Polenta Grape Cake Food

POLENTA GRAPE CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush bottom and sides of an 8-inch square baking pan with butter. Line bottom and two sides with parchment, leaving a 2-inch overhang; butter parchment.
• Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium. Simmer, swirling pan occasionally, until butter turns golden brown and nutty-smelling, 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer to a small bowl; let cool completely. Meanwhile, whisk together flour, polenta, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.
• Beat cooled butter, granulated sugar, and honey on medium-high speed until mixture resembles a sandy paste, 2 to 3 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time, scraping down sides of bowl as necessary. Reduce speed to low and beat in flour mixture in two batches, alternating with milk, just until combined (do not overmix). Fold in 1 cup grapes.
• Pour batter into prepared pan, smoothing top. Bake 15 minutes. Scatter remaining 1 cup grapes, rosemary, and sanding sugar over top. Bake until golden and a tester inserted in center comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes. Let cool in pan on a wire rack 15 minutes; remove cake using parchment and let cool completely on rack. Serve warm or room temperature.

OLIVE OIL AND GRAPE CAKE WITH HONEY GRAPE GLAZE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a 9-inch springform pan.
• Whisk together the all-purpose flour, almond flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.
• Beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the lemon zest and eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the olive oil and vanilla. Beat in half of the flour mixture, followed by the milk, and then the remaining flour, beating until just incorporated. Add about three-quarters of the grapes and gently fold them into the batter with a rubber spatula.
• Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and smooth the top. Gently press the remaining grapes just barely into the surface of the cake. Bake until the cake is golden brown, pulling away from the sides and a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool 10 minutes, then remove the springform rim and continue to cool completely.
• Serve the cake with whipped cream and drizzled with Honey Grape Glaze.
• Put the grapes, honey and lemon juice in a medium saucepan with 2 tablespoons water. Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring and smashing the grapes, until the grapes have broken down and the syrup is slightly thickened, 10 to 12 minutes. Strain the mixture into a bowl, pressing hard on the solids before discarding. Let cool before drizzling on the cake.

HARD POLENTA CAKES

Steps:

• In a saucepan combine the milk, water, bay and cayenne. Bring the mixture to a boil over low heat and season generously with salt. Take the seasoning to the edge of too salty. To do this you MUST taste as you go. Polenta acts as a salt eraser, if you don't season abundantly here you will never recover from it.
• Once the liquid is at a boil and is seasoned appropriately, sprinkle in the polenta whisking constantly. Once the polenta is combined switch over to a wooden spoon and stir frequently until the polenta has become thick. Taste the polenta to see if it has cooked through. If it still feels mealy and grainy, add some more milk or water and cook it to a thick consistency. Repeat this process, as needed, until the polenta feels smooth on your tongue, about 30 minutes. Remove the bay leaf and stir in the chopped sage and mascarpone.
• Line a 7 by 7-inch square pan with plastic wrap. Pour the polenta into the prepared pan. Cover the top with more plastic smoothed onto the surface of the polenta. Chill in the refrigerator until needed. (All of this can totally be done ahead of time, like yesterday! Cool!)
• When ready to use, remove the polenta from the pan and cut into desired shapes. Coat a nonstick saute pan with olive oil and bring to medium-high heat. Once the pan is hot and starting to smoke just a little, add the polenta shapes. Cook the polenta on both sides and finish by sprinkling with a little bit grated Parmigiano. Transfer to a serving platter and serve while hot.
• What a corncake!!!!

SPICY POLENTA CAKES

Steps:

• Combine the milk, salt and 2 cups water in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Lower the heat and slowly whisk in the polenta. Cook, whisking constantly, until the polenta tightens and there are no lumps, about 4 minutes. Stir in the queso blanco, butter, cilantro, pepper and jalapeno. Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Taste and adjust the seasoning as needed.
• Generously butter a 9-by-9-inch baking pan. Pour the polenta into the pan and set aside to cool to room temperature. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours, until firm.
• Preheat a griddle pan over medium heat. Invert the polenta onto a clean cutting board and slice it into nine 3-inch squares. Brush the squares on both sides with the olive oil, then griddle them until golden brown and warmed through, about 3 minutes per side. While warm, drizzle the polenta cakes with the honey and squeeze lime juice over the top. Serve.

