Lemon Poppy Seed Pound Cake

Recipe Song: "Come Together" - Beatles

You're probably thinking, what is this recipe song stuff? Well, I've decided to document what I'm listening to while I bake, this being the first recipe I do it. :) It helps create the mood, I suppose. (This particular song reminds me of the general feel of "In Rainbows" CD by Radiohead. I like it. Back to the real reason we're here...)

When I first saw this recipe on Serious Eats, I was sold. One thing I wasn't too fond of was buying the poppy seed. I purchased a small container of 60 grams of poppy seed and that was already $5+. The recipe requires almost a half of that, so that in itself is somewhat on the more expensive side. I won't be making this often because of that reason, but nevertheless it's interesting to try.

So then: I don't have pastry flour, but using the lovely tip included on Serious Eats as well as on this blog the post before this one, I just used cornstarch + regular whole wheat unbleached flour instead. I'm lazy so no sifting for me. I also used 1/2c applesauce + 1/2c butter to cut down on that fat. Substituting whole parts butter for apple sauce is kinda sketchy, so subbing about half is usually safe. (At least that seems to be my experience.) As I only have a 9"x5" loaf pan, I used that and it made the whole thing bigger and flatter, obviously. I've also gotten into the habit of using my convection oven because it heats things more evenly while using less energy. With my convection oven and the bigger pan, it took about 50 minutes to bake with a nice golden brown top and a beautiful crack in the middle that loaves of bread get. One thing I noticed is that the syrup used at the end is too much, I think we can safely cut the overall amount by about half and be good. I wish I had a saucepan that small. The recipe below suggests giving a good 24 hours before serving, but my loaf is for tonight and I will update after about how it tastes. It smelled absolutely delicious when it was baking though, and if that's any indication of what it'll taste like, I'm sold!

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Okay, this loaf turned out really delicious. Just needed to bake it for a shorter amount of time, maybe 45 minutes would have been better. It came out a little too hard and a little on the drier side. I think that could also be because I omitted some butter and used apple sauce instead. I could definitely taste the syrup, which was good and addictive.

4.5 out of 5 stars
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Below from here:

Lemon Poppy Seed Pound Cake

-makes 1 standard or 3 mini loaves-
Adapted from The Cake Bible

Ingredients

3 tablespoons milk, room temperature
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 cups (5 1/4 ounces) sifted cake flour
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, divided
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon (6 grams) loosely packed grated lemon zest
3 tablespoons (28 grams) poppy seeds
13 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (I got this out of 2 lemons easily)

Procedure

1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Grease your pan(s), line bottom(s) with parchment paper, grease parchment, and flour pan interior. In a small mixing bowl, lightly combine the milk, eggs, and vanilla.

2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, 3/4 cup of the sugar, the baking powder, salt, lemon zest, and poppy seeds. Mix on low speed for 30 seconds to blend. Add the butter and half the egg mixture. Mix on low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened. Increase speed to medium (high if using a hand mixer) and beat for 1 minute.

3. Scrape down sides. Add remaining egg mixture in 2 batches, beating for 20 seconds after each addition. Scrape down sides and scrape batter into prepared pan. Bake until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 55-65 minutes for an 8 x 4 inch loaf, 30-35 minutes for mini loaves.

4. Shortly before the cake is done, put the lemon juice and the remaining 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar in a small pan. Stir over medium heat until the sugar has dissolved. As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, put it on a rack, poke all over with a wire tester or a toothpick, and brush with half of the syrup. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then invert onto greased wire rack. Poke bottom of cake with tester, brush with some syrup, and set right side up. Brush sides with remaining syrup and allow to cool before wrapping airtight. Store for 24 hours before eating for best results, to give syrup a chance to distribute evenly. (Good luck with that waiting.)