Passport & Plate - Summer in France
France | Thursday, March 5, 2015 | 5 photos
Ingredients
3 large eggs
100 g caster sugar
140 gms ground almonds
80 g self-raising flour
150 g melted butter
275 g bitter marmalade (Mix this with the hot melted butter to cool it down quickly and to soften the jam so it is easy to stir into the other ingredients).
½ teaspoon salt (This helps to neutralise
How to prepare this recipeMethod:
1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. In a bowl, beat eggs with sugar.
3. Stir in ground almonds, flour and salt; then stir in the melted butter and bitter marmalade till well mixed.
4. Pour into a buttered and floured, non-stick container and bake for approximately 40 minutes, or until a skewer poked in comes out clean.
5. Unmould and enjoy warm or cold.
Serve:
1. plain as is, or
2. dust with icing sugar, or
3. ice or glaze, or
4. drizzle with melted chocolate, or
5. slice and butter, or
6. turn into cupcakes with a swirl of butter cream, or
7. serve with whipped cream, yoghurt or mascarpone for dessert, or
8. douse with, rum or Cointreau, ignite and serve with crème patissiere and a blob of sweet curd
Variations:
I’ve called this “Summer in France” but haven’t labelled this recipe as a dessert, a cake, a slice, a loaf, or a muffin, as it can be cooked and served any way you choose using the same basic batter recipe. It’s delicious, incredibly versatile, forgiving, keeps well and seems to work whatever you do.
1. Baking containers – loaf tin (about 26cm), or… round tin, square tin, muffin pan, Bundt tin, paper cup-cake pans - all work! Cooking times will vary depending on the container used, but bearing in mind the timing for the loaf (above), the skewer test will tell you when your creation is ready.
2. At Step 3, for a change, throw in your favourite additions - dried fruit to taste (raisins/currents/sultanas, chopped glace pears or crystallised ginger, etc.); or try slivered almonds or small chunks of dark chocolate
3. Before cooking, dust the top with raw sugar; or top lightly with crunchy muesli or oat crumble
The story behind this recipePut it down to the frugality of the nuns who so relentlessly drummed it into us that waste is sinful when there are so many poor starving people in the world. Waste not, want not. I was one of the privileged. I sucked it up and left school abhorring the very thought of throwing away even a smidgen of edible food.
Years later, when hubby and I bought our family home, I delighted at the glorious fecundity of the large citrus tree at the end of the garden. Little did I know what was in store for me. Year after year I was to face the same problem: what could I do with a mountain of excruciatingly bitter grapefruit? Juice? More than unpalatable - it was undrinkable! My efforts quickly turned to marmalade but no matter what the recipe, the jam I produced was definitely not for the sweet toothed. Like Speke and the Nile I had discovered the source – the source of the expression “bitter aftertaste”.
“Twenty jars of gloriously golden jam going free. Will deliver!” It didn’t happen. The pride of one who loves to prepare, savour and share delicious food, prevented me offering my bitter marmalade to anyone beyond the garden gate. However, deeming it unspeakable that I should be defeated in the kitchen, I hunted relentlessly for a solution. Puddings, glazes, chutneys, muffins, cakes, cookies, loaves, crepes, mousses, sausages, curries, tagines... I experimented with them all.
Then one day, I found the recipe of my dreams. Simple to make, the result is truly delectable! The intensely buttery citrus flavour sings of summer in France, just a waft of it taking me back to the most magical holiday of my life. The subtle grapefruit aftertaste is sublime and sophisticated. The texture is moist, dense but light; the colour is as golden as honeyed sunshine. The bonus? Every bake uses one whole jar of bitter marmalade.
I found the recipe on line, and since have created many variations on the basic theme. Classically French, it came from “Le Castel, Baie de Somme, France”.
