This recipe from Julia Reed was in the Wall Street Journal. I have friends who have a problem with gluten and I thought this would be a fun desert to play with.
Almond Polenta Cake
Total Time: 1 hour 40 minutes Serves: 12
Ingredients
For the candied oranges:
10 clementines, mandarin oranges, tangerines or tangelos
2 cups sugar
2 cups water
For the cake:
1 pound butter, plus more for greasing pan
Flour, for dusting pan
2 cups plus 1 tablespoon sugar
4 cups almond meal or finely ground blanched almonds
2 teaspoons vanilla
6 eggs
Zest of 4 lemons, plus juice of 1 lemon
Zest of 1 orange, plus juice of 1 orange
½ cup corn flour
½ cup cornmeal
1½ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
Coconut ice cream
Fresh mint sprigs
What To Do
1. Make candied oranges: Peel citrus and separate into segments, removing as much pith as possible. Bring sugar and water to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to low, add segments and simmer for about 5 minutes. Strain mixture over a bowl and return liquid to pan. Set pan over medium-high heat and cook until syrup is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, 6-8 minutes. Allow to cool completely and gently stir in citrus segments.
2. Make cake: Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter and flour two 9-inch cake pans. With an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until pale and light, 1-2 minutes. Add almond meal and vanilla and mix well. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Fold in zests and juices, corn flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt.
3. Pour batter into prepared cake pans and bake until set and deep golden brown on top, 40 minutes.
4. Serve each slice of cake with a scoop of ice cream, about ¼ cup of candied citrus and a sprig of mint.
