Around My French Table (84 page)

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Have an 8-inch round cake pan (preferably one with sides at least 1½ inches high) at hand.

TO MAKE THE CAKE:
Bring the milk and salt just to a boil in a medium saucepan. At the sign of the first bubble, lower the heat, pour in the farina, and stir with a wooden spoon. Keep stirring, adjusting the heat so that the farina doesn't scorch, until the mixture thickens—check the cereal box for approximate cooking times. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the sugar and vanilla. Let the mixture cool for about 15 minutes.

WHILE THE FARINA COOLS, MAKE THE CARAMEL:
Slide the cake pan into the oven to warm—warming it makes getting an even layer of caramel a snap.

Put the sugar, water, and lemon juice in a small skillet or saucepan over high heat. Stir to moisten the sugar, then allow the mixture to come to a boil. As the sugar starts to take on color, swirl the pan gently so that it heats evenly. Keep a close watch on the pan, and when the sugar turns deep amber (about 5 minutes)—you can test the color by dropping a bit of caramel onto a white plate—remove the pan from the heat. Pour the caramel into the warm cake pan and tilt the pan until you get an even coating.

TO FINISH THE CAKE:
Stir the beaten eggs and raisins into the cooled farina mixture, and scrape the batter into the caramelized cake pan. Slide the pan into the oven and bake until the cake firms and puffs and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean, 25 to 35 minutes.

Invert a serving plate with a rim over the cake pan and, working carefully—the caramel is very, very hot—turn the pan over onto the plate and lift it off, allowing the caramel sauce to run down the sides of the cake. Let the cake cool to room temperature before serving.

MAKES 8 SERVINGS

SERVING
Once the cake is cool, cut it into slices and serve it with the caramel sauce that has pooled on the plate. Traditionally this cake is served with a spoonful of crème anglaise (
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), a very nice addition. For something a little less rich, pair the cake with fresh fruit; it's particularly good with pineapple.

STORING
Although the cake is meant to be served at room temperature, it will keep, covered, in the refrigerator overnight and can be served chilled—the caramel will remain saucy—or brought to room temperature.

I
SPAHAN (OR ISFAHAN) IS THE NAME
of both a profoundly fragrant rose and the once-capital of Persia. And while we Americans might not ever mention the name, many Parisians have it on the tips of their tongues daily, thanks to the pastry genius Pierre Hermé, whose collection of Ispahan desserts is among his best sellers.

The first of Pierre's Ispahan sweets was a
macaron:
two disks of rose-colored almond-meringue cookies sandwiching a rose-flavored cream studded with lychees and raspberries. It was topped with a fresh rose petal, held to the
macaron
by a tiny drop of sugar syrup that looked like dew, and it was stunning. This is the pastry that started the rose fever that spread throughout France. Today every
grande pâtisserie
has something made with rose, and if your local pâtisserie doesn't, you can get your Ispahan fix at the supermarket: there's now a rose-raspberry-lychee yogurt.

Among all the members of the Ispahan family, this loaf cake is perhaps the simplest for home bakers to re-create. There's nothing unusual or difficult about the recipe—all the surprises are in the finished cake: the color is pink, the flavor is haunting, and the crumb is soft, tight, and pleasantly springy, a result of the cake being leavened by whipped egg whites. And then there are the fresh raspberries—they dot the interior of the cake and permeate it with both their distinctive flavor and their perfume. It's a remarkable cake.

About the rose flavoring: The cake must be made with rose syrup,
not
rose water. Monin is the brand that Pierre recommends, and it is the one most easily found in the United States. However, if you know a store that specializes in products from the Middle East, you may be able to find another brand of high-quality syrup there. In addition, the cake uses a little rose extract (and a little is all you need); I use an extract made by Star Kay White. These ingredients are expensive, but they keep for a long time, and I'm convinced that if you make this cake once, you'll make it many times thereafter.

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Generously butter a 9-×-5-inch loaf pan, dust the inside with flour, and tap out the excess.

Stir the rose syrup into the milk. Put the almond flour and confectioners' sugar in a sieve set over a bowl and stir the ingredients to pass them through it. Whisk them together.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, beat the egg whites just until they start to hold their shape, then gradually add the sugar, beating until the whites hold firm, glossy peaks. If you need the mixer bowl, gently slide the whites into another bowl. (There's no need to wash the mixer bowl.)

Put the butter and almond-flour mixture in the mixer bowl or another large bowl and, using the paddle attachment or a hand mixer, beat at medium-high speed, scraping the bowl as needed, for 3 minutes, or until very smooth. Working at medium speed, add the 3 egg yolks one at a time, beating for about 1 minute after each addition, then beat in the whole egg. Add the rose-flavored milk, as well as the rose extract, and beat for 1 minute more.

