Kim Laidlaw’s Dessert of Day has lovely recipes ideas for every single day of the year. The ideas are diverse, clever, and often instructive. Follow this book and you’ll encounter some new ideas and techniques every week of the year.
Have you ever made brown butter? Do you know what it is or why you do it? Let’s start with the why part. You do it for flavor, to add deep, delicious nutty flavor to the baked good it is being added to. Now, you may have a love affair with pound cake, always rich from an abundance of butter, eggs and sugar. In Kim’s version here, the brown butter is added, along with vanilla, to introduce new flavor notes of prominence.
Kim suggests making this cake for April 1, hence that big Blue 1 in the photo. Early spring is the time when the short rhubarb season overlaps with the beginning of strawberry season. The strawberry‑rhubarb combo is one you may have encountered in jam — a jam this is really distinct from pure strawberry. Spring has been a tad late this year, so rhubarb is just arriving in the markets for some of us. There is time, then, to enjoy this most satisfying dessert. There is an abundance of flavor and texture here. You can pair this dessert with a white or red wine, something sparkling, or certainly some coffee, cappuccino, or espresso.
Brown Butter Pound Cake with Strawberry-Rhubarb Compote
Yield: serves 8
Ingredients:
For the cake:
- 1 cup (250 g) unsalted butter
- 1 ¼ cups (155 g) cake flour
- ¼ teaspoon baking
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 large whole eggs, plus 3 large egg yolks
- 1 cup (250 g) plus 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
For the compote:
- 4 tablespoons (2 ounces) fresh orange juice
- ⅓ cup (3 ounces) sugar
- Kosher salt
- 8 ounces (250 g) rhubarb, cut into ¼-inch slices
- 2 pints strawberries, hulled and quartered
- 1 ½ teaspoons arrowroot or cornstarch
Preparation:
To make the pound cake, preheat the oven to 325°F. Butter a 9-by-5-by-3-inch loaf pan.
In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low and gently simmer, swirling the pan often, until the butter is browned and smells nutty, 12-15 minutes. Strain the butter through a fine-mesh sieve into a small bowl and let cool to room temperature.
Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the whole eggs and egg yolks, 1 cup (250 g) of the sugar, and the vanilla on medium-high speed until pale and thick, 2-3 minutes. Reduce the speed to low and add the dry ingredients in 2 batches, mixing until only a few streaks remain. Increase the speed to medium-low and drizzle in all but 2 tablespoons of the brown butter. Increase the speed to medium and beat until combined. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan.
Bake the cake for 40 minutes, rotating it halfway through baking. Brush the top with the remaining brown butter and sprinkle with the 1 tablespoon sugar. Continue baking until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 10-15 minutes longer. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Turn the cake out onto the rack, turn right side up, and let cool completely.
In a nonreactive saucepan, combine 3 tablespoons of the orange juice, ⅓ cup sugar, and a pinch of salt. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Add the rhubarb, bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the strawberries and simmer until softened, about 2 minutes. In a small bowl, mix the arrowroot and the remaining 1 tablespoon orange juice and stir into the rhubarb mixture. Let cool to room temperature.
Serve thick slices of the pound cake topped with the compote.
Source: Dessert of the Day by Kim Laidlaw [Weldon Owen, 2013]