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Friday, April 27, 2012

Recipe for Armenian Nutmeg Cake-Daring Bakers




Oh boy.  This is an Armenian version of a coffee cake, but not quite as sweet.  It is however, wonderfully delicious!  The original recipe called for nutmeg, which I used, but I also added some cardamom which just gave it the most amazing flavor.  

The Daring Bakers’ April 2012 challenge, hosted by Jason at Daily Candor, were two Armenian standards: nazook and nutmeg cake. Nazook is a layered yeasted dough pastry with a sweet filling, and nutmeg cake is a fragrant, nutty coffee-style cake.  I chose to make the nutmeg cake for this month's challenge, but have the nazook recipe tucked away for later.

Yield: 16 servings
Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:
  • 1 cup 2% milk
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 2 cups cake flour (280 grams)
  • 2 tsp single acting baking powder (aluminum free)
  • 1 ½ cups light brown sugar (350 grams)
  • 1 ¼ sticks unsalted butter(150 grams)
  • ½ cup finely chopped walnuts
  • 1 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
  • 1 tsp ground cardamom
  • 1 egg white



 Method:
  • Preheat oven to 350. 
  • Mix baking soda in to the milk and set aside.
  • Put flour, baking powder, brown sugar in food processor and pulse until mixed.
  • Add in the butter and pulse until a tan crumb forms.
  • Pour half the crumb into a spring form pan (Mine was 10 inches, 9 inches would make a thicker cake but all I have is 10”).  Press to form a crust on the bottom of the pan.
  • Add the egg white, milk and baking soda mixture, and spices to food processor, and mix until a thin, slightly lumpy batter is formed.
  • Pour batter over crust and gently sprinkle with walnuts.
  • Bake for 30-40 minutes.
  • Cool in pan, then remove and serve.


Some of my fellow participants reported problems with the batter not firming up or with the nuts migrating down in to the cake.  I made sure to use finely chopped nuts and gently sprinkled them on the top.  Not sure if the fact that I used a larger spring form pan (10 inches versus the 9 inches called for) made a difference, but my cake was cooked in the allotted time.

This was super easy to make and we really enjoyed it both as a breakfast treat and as dessert (Mr. ELEB had it with whipped cream, of course!).


See cakes from other Daring Bakers here.


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