Give the egg whites a quick turn with a whisk and stir one quarter to one third of them into the batter to lighten it. Switch to a rubber spatula and, working with a light touch, alternately fold the remaining whites and the all-purpose flour into the batter: do this as quickly and gently as you can, folding in the flour in about 3 additions and the whites in 2.

Scrape one third of the batter into the prepared loaf pan and spread to even it. Make 3 rows of berries down the length of the pan—don't let the berries touch the sides of the pan—then cover the berries with half of the remaining batter. Make 3 more rows of berries and carefully cover these with the last of the batter.

Lower the oven temperature to 300 degrees, and bake the cake for 55 to 65 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. The top of the cake should be a lovely brown and feel springy to the touch, and the cake will have started to pull away from the sides of the pan. Transfer the cake to a cooling rack and let it rest for about 3 minutes, then unmold it, invert it, and let it cool to room temperature on the rack.

MAKES 8 SERVINGS

SERVING
The cake should be cut into thick slices, so that each slice has some berries, and served with coffee, tea, or Champagne. Although there's nothing that says you can't serve it with a raspberry coulis or even a little whipped cream or crème fraîche and berries, it's really perfect plain. Since the pink color makes it festive and party-ish, it's a great cake for Valentine's Day.

STORING
The cake is a good keeper. It can be kept, wrapped in plastic wrap, at room temperature for at least 4 days.

R
OULADES, OR JELLY ROLLS, AS WE CALL THEM,
are just what you'd hope homemade cakes would be: tasty, beautiful, and fun to make. They're also easy. For proof, I offer the fact that roulades are something the French make at home often, and they're far less ambitious about home baking than we are. (Jelly rolls, homemade or store-bought, are so popular that even the most casual French home-goods store carries a cake plate made for a roulade.)

Like all jelly rolls, this one is made with a sponge cake, here the same sponge you'd use if you were making ladyfingers. (If you want to make ladyfingers, see Bonne Idée.) But instead of being rolled up with jelly, this cake is filled with a mixture of blueberry-speckled sweetened mascarpone and whipped cream, one very similar to a charlotte filling I learned from Pierre Hermé. It's a dessert that manages to be both homey and sophisticated at the same time.

Dropping the berries into hot syrup plumps the fruit, sweetens it slightly, and softens it just slightly.

BE PREPARED:
The filled roulade needs to chill for at least 2 hours.

TO MAKE THE BERRIES:
Bring the water and sugar to a boil in a medium saucepan, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Add the blueberries and immediately remove the pan from the heat. Let cool to room temperature, then chill until needed.
(You can make the berries up to a day ahead and keep them well covered in the refrigerator.)

TO MAKE THE ROULADE:
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. You have a choice about how to make the roulade. If you've got a large cookie sheet, take a large piece of parchment paper, draw a rectangle on one side that's about 12 × 17 inches, flip the paper over, and put it on the sheet. If you've got a rimmed baking sheet, one that's in the neighborhood of 12 × 17, just line it with parchment. Have a clean kitchen towel and some confectioners' sugar at the ready.

Sift the flour and cornstarch onto a piece of wax or parchment paper. (Using paper makes it easy to funnel the dry ingredients into the bowl.)

Put the egg whites into the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or into a large clean dry bowl that you can use with a hand mixer and whip the whites until they are opaque and just starting to thicken and hold their shape. Little by little, whip in the granulated sugar, and when it's fully incorporated, beat at medium-high to high speed for another couple of minutes. You want the meringue to be very firm.

Put the yolks in a bowl and whisk them for about I minute, until smooth. Gently scoop out about one quarter of the meringue and whisk it into the yolks to lighten them. Don't worry if the whites deflate some; they'll still do their job. Now scrape the lightened yolks onto the meringue, then put the dry ingredients over the yolks. With a large rubber spatula, gently fold all the ingredients together. Work as gingerly as you can—of course, no matter how careful you are, you're going to knock some air out of the meringue—and get the batter as well blended as you can, but keep in mind that it's perfectly fine to have patches of egg white here and there. It's better to have spots of egg white than to have a deflated batter. Turn the batter out onto the prepared pan. If you're using a large parchment-lined cookie sheet, fill in the area of your penciled rectangle with batter, spreading the batter so that it is the same thickness overall. Don't worry about scraggly edges—you can trim them later. If you're using a rimmed pan, smooth the batter to cover the pan evenly.

Bake the sponge for 8 to 10 minutes, or until it is uniformly puffed, crusted, slightly spongy to the touch, and lightly golden (if the cake is in a rimmed pan, it will be just starting to come away from the sides). Transfer the pan to a cooling rack.

Dust the kitchen towel with confectioners' sugar—be generous. If the cake is free-form, run a long metal spatula, preferably offset, under the cake to loosen it from the parchment, then invert it onto the sugar-dusted kitchen towel. If the cake is in a rimmed pan, run a blunt knife around the sides of the cake, then invert the cake onto the sugared cloth. Gently peel away the parchment paper.