Blood of the Dragon: Healthy New Year Orange Cake

My brothers and I grew up eating a marvelous orange cake which I sadly probably won't make again even though I have the recipe and it couldn't be easier to make or more delicious: 150 g butter + 150 g flour + 150 g sugar + 2 whole eggs + 1 orange (juice and zest) + 1/2 packet of baking powder. Mix everything (except juice). Bake. When cake is done, drench with juice. Revel!
Over the years, I have made it over and over and it always met with the same unmitigated success. I even made it once ages ago for friends who were coming for tea one snowy Sunday afternoon and I burned my wrist when taking it out of the oven and it fell to the floor face down! There was no time to bake another one, so I took a spatula and rescued as much as I could of the part that wasn't in contact with the floor. Of course it was all broken but I pressed it into a charlotte mold and since it was still warm, it took the shape of the mold very nicely. When it had cooled enough, I unmolded it and drizzled warmed up apricot preserves over it. It was beautiful and even better than the original. My guests asked for the recipe which I provided - skipping the floor part - and all was well.
I had forgotten all about it until our youngest son's fourth grade teacher enrolled her whole class in a New York State writing program and the kids were asked to write about specific incidents in their childhood. So he wrote about the cake being scraped off the floor minutes before our guests arrived and his writing was so good and so funny that his piece was chosen to be read aloud in assembly! I was mortified but that wasn't the worst of it.
The worst came what he wrote about a very bumpy flight from Athens to Paris when he was 5 years old. He explained that he had been seating next to me and that the whole plane had been jolted when we were hit by lightning (true), that we had made an unplanned landing in Lyon to check for damages (they were minor) and that we continued to Paris under the cloud cover and that everybody got sick (true again); that we landed in Paris so fast that we were on the ground barely one minute or two before we took off again at warp speed and everyone was deadly pale and afraid and the flight attendants were running down the aisle with a strained look on their faces (still true) and that I turned towards him and shook his hand and said: "A..., it was nice meeting you" (the hand shaking and stiff upper lip discourse all figments of his imagination, needless to say). That too was read in assembly!!! I was never happier to see a kid graduate to middle school so that I become anonymous again...

Well, to come back to the cake, I can't make it anymore for health reasons but that doesn't mean we don't yearn for it every winter when huge baskets of oranges arrive at the grocery store... Last week it was blood oranges. 

Blood oranges! When I was growing up in France, blood oranges were very sour. They truly had a bite, so much so that I actually didn't care very much for them. They came from Spain and I don't think they had as much sun as the ones we get here which come from California and are sweet and fragrant.
Blood oranges (don't you love the name?) are rich in vitamin C, of course, but also in anthocyanin which is a powerful antioxydant. That gave me an idea. In honor of the Chinese New Year, I would bake a health-friendly orange cake (after all striving to keep my loved ones healthy throughout the year is certainly a priority) and call it Blood of the Dragon (as you can see, my youngest son doesn't have a monopoly on imagination!).

Now I won't lie and tell you the result is as airy and lovely as the original all-butter orange cake. You wouldn't believe me anyway. The texture reminds me more of a pudding than a cake proper but it is very tasty and refreshing. Orange and ginger combine to give it a nice kick (next time I might even add a bit of fresh ginger) and, in the health department, you can't beat the ingredients: nutrient-rich white whole wheat, natural starter (which makes it easier for the body to assimilate the nutrients present in the grain),  ginger (a powerful antioxydant in its own right), fresh oranges, cultured buttermilk, olive oil, etc...  So here is to a wondrous and healthy New Year!

Ingredients (for a 9-inch cake pan):

For the starter

• 180 g mature levain (starter)
• 180 g white whole wheat pastry flour
• 180 g cultured buttermilk
• 25 g ginger syrup

For the batter

• 80 g extra-virgin olive oil
• juice and zest of 2 blood oranges
• 100 g unsweetened applesauce
• 50 g bits of crystallized ginger
• pinch of salt
• note: the oranges I used were very sweet and with the crystallized ginger and the bit of syrup in the starter, I didn't need more sugar. You should taste the batter prior to baking (one of the advantages of baking without eggs is that you can actually have a taste) and determine whether or not sugar should be added

For the finished cake

• blood oranges
• confectioner's sugar

Method:

1. Starter is prepared at least 4 hours before baking: mix all ingredients with wooden spoon, cover tightly and let rise at warm room temparature
2. When the starter has doubled, add other ingredients, mix with wooden spoon and pour in oil-sprayed pan. Bake for 40 minutes in pre-heated 350°F/177°C oven
3. When done (a cake tester comes out clean), turn off the oven and leave the cake inside for another 5 to 10 minutes with oven door ajar. Cool on a rack
4. Dust with confectioner's sugar
5. Serve with freshly sliced blood oranges. Alternatively drench with blood orange juice  before serving.

Blood of the Dragon Orange Cake is going to Susan's for this week's issue of Yeastspotting...

Gâteau à l'orange (with white starter and yogurt)

When I first made this cake, the Man officially declared it to be the best he ever had. Hard to believe but that's what he said. Since it is easy and healthful, I have made it several times since, varying the ingredients: replacing some of the oil by applesauce (the cake doesn't rise as much), replacing the agave syrup by twice the same amount of sugar (makes the cake a bit lighter), skipping the eggs altogether (makes for a denser cake), using more oil (the cake rises a little more), replacing the yogurt by almond milk (makes for a lighter cake). The texture varies somewhat but the end result remains a very moist cake with a lovely orange flavor.
When I was growing up in Paris, a wonderful woman named Micheline worked in our house as a mother's helper. She came from the Berry in central France and had the strongest regional accent I had ever heard. She also had a huge heart and a sunny disposition. Her husband worked at the post office and her little boy was an adorable little rascal who one day - he must have been 6 - decided to drench passers-by in the street below (we were on the 8th floor) using the water hose my mom kept coiled on the balcony for her plants. He had a pretty good aim too!
Well anyway, Micheline was a very good cook and she often baked for us a "gâteau à l'orange", basically a pound cake containing equal amounts of butter, sugar, flour and eggs, plus one orange. She put the zest in the batter and poured the juice all over the cake when it came out of the oven. Scrumptious!
I made that cake many times back in the days when we had never heard of cholesterol and it was always a huge success. Since the cake is just as good made with more healthful ingredients, now that my local supermarket carries organic oranges (and needs to be encouraged to continue to do so), I see no reason not to indulge again.

Ingredients:

• 240 g mature white starter
• 228 g plain (or vanilla) yogurt (I used homemade full-fat yogurt)
• 30 g almond milk (regular milk would work fine) (depending on the hydration rate of your starter and the thickness of the yogurt, you may want to use a bit more or a bit less)
• 110 g white whole wheat flour
• 230 g unbleached all-purpose flour
• 80 g agave syrup
• 20 g liquid honey (I would have used 100 g agave syrup but I ran out)
• 1 orange, untreated, unpeeled, organic if possible, thoroughly washed, then chopped fine (rind and all) in the food processor (cut up the orange first to make sure there are no seeds)
• the juice of another orange
• 9 g baking soda
• 1 pinch of salt

Method:

1. In a large bowl, mix the starter, the flours and the yogurt
2. Add milk to adjust the consistency (it should be look like a starter with an 80% hydration rate)
3. Set to rise (the duration of the rise will vary according to the room temperature)
4. When nicely risen, pre-heat the oven at 350º F/177º C
5. Mix in the remaining ingredients, adding the baking soda last and pour into a pre-oiled cake pan (I used a kouglof pan as I like the shape but any deep pan will do. Don't substitute a shallow pan as the cake would end up being too dense)
6. Bake for 50 minutes
7. Let the cake rest 5 minutes before taking it out of the pan and setting it to cool on a rack
8. Drench with orange juice just before serving (if the cake is for grown-ups only, Grand-Marnier, Cointreau or Triple Sec can replace some of the juice).

Enjoy!

This "gâteau à l'orange" goes to Susan, from Wild Yeast for Yeastpotting.

Orange & Plum Miche with Two Preferments

This miche wasn't supposed to be. Always eager for the taste of whole wheat, I had decided to make a "pan bigio" from Carol Field's The Italian Baker, a book I have owned for quite a while and certainly not used enough as it is full of attractive recipes which I have yet to try. Most of them are yeast-based but they can and should be converted to natural starter. Maybe I'll give it a try this summer.
Anyway I had dutifully made the biga (starter dough made from small amounts of flour, water and yeast allowed to ferment for at least 24 hours) two days before and when it had become deliciously and deliriously effervescent, I started to prepare the other ingredients for scaling.
But (why so many buts in life?), just as biga requires commercial yeast (fresh, dry active or instant) , so does the final dough for Pan bigio and, as I was reaching for it, my eyes fell on my liquid starter, forlornly bubbling away in its glass jar. As I hadn't baked with it the day before, I actually needed to use some of it (or throw some out) to make room in the jar for its daily meal.
So I made up my mind on the spot, decided to keep the pan bigio recipe for a day when I wouldn't have enough starter (as if that was likely to happen anytime soon) and to strike for a new (to me) frontier in bread-baking: use two preferments in the same dough (I wasn't about to throw away the biga, as you can imagine).

I still wanted an at least partially whole-wheat bread but now that I was no longer bound by a recipe, I could give free rein to my imagination as to the other ingredients. So I gazed out of the window: looming dark clouds, misty lawn, dripping trees. It felt like fall, or maybe early spring (it was cold in the house with the heat off), and I tried to think of a flavor that would warm us up.
I closed my eyes and must have been visited by the ghost of Christmas past because, all of a sudden, I had a craving for dried plums and oranges, very little of both, just enough to give the bread a different fragrance and make it more festive. I briefly considered alternatives (mango and Brazil nuts?) but in the end, I stuck with the plum-orange flavor, which is a traditional one in French cooking and baking (although not in bread, at least not in the old days) and very pleasant in a quiet sort of way.
Since the two preferments had been made with regular bread flour, I decided to put at least 50% whole wheat flour in the final dough, and as a final treat (I love huge breads), I decided to make a very big loaf, so that I could give some to family and friends. It did come out big (1.8 kg) and fragrant, not sweet at all which is what I wanted. Too bad web-sampling hasn't been invented yet. I'd love to have you taste it and tell me what you think...

Ingredients:
For the biga

• 135 g unbleached all-purpose flour
• 115 g water
• 1/8 tsp instant dry yeast 

For the final dough

• 445 g whole wheat flour
• 420 g unbleached all-purpose flour
• 390 g water
• 250 g biga
• 225 g liquid starter (100% hydration)
• 50 g plump dried plums, chopped
• 18 g salt
• 5 g dried orange peel, soaked for 20 minutes in hot water, drained and finely chopped

Method:
For the biga

1. At least 1 day before but preferably 2, mix yeast and flour in a small bowl and add water
2. Stir to incorporate thoroughly, knead briefly until smooth and leave to ferment for 24 hours
3. After 24 hours, if not using immediately, refrigerate for another day
4. On the day of the baking, bring back to room temperature before using

For the final dough

1. Put the biga and the starter in the bowl of the mixer and mix slowly with the paddle attachment until incorporated
2. Add 250 g water (reserve the rest), mix again and add the flour
3. Mix on low until well incorporated, stop the mixer, cover the bowl and let rest for 20 minutes (autolyse)
4. Add the salt and mix on medium speed (3 on my old Rival Chef Excel) with the dough hook, adding water as needed for at least 6 minutes (depending on the flour you use you may have to use more water than I did in this recipe. I used a Hudson Valley artisanal whole wheat flour which doesn't absorb water readily and I had to adjust for that), until the dough has achieved the right consistency (neither too firm nor too slack, one clue would be to see how well defined the edges are. If the edges are sharpish-looking, you need to add water)
5. Give the dough the windowpane test (wet your hands, pull a piece of dough from the mass and gently turn and stretch it. If you manage to create a "window" in the dough without tearing it, it is ready)
6. Add the fruit and orange peel
7. Mix on low for a minute
8. Take the dough out of the bowl, transfer it to a (lightly) flour-dusted countertop and finish incorporating the plums and orange peel by hand making sure they are evenly distributed in the dough
9. Oil a big bowl or dough bucket and transfer the dough to it. Close the lid tightly
10. The first fermentation should take 1 1/2 to 2 hours
11. After that time, the dough should have at least doubled. Take it out and shape it roughly into a ball. Let it rest covered for 20 minutes
12. Shape it into a tight boule (ball) and put it, seam down, on a semolina-dusted board. Stick the board in a big clear plastic bag. Blow once into the bag before closing it to create a dome and stick the whole thing in the refrigerator for the night (or 8 to 10 hours during the day if more convenient)
13. In the morning, turn on the oven (450 F/232 C) after putting in it a baking stone (if using) with an empty metal pan on the rack under it
14. Take the bread out of the refrigerator and let it rest a while at room temperature while the oven heats up (or a bit longer)
15. Take the bread out of the bag and transfer it to a semolina-dusted parchment paper
16. Stencil and score the loaf as desired
17. Pour a cup of cold water in the metal pan, transfer the bread (still on the parchment paper) to the baking stone and spray some water on the walls of the oven (taking care not to aim towards the oven light) to create even more steam
18. Close the oven door and let bake for 40 minutes
19. After 40 minutes, open the oven to take a look at the bread. It is so big that it will not be done yet but it will probably be already brown enough. If that's the case, remove the parchment paper, lower the oven temperature to 390 F/199 C and bake another 15 minutes
20. Take the bread out and use an instant thermometer (insert on bottom surface) to check its internal temperature. (Mine had been put in the oven while still pretty cold and after 55 minutes, its internal temperature still hadn't reach 200 F/93 C)
    
21. If necessary, let bake another 10 minutes on 335 F/168C) until the bread's internal temperature reaches 204 F/96 C
22. Take the bread out of the oven and let it cool on a rack. It'll take a while but it's well worth the wait...

As always, the loaf has been submitted to Susan, from Wild Yeast, for her weekly Yeastpotting feature. I can't thank Susan enough for her beautiful, instructive and fun blog and for the kindness with which she displays other bakers' work. If you haven't visited Wild Yeast yet, you are in for a BIG treat! Enjoy!