Do you make recipes from Smitten Kitchen (aka Deb Perelman)? I have heard her speak at a conference, and she is delightful - not in the bubbly annoying way - rather very self-effacing, humble, even shy. As far as I know, she still cooks in a wee kitchen in her NYC home. She has been blogging since at least 2008 and now has several cookbooks. Though I have her books, I don’t look at them daily and so my inspiration comes from her Instagram feed and her Newsletters. So far she gives all her recipes away free. (This is not a paid post or advertisement.)
Her recipes include a lot of photos and long introductions / stories - which I quite like. You can read her story about this recipe, and view her version of the recipe here. I confess I made a few changes (Mainly, I cut back on chocolate chips; and added mixed candied fruit .)
Faced with leftover ricotta, she was inspired to make this - an adaption of one of her earlier recipes. I too love to make things with ricotta, plus for a review of local bakeries I’d been eating a lot of cannoli - at La Bakeri and Holy Cannoli. I was hooked! Made it and love it!!
The recipe also uses olive oil which is considered healthier than butter.
“Bread” or “cake”? Perelman calls this recipe “Cannoli Pound Cake”. I wasn’t happy with that name. It’s not what comes to my mind when one says pound cake. Plus Wikipedia defines pound cake as “Pound cake is a type of cake traditionally made with a pound of each of four ingredients: flour, butter, eggs, and sugar.” - and that it is not. So what is it? A “cake” or a “quick bread”?
Turns out there is some discussion about this out on the “interweb”. Here’s a good quick read from Food52 -You Say "Bread," I Say "Cake". Main points: 1) a “quick bread” is a bread that uses baking powder or baking soda instead of yeast.; 2) most things we bake in loaf pans (think Banana Bread, Zucchini Bread) are technically cakes.
I won’t debate with experts, but would add that for me things baked in a loaf pan do end up with a nice “crust” - which makes it kind of “bread-y” - part of the enjoyable eating experience. BTW, the article explains that not every cake batter can be successfully baked in a loaf pan - so don’t get carried away experimenting.
Bottom line - I’m calling this a quick bread - which coincidentally fits with my plan of making 2020 my “Year of Bread”.
Here's the Recipe!
Getting Ready:
I love to do day-ahead prep of ingredients. It makes baking day so much more pleasant and quick.
make sure you have ingredients that you may not usually have on hand - e.g. orange, lemon, ricotta, candied citrus (if using)
large mixing bowl (you make this by hand, no need for a mixer)
a standard (8 1/2-x-4 1/4″) loaf pan; on baking day, prep pan with butter (my pref) or cooking spray
measure 200 g granulated sugar into the large mixing bowl you’ll be using (make-ahead)
mix the spices (make-ahead)
measure the flour (make-ahead)
measure the chocolate chips (make-ahead)
measure and prep 1/2 cup pistachios nuts (make-ahead)
[I don’t zest the lemon and orange until the baking day.]
bring 2 eggs to room temperature
Preheat oven to 350 F
1 cup / 200 g granulated sugar
grated zest from 1 orange
grated zest from 1 lemon
Wash and dry the orange and lemon (think of how many people touched these before you bought them.) Finely grate the zest from each into the bowl with the sugar. Use your fingers to rub the zest into the sugar - this smells great! (Tip - you can juice these fruits and use the juice for some other purpose.)
1/2 cup olive oil
1 TB sweet Marsala wine
1 cup / 250 g whole-milk ricotta
2 large eggs
SK lists the Marsala as optional - I would definitely use it - and did.)
Into the sugar/zest mixture whisk in the olive oil, ricotta and eggs.
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 -2 pinches allspice
Combine the baking powder, salt, cinnamon and allspice, sprinkle them over the wet mixture and whisk together.
1.5 cups / 190 g all-purpose flour
1/2 to 3/4 cup mini-chocolate chips
1/2 cup / 60 g pistachios, chopped small
1/4 cup mixed candied citrus bits (optional)
Gently mix each of these into the wet mixture until combined with no flour streaks.
Tip: an easy way to “chop” pistachios is to place the in a zip-lock bad and smash them a bit with the bottom of a glass or some such thing.
As I mentioned above - I did not use a full cup of chocolate chips as per SK - too much IMHO.
Transfer batter into prepared loaf. Bake in preheated 350 F oven for 55 minutes (worked for me) or an extra 5 - 10 minutes if necessary until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool on wire rack in pan for 15 minutes, then invert out onto rack to finish cooling.
Notes and Tips...
Candied Citrus Peel
Ricotta - this cheese is not all the same - especially when it comes to sodium content. My favourite (St. Lucia) has 100 mg for a serving size compared to only 40 mg of sodium per serving of other popular brands.
Chocolate Chips - definitely use minis - regular sized would be too large
Candied Citrus - I got these at a bulk store - mainly a mixture of citrus peels
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