My son, James, gave me Melissa Weller’s A Good Bake for Christmas.  It is nothing less than a perfect book.  Her recipes are incredibly detailed - not in a bad way; each step of the process spelled out clearly.  The back cover tells us that Weller was a chemical engineer before she was a baker, so it all makes sense doesn’t it?  I looked through the book many times trying to decide what to make first. I make sourdough bread almost every day, so although I will eventually make every single one of her bread recipes, I wanted to start with something else. As it turns out, I also got some dried apricots for Christmas, so Polenta Cake with Dried Apricots became the winner!

Now, we are still existing in a global pandemic so I limit trips to the grocery store as much as possible, and I still have limited use of my hands. Inconveniently, using a hand mixer is something I can’t tolerate yet - but this recipe recommends a stand mixer. The two are mostly interchangeable, but there are definitely some recipes that benefit from one over the other.  AND WE HAD NO LEMONS (which the recipe requires).  If I’m being honest this is only partly due to the limited grocery trips and mostly due to the fact that James has been perfecting his technique for making a Gold Rush. I love a cocktail in general, but one with lemons and whiskey is right up my ally, so I’ve been a happy cocktail tester.  Instead of one zested lemon, I used a pretty large orange and zested the whole thing. The other complicating factor is that our oven decides its temperature independently of what it is set to.  It also doesn’t seem to care for math, because adjusting the temp setting to compensate for what it actually reads doesn’t work at all. None of this mattered with this cake - it was incredibly adaptable.  The moral of this story...if you have limited use of your hands, your oven is on the fritz, and you have no lemons - this is the cake for you!  It is delicious, not too sweet, and can be eaten while standing around in the kitchen or plated with the equally delicious compote.

Polenta Cake with Dried Apricot Compote

1 ¼ cups (150 grams) all-purpose flour

¾ cup (115 grams) polenta

2 teaspoons (10 grams) baking powder

1 teaspoon (6 grams) fine sea salt

8 tablespoons (1 stick - 113 grams) unsalted butter, cubed and softened

¾ cup (150 grams) granulated sugar

1 lemon, zested  (I used an entire orange in place of the lemon)

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon (5 grams) pure vanilla extract

½ up (120 grams) whole milk

Dried Apricot Compote (recipe follows)

Preheat the oven to 350° and arrange a rack in the center of the oven.  Grease a 9-inch springform pan with butter or nonstick cooking spray and set aside.

Make the batter:

• Put the flour, polenta, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl and stir to combine.  Set aside.

• Place the butter, sugar, and lemon zest (I used the zest of a whole orange) in the bowl of a stand mixer.  Fit the mixer with the paddle attachment and beat on medium speed for 2 to 3 minutes, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula once or twice, until the mixture is light and fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until each is incorporated and stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl before adding another egg.  Add the vanilla and mix to combine.  With the mixer running on low speed, add the dry ingredients in three additions and the milk in two, alternating between the dry and wet ingredients and ending with the dry ingredients.  Turn off the mixer and remove the bowl from the stand.  Finish mixing the cake with a rubber spatula, making sure to scrape the very bottom of the bowl.

Bake the cake:

• Scoop the batter into the prepared pan and use a small offset spatula to smooth and level the top.  Place the cake on the center rack of the oven and bake for 30 minutes, until it springs back when touched in the center, and a small knife or toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Remove the cake from the oven and set aside to cool for about 10 minutes.  Release the springform pan  and set the cake on a cooling rack to cool completely 

• Slice and serve with apricot compote on the side.

Apricot Compote

1 ¼ cups (123 grams) dried apricots

2 cups (470 grams) hot water (100° - 110°F)

⅔ cups (165 grams) fresh orange juice  (convenient right, because what else are you going to do with that zested orange?)

3 tablespoons (60 grams) mild flavored honey, such as wildflower or clover

A pinch of fine sea salt

Slice the apricots ⅛ to 3/16 inch thick and place in a small bowl.  Cover with the water and set aside to soak for 10 minutes.

Transfer the apricots and their soaking liquid to a small saucepan.  Add the orange juice, honey, and salt and bring to a boil over a high heat.  Reduce the heat to medium-low to maintain a steady simmer and cool until the liquid is thick and syrupy, about 45 minutes.  Turn off the heat and set aside to cool to room temperature. Serve, or refrigerate the compote in a covered container up to 2 weeks.

I found that the flavors came together even better the next day, so if you can make this the day before serving, I’d recommend it.