Wow, It's Been Awhile (Best Ricotta Cake)

Hi. Yes, it's been a long time since I reported anything to le olde blog.  It's more common to put recipes in Instagram captions now, but honestly, I can't keep track of anything on there anymore. And I'm a little scared of turning more of my life over to that little app. But it has bitten me. I'm over there a lot. 

The reality is, things morph. Keeping this blog was, for awhile, an attempt to create a log of loved recipes so things don't live on scrap paper. Some I invