sf wrote:

> Orange and Olive Oil Cake with Rosemary
>
> Ingredients:
>
> 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
> 1 cup sugar
> 3 eggs
> 3 large navel oranges, zested
> 3/4 cup orange juice, freshly squeezed
> 2 cups all purpose flour
> 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
> 1 (generous) tsp, finely chopped fresh rosemary
> 1/8 tsp salt
> Butter or non stick cooking spray to grease the pan
>
> Method:
> Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare a 9 X 4 loaf pan with butter
> or cooking spray.
>
> Measure sugar into a bowl. Zest the oranges and add the zest directly
> to the sugar in the bowl. Try to touch the zest as little as possible
> and mix it into the sugar with a whisk or a fork. The idea is to keep
> the orange oils for the sugar and not all over your hands. The sugar
> will turn an orangey color, <http://oi56.tinypic.com/2mqkwv5.jpg>
> which will be the color of the finished cake.
>
> Juice the oranges, for about 3/4 cups of juice. Set aside.
>
> Sift the dry ingredients: flour, salt and baking powder. Stir in the
> chopped rosemary and set aside.
>
> Add the oil to the sugar and mix until blended. Beat in each egg, one
> by one, until thick foamy and almost doubled. Add about 1/3 cup flour
> and mix it in well, alternate with about 1/4 cup of juice. Repeat
> until the flour and the juice are used up. Scrape batter off the
> sides of the bowl and gently pour it into the prepared loaf pan. Bake
> in preheated oven, for 50 minutes to 1 hour (mine took an hour), or
> until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
> <http://oi51.tinypic.com/27xgtxk.jpg>

I think I'd use honey in place of some of the sugar. For Easter I made a
chestnut cheesecake with rosemary-infused honey and oranges which was very
good.

As you wrote elsewhere in the thread, it's probably not that important to
use navel oranges. Given the choice, I'd probably use Valencia oranges,
though it might be necessary to use four of them to make an equivalent
amount of zest and juice as the three navel oranges called for in the
recipe.

Bob

On Thu, 9 Jun 2011 19:03:37 -0700, "Bob Terwilliger"
> wrote:

> I think I'd use honey in place of some of the sugar. For Easter I made a
> chestnut cheesecake with rosemary-infused honey and oranges which was very
> good.

Hmm. Well, you're changing my mind... I was going to substitute half
the oil for applesauce next time, just to see if/how the flavor
changes but I like it the way it is. You can taste a hint of olive
oil flavor if you know what to look for. I told my husband that
there's no butter in it after he told me how good it was and that made
him very happy. He said "I can eat as much as I want, maybe I'll eat
the whole thing".

But before I play around with the sugar or oil, I'll switch out the
oranges for lemons because olive oil, rosemary and lemon are a match
made in heaven.
>
> As you wrote elsewhere in the thread, it's probably not that important to
> use navel oranges. Given the choice, I'd probably use Valencia oranges,
> though it might be necessary to use four of them to make an equivalent
> amount of zest and juice as the three navel oranges called for in the
> recipe.

Exactly! I was thinking of Valencias when I wrote that. If they
produce a little more juice, I'd use it and let the cake stay in the
oven longer. I liked the crust on this cake, so maybe the oven
temperature should be lowered so it wouldn't end up any thicker. I'm
not a big baker, so I'll learn by trial and error.

--

Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground.