans EVER again. It’s too easy to make them from scratch. There’s a little more work involved besides popping open a can, but the reward for flavorful beans is so worth it. I’ll never go back! Make your own beans!

No surprise here that the recipe for the cake comes from America’s Test Kitchen. I’m hooked. But, if it weren’t for some of my favorite shows like ATK, Top Chef, and No Reservations, I just may be relegated to eating beans from a can, and never enjoying savory sweet baked goods like this…

Cake:
1 cup whole milk
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
1 ½ cups instant polenta
3 large eggs
¼ cup honey
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup cake flour
¾ cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces and softened

Topping:
2 large ripe peaches, peeled and sliced into ¼ inch thick wedges
1 sprig fresh rosemary
1 tablespoon sugar
Pinch salt
½ cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon honey

1. For the cake: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat to 350. Grease a 9-inch cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.

2. Bring the milk and rosemary sprigs to a simmer in a medium saucepan, then let steep off the heat for 10 minutes: discard the rosemary sprigs. Meanwhile, spread the polenta over a rimmed baking sheet and toast in the oven until fragrant and lightly golden, about 10 mins. Carefully whisk the hot toasted polenta into the steeped milk.

3. Whisk the egg, honey, and vanilla together in medium bowl. In a large bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together. Using an electric mixer on medium-low speed, beat the butter into the flour mixture, one piece at a time, about 30 seconds. Continue to beat the mixture until it resembles moist crumbs, 1 to 3 minutes.

4. Beat in the egg mixture until combined, about 30 seconds. Break up any large clumps of the polenta with your fingers, then beat it into the batter, one handful at a time, until combined, about 30 seconds. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat the batter until smooth and uniform 2 to 4 mins.

5. Give the batter a final stir with a rubber spatula to make sure it is thoroughly combined. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, smooth the top, and gently tap the pan on the counter to settle the batter. Bake the cake until the top is golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 30-35 mins, rotating the pan halfway through baking.

6. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 mins. Run a knife around the edge of the cake, then flip it out onto a wire rack. Peel off the parchment paper, then flip the cake right side up, and let cool completely, 1-2 hours.

7. For the topping: While the cake cools, toss the peaches, rosemary, sugar, and salt together in a medium bowl and let sit until the peaches release their juices, about 20 mins. Before serving, whip the cream and honey together with an electric mixer on medium-low until frothy, about 1 min. Increase the mixer speed to high and continue to whip until the cream forms soft peaks, 1-3 mins.

8 To assemble: Spread the whipped cream over the top, leaving ½ inch border around the edge. Discard the rosemary sprig from the peaches and arrange them in a concentric patter over the cream.
Voila! I am considering messing around with the peaches. My peaches were ripe and tasted great, but weren’t soft enough for the fork to slide through them while they were on top of the cake. Had to push them off and construct the perfect bite. Maybe I didn’t let them macerate long enough, maybe they weren’t ripe enough, but would love to find a way to have softer peaches consistently, maybe sauté, or bake them.