A new cookbook by Dorie Greenspan is an occasion to celebrate. Her cookbooks are as much a joy to read as to cook and bake from. As I write this, the day before the release date, I have yet to open her new book, “Baking with Dorie, Sweet, Salty and Simple”. But she gave us a sneak peek by allowing The New York Times to publish one of the recipes. This new book is also a chance for me to get back to baking and participating in the wonderful online group, Tuesdays with Dorie. So here goes.

This recipe is a simple loaf cake with a twist. Dorie says she was inspired by a glaze for salmon, of all things. The miso-maple flavoring is an unusual (unique?) touch.

You need to do a slight plan-ahead for this recipe. Take your butter and eggs out of the fridge a couple of hours ahead so they can come to room temperature. When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. To get started, whisk the flour with baking soda and baking powder. (A note here: I always weigh my ingredients on a kitchen scale. It’s more precise and less messy.)

Next, put the sugar and salt in a bowl for a stand mixer and grate in the zest of an orange. (I have noticed over the years of baking Dorie’s recipes that she often adds the salt to the sugar instead of the flour. Perhaps because they are both granular? I’d love to ask her.) Then the fun part, use your fingers to work the zest into the sugar.

Using a paddle attachment, mix for about three minutes, then add the eggs, one at a time, beating for one minute after each addition. I like to put my eggs in a bowl ahead of time. They slip easily into your mixing bowl one at a time, and you can move through the mixing process more efficiently. Then add the vanilla and mix it in.

Turn off the mixer and add the flour mixture. Start the mixer in spurts to mix it in a little, otherwise your flour will fly out of the bowl. Then add the buttermilk and mix thoroughly.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and pop it in the oven. I followed Dorie’s instructions to check the cake after forty minutes and tented some foil over the top because it was already very brown, but not fully cooked in the interior. I kept checking at five minute intervals and the tester was clean after a total of fifty minutes. After resting for five minutes in the pan, the cake is ready to cool on the rack.

My family enjoyed this slightly sweet, gently flavored cake. My husband particularly like the crunchy, caramelized exterior. It was delicious the day of and the next day, lightly toasted. I did not glaze the cake because I thought I might be freezing some of it. Silly me, it was devoured.

Dorie gave the Tuesdays with Dorie group permission to share her recipe for Miso-Maple Loaf Cake in our blogs. Give it a try!

Miso-Maple Loaf.docxDownload

Join the fun: buy Dorie’s book and start baking! https://doriegreenspan.com/book/baking-with-dorie-sweet-salty-simple/