Restaurant Recipes
Fiorella's Cucina Toscana Polenta Cake
Ingredients
- 1 cup + 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 1/2 pound unsalted butter, softened
- 4 egg yolks, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons finely grated orange zest
- 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
- 2 vanilla beans or 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/3 cups natural almonds
- 1 cup yellow cornmeal or coarse polenta
- 1/2 cup cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 8 egg whites, at room temperature
- 4 teaspoons confectioners' sugar
- Sweetened whipped cream
Instructions
- Heat oven to 325 degrees F. Generously butter a 1 inch deep 8 inch square baking pan.
- Combine butter, yolks, zests and 1 cup sugar. Scrape seeds from vanilla bean into mixture. Beat on high until creamy, 2 minutes.
- In food processor, finely grind nuts with cornmeal/polenta, cornstarch and baking powder.
- Beat egg whites with 1/2 teaspoon sugar until soft peaks form.
- Fold dry ingredients and 1/2 of egg whites into butter mixture; then fold in remaining egg whites until just incorporated. Scrape batter evenly into pan.
- Bake for 30 minutes, or until top is golden and pick inserted in center comes out clean.
- Cool in pan on rack 10 minutes.
- Invert cake on rack; cool completely.
- Sprinkle with confectioners' sugar.
Attribution
Fiorella's, Orlando, Florida