SO I BAKE…
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SO I BAKE…
Ten minutes ago I was half asleep on our bed, lying in the sunshine with the cat… but I didn’t give into the nap, although I probably should have. I have been working tirelessly on my new website… except I don’t think it counts as working tirelessly if you are really tired? I’m not sure how that works. I’m nearly done with website #1 and it’s heartening to know that in just under a month I rebuilt a rather complicated website on my own. I guess I have learned a thing or two these past four years of blogging. So, no nap for me today. Instead I made myself a hazelnut latte with our newly fixed La Pavoni espresso machine. It feels a bit sacrilegious to be pouring a glug of hazelnut syrup into a latte made from freshly roasted beans and whipped up with an $800 espresso machine. In fact, I hate hazelnut flavoring, chocolate hazelnut, hazelnuts in general. But, like my Hot Tamale addiction, my affinity for hazelnut lattes started during my pregnancy with Lulu. Here I am ten months after she was born and I am still drinking them. Now I am sitting outside looking fabulous, I’m sure, in my old jeans, Kyle’s sweatshirt, and slippers, sipping my latte and pretending to work on my website while my tall, handsome husband attempts to rig together something to keep the moles from burrowing into our irrigation box. I’m going to take this charade one step further and lie to myself that when I finish writing this I’m going to pull on my Carhartts (I don’t own any) and get to work with him. If I were being honest, I’d admit to myself that once this latte is drained I’m going to lean back in this patio chair and be very still, and very quiet until one, or both, of my children wake up from their nap.
This afternoon hour of rest has been well earned this week. Sometimes life is overwhelming, so I bake. There is something about the measuring and sifting, the whir of the stand mixer, the sharp scent of pure vanilla, and the smell of something baking that helps to put things right. I’m certainly not the first person to have discovered the bolstering power of baking, and I dare say I won’t be the last.
Pound cake is my favorite thing to bake in the afternoon, with banana bread holding the morning spot, probably permanently, as my favorite thing to bake before noon. So, what do you bake at 11:00 in the morning? I dreamed up this pound cake a few months ago and have been tweaking it to perfection. I really don’t think of myself as a baker; I’m more of a cook. I like to toss in a pinch of this, a little of that… the precise nature of baking doesn’t always appeal to me. But this cake was worth the effort of trial and error.
I started off using the basic pound cake recipe in the Cook’s Illustrated New Best Recipes cookbook, then came the banana, the chocolate… the booze. The result is something that is at it’s core, a pound cake. It’s heavy in the way that pound cakes are, with a dense, spongy base. It’s vanilla-y, with a hint of banana and sharp layers of bourbon-laced chocolate swirled throughout. It’s not too sweet, not too banana-y, not to chocolaty… it’s not too anything. It’s pretty much just right. In my book, anyway.
One last note on the banana aspect of this cake, I am of the camp that believes that an overripe banana that has been frozen in it’s peel, then defrosted is the best kind of banana for baking. But if all you have is a ripe banana on your countertop that will work just fine too.
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BOURBON CHOCOLATE BANANA POUND CAKE
Ingredients.
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 1/3 cup granulated sugar
3 whole eggs and 3 egg yolks, at room temperature
1/2 cup mashed banana = 1 very large (or two smaller) overripe banana
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 teaspoons bourbon or whiskey (plus more for the chocolate sauce)
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
2 cups cake flour, sifted
For the chocolate sauce:
2/3 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons corn syrup
2 tablespoons bourbon or whisky
Directions.
With water in a small double boiler (or pot of water and metal mixing bowl)* simmering, mix together the chocolate chips, 1/4 cup heavy cream, and corn syrup until melted and combine. Turn the heat off (alcohol is flammable) before mixing in the bourbon! Set aside.
Preheat your oven to 325˚F. Grease and line a loaf pan with parchment paper.
In your stand mixer, beat your butter for a couple minutes, until it’s shiny and smooth. Then add in the sugar and whip on high until it resembles frosting, about five minutes.
While the butter and sugar cream, whisk together your eggs, egg yolks, vanilla, and bourbon. Reduce the mixer to medium low speed and slowly drizzle the egg mixture in, stopping once to scrape down the sides. Once the egg mixture is incorporated, add the banana. Finally add the salt, and a half cup at a time, add it the flour. Remove the bowl from the mixer and, using a spatula, gently fold the batter together to make sure everything is incorporated. Now you can assemble your cake.
First scoop in a layer of batter, followed by a layer of chocolate, then another layer of batter, a layer of chocolate, a layer of batter, another of chocolate, and, finally, the rest of the batter. It’s okay if you have chocolate left over, I usually do and it’s perfect on ice cream. Then, using a spoon, make three lines (the long way) down the top of the cake: one on the left, one center, and one on the right. Then take a sharp knife or skewer and, starting in on corner, work your way down the pan, swirling the chocolate into the batter.
Pop the cake into the oven, on the center rack, for 1 1/4 – 1 1/2 hours, until a skewer comes out mostly clean. Remove from the oven and let the cake cook, in the pan, for about ten minutes before removing it. Let it rest another ten minutes before serving it. It great warm, at room temperature, and my favorite thing about pound cake is that it is a totally acceptable breakfast item.
PRINTABLE RECIPE.
BOURBON CHOCOLATE BANANA POUND CAKE
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