CORNMEAL AND FIG CAKE WITH PINE NUTS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375°F. Butter 8-inch-diameter cake pan with 2-inch-high sides. Beat egg yolks and sugar in large bowl. Bring milk, grappa, and salt to boil in heavy medium saucepan over medium heat. Gradually whisk hot milk mixture into egg yolk mixture. Return to saucepan. Whisk in polenta. Whisk over medium-high heat until mixture thickens and begins to bubble, about 8 minutes.
• Fold figs, raisins, pine nuts, and fennel seeds into polenta mixture. Pour into prepared cake pan.
• Bake cake until golden brown, set in center, and beginning to pull away from sides of pan, about 40 minutes. Cool in pan 20 minutes. Cut around pan sides and invert cake onto platter. Serve warm or at room temperature.

ORANGE POLENTA CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 180°C Grease a 22cm round loose bottom cake tin and line the base with baking paper.
• Wash the orange and place it in a saucepan(do not peel the orange-leave it whole). Cover with water and weigh the orange down with a smll saucer or bowl. Bring to the boil and then simmer for 10-15 minutes. Remove the orange from the saucepan and allow it to cool for 10 minutes.
• Chop the orange coarsely and discard any seeds.
• Place the orange and any of its juice into a food processor and pulse until it is finely chopped. Add the butter, sugar, flour, gum, polenta, almond meal, baking powder, egg yolks and the liquer. Pulse until just combined- do not over process.
• In a seperate bowl- whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form.
• Fold the egg whites into the orange mixture.
• pour the cake mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 40- 45 minutes.
• Meanwhile- combine the orange syrup ingredients in a small saucepan. Stir over a medium heat until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil and cook for 2 minutes. The syrup will thicken slightly. Set the syrup aside until the cake is cooked.
• When you remove the cake from the oven, poke holes all over the surface and down into the cake( this allows the syrup to be absorbed better). Leave the cake in the tin.
• Pour all of the syrup over the surface of the cake and let the cake stand for at least 20 minutes, or until the syrup is absorbed into the cake.

FRIED POLENTA CAKES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• In a 1 to 1 1/2 quart oven-safe container, stir together water, salt, pepper, and polenta
• Add butter to the mixture, cut up in chunks.
• Place container, uncovered, in center rack of oven and bake 40 minutes.
• Open oven, pull out rack, add parmesan, and any other ingredients like sun-dried tomatoes, olives, lemon zest, herbs, shallots, cilantro etc. and let bake another 10 minutes.
• Pull out of oven and let rest in refrigerator 20 minutes to over-night.
• In frying pan, on medium-high, heat oil.
• Spoon about half a cup of polenta into the pan at a time, fry until golden brown on each side.
• Let cakes rest about 3-5 minutes and serve.

POLENTA FIG CAKE

Steps:

• preheat oven to 375. grease an 8" cake pan.
• beat yolks and sugar in a large bowl.
• in a saucepan bring milk, grappa, and salt to a boil, remove from heat.
• gradually add milk to egg mixture. return everything to the saucepan, add corn meal and whisk until thickened and beginning to bubble.
• add figs, raisins, nuts and fennel seeds to mixture, pour into the cake pan.
• bake 40 minutes until set and edges pull away from pan.
• cool 20 minutes in the pan, invert onto a plate, serve warm or at room temperature.

ORANGE POLENTA CAKE

Steps:

• Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3. Line the base and sides of a round 23cm cake tin with baking parchment. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and mix thoroughly. Once the mixture is combined, add all the dry ingredients and the zest and juice after you have measured off 100ml for the glaze.
• Transfer the mixture to the tin, spread evenly, then cook for about 45 mins or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Remove from the oven and turn out onto a wire rack to cool.
• To make the glaze, put the juice and sugar in a medium saucepan and bring to the boil. Let it simmer for 5 mins, then remove from the heat and allow to cool. Drizzle the orange glaze over the top of the cooled cake. Serve with Lemon ice cream, below.

OLIVE OIL CAKE WITH RED GRAPES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush an 8-inch square pan with oil; dust with flour, tapping out excess. Whisk together flour, almonds, polenta, baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Beat eggs, sugar, and zest with a mixer on high speed until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to low; slowly add oil. Beat in flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with milk, beginning and ending with flour.
• Spoon batter into pan; scatter 1 cup grapes over top. Bake for 15 minutes. Scatter remaining cup grapes over cake. Bake until cake is golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 25 to 27 minutes more. Let cool in pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Turn out, and cut into squares.