Warm Apple Polenta Cake
Warm Apple Polenta Cake
A deliciously moist yet dense polenta cake that is popular in Northern Italy and wonderful for cold winter nights with a dollop of ice-cream . This rustic cake is made the traditional way of ‘raining’ the polenta into the hot milk resulting in a denser texture than typical cakes. The Vino Cotto and honey syrup oozes through the cake making it sticky and sweet and the scent of apples is wonderful. This dessert taste even better the following days giving it time for the flavours to develop. Feel free to substitute apples for pears, plums, peaches or whatever is in season.
Ingredients
1 ltr milk, extra may be required
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup fine polenta
300ml cream
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 tbs cinnamon
¾ cup sultanas
½ cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
2 large or 3 small apples (Pink Lady), peeled & chopped thinly
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp Vino Cotto
Method
Preheat oven to 180C degrees.
Line a 20cm spring form tin and sides with baking paper.
Sift brown sugar and polenta into a clean bowl.
Pour milk into a heavy based pot over a low heat and let it come to almost boiling point. Slowly ‘rain’ in the sugar and polenta stirring constantly to avoid lumps from forming. Keep stirring until mixture thickens, may take a few minutes. Remove from heat.
Add the cream, baking powder, cinnamon and stir into the warm polenta. If the mixture seems to dry then add a few tablespoons of milk.
Stir in the sultanas, walnuts and apples.
Pour the batter into the tin and spread evenly.
Mix vino cotto and honey in a small bowl and spoon a little to cover the cake. The remaining is used once cake is cooked.
Bake the cake for 1 hour or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the cake. If cake is browning too quickly, cover loosely with aluminium foil.
Remove cake from oven, pierce the top with a skewer a couple of times and spoon over the remaining syrup.
Let the cake stand for 1 hour before removing from the tin.
Serve warm with ice-cream and any remaining syrup.
Enjoy!
Buy the Vino Cotto you need for this recipe online. Click here.