The French say Genoise or Savoyarde for their biscuit/cakes, both being Italian references. The Italians call the same thing Pan di Spanio. I found an old recipe from Madeleine Kamman days for a cake called Pan di Genoa. What’s it mean? Basically that you’ll eat really good, old fashioned, cake. It has the finest crumb that melts in the mouth as the flavor of kirsch, added for perfume, reveals itself. The best kirsch I know comes from Aqua Perfecta, distilled by Jorg Rupf at Saint George Spirits in the Bay Area. The cake marries well with summer fruit. We in the Northwest apparently had our summer somewhere between December and April. Nature now seems to have amortized summer/winter across spring as we head to the Solstice, coming tomorrow with the promise of 60 degrees. Oh well.
Because of an absence of sun, we have perfectly developed fruit, However, our strawberries, while red to the core, offer the thinness of flavor you’d expect in a fruit not transformed by sun. As a result of the weather my thinking has also gone retrograde and I slip back toward winter to pair with fresh fruits with dry fruit to boost flavor. Their resulting taste seems like an extraordinary gift.
The little cake called Pan di Genoa is made with ground almond flour, but without wheat flour. The technique calls for creaming butter and sugar, beating till you barely feel the grain of un-dissolved sugar. Since the whip on the stand mixer (I use Kitchenaide) doesn’t touch the side walls of the bowl, it’s necessary to scrape and incorporate the un-creamed part of the mix. The finished creamed mixture is thick, and resembles whipped cream.
Add each egg, beating for 30 seconds or so until the whipped texture is restored to the base. Don’t over-beat or the egg protein will turn liquid. Scrape again, and beat another 20 seconds. Repeat this procedure with the second, third, and fourth eggs. In the end, you should still have that thick, whipped quality to the batter.
Folding. In order to add the flour, I remove the batter to a flatter and wider utility bowl to make the job of folding more efficient. I fold in a quarter of the almond flour/ cornstarch mixture. Before there were spatulas, there were hands, and people used them for folding. You would cut into the batter with your hand, lift the batter from the center of the bottom of the bowl, and as you raise you hand, you turn it and allow the batter to fall over the top of the batter left in the bowl. It’s the weight of the scooped batter, folded over the batter in the bowl that creates one of the gentlest ways of mixing ingredients.
You start with a quarter of the volume of the flour because it’s easier for the fat in the egg-based batter to accept the dry ingredients. When you have a quarter of it incorporated, add the second quarter of the volume of flour and repeat incorporating by folding. Don’t under-fold; don’t over-fold. Like that? It means, fold till you see the flour evenly distributed. If you keep going you’re probably fixated, having a good time, but not paying attention and the cake will fail you. Judge your actions; incorporate, stop.
Cakes like these remind me of pound cakes, they are moist, dense and flavorful. I like to butter the mold that I bake them in, and coat the pan with sugar. As the cake bakes it develops the nicest crust around the bottom. The crust not only feels and tastes good but seems to help keep the cake fresh. I wrap the cake in parchment to store them rather than in plastic that seems to cause them to deflate and the lovely texture transforms to cardboard.
I bake the cake until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Since there is no flour, the texture of this type of cake is a little wetter and requires more time to dry out. I baked one last week at 350oF for an hour an ten minutes. I baked the same cake a second time for 50 minutes. The point is, test and bake dry.
Serve this cake with a compote of prunes, cut to the size of raisins, mixed with golden raisins, grated lemon rind, and moistened with Brandy (I like Germain Robin alembic brandy). About 5 minutes before serving, mix in good quality (i.e. no corn syrop or high speed fructose) raspberry or cherry jam until you obtain a sauce-like mix. Finish the compote with sliced strawberries. When the season advances and the cherries arrive, add them to the mix. And as the season further advances, drop out the prunes (I do so reluctantly because the tannins from local Parson’s prunes add a lovely earthy quality to the compote).
PAN DI GENOA
1.] Butter an 8-inch square pyrex dish, then dust with sugar.
2.] Cream 125 gm butter (4 ounces) and 250 gm sugar (8 ounces).
3.] Still beating, add 4 eggs, 1 at a time, beating well with each addition.
4.] Flavor with 2 tablespoons kirsch (St George Spirits, Aqua Perfecta).
5.] Fold, a third at a time: 250 gm almond flour (8-1/2 ounces)
mixed and sifted with 75 gm (2-1/2 oz) cornstarch
6.] Bake 350o for 50 to 60 minutes minutes until a knife comes out clean, and the cake crust is lightly golden. Serve with a compote of fruit. Recipe follows.
COMPOTE OF FRESH AND DRIED FRUITS
12 prunes, cut in 1/6ths
½ cup golden raisins
grated rind of a lemon
2-4 tablespoons brandy
2-4 tablespoons excellent quality raspberry or cherry jam
1 pint strawberries, sliced
1 cup cherries, pitted and halved
Put prunes and raisins in a 1-quart bowl. Add grated lemon rind. Moisten with brandy and let sit for 30 minutes to an hour. Just prior to serving, add jam, mixing with brandy to create sauce-like texture. Add strawberries and cherries and mix well.
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