While you may not be able to take a trip to the Italian countryside anytime soon, this simple cake will make you feel like you just stepped off a cobblestone street into an old-world bakery. The combination of polenta, almond, and fresh rosemary meld to create a uniquely Italian dessert that will make you swoon.
Find this recipe and more in The Holiday Issue. Recipe and Photos by Carol Levy.
Polenta Pear Rosemary Cake
Prep Time
20 minutes
Total Time
60-65 minutes
Carole Levy, an artist and chef, is the founder of The Veggie Vanguard, a company offering whole food, plant-based services, resources, and recipes free of salt, oil, and sugar. She is a culinary educator for Plant Powered Metro NY, The Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan, University of New Mexico – Taos, and a Food for Life Instructor for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. She currently divides her time between New York City and Taos, NM.
Ingredients
- 2 firm-ripe pears, peeled, cored, and sliced thinly
- ¾ cup polenta
- ½ cup plus 2 Tablespoons almond flour
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ cup date paste
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- 6 Tablespoons plant-based yogurt
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 2 lemons, juiced plus 1 teaspoon zest
- 8 Tablespoons aquafaba, chilled
- 1 teaspoon fresh rosemary, chopped
- ⅓-½ apricot spread thinned with 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350°F
- Line the bottom of an 8” springform pan with parchment paper
- Prepare pears by peeling coring and slicing as thin as possible (⅛” thickness), squeeze lemon juice over pears so they don’t brown. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients: polenta, almond flour, baking powder, baking soda and nutmeg. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, combine wet ingredients: date paste, yogurt, vanilla, almond extract, and zest.
- Pour aquafaba into a bowl and whisk until stiff peaks form.
- Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until fully combined. Take the whipped aquafaba and fold gently fold into the batter, try not to overmix, as you don’t want to deflate the aquafaba.
- Pour batter into prepared pan.
- Starting on the outside edge, begin to arrange the sliced pears on top of the batter, overlapping slices to make a decorative pattern. Continue layering pears working towards the center until cake is completely covered.
- Gently glaze the top of the cake with apricot glaze. Be careful not to move the fruit.
- Bake 40-45 minutes, the top will be and the fruit will be cooked. You can use a skewer to test the center of the cake. During the last 10 minutes of baking, sprinkle the cake with fresh chopped rosemary and reglaze the cake, to give a glistening shine.
Recipe Note
- This cake can be made with any fresh fruit which is in season. (Peaches, blueberries, figs, apples.).
- I use(1) 5.3 oz container of Forager Cashew milk yogurt, unsweetened plain.
- The best baking pears are Bosc red pear, red and green D’Anjou pears, Bartlett, Forelle, and Concorde pears.
- Two good brands of apricot spread are Dalfourand Bionaturae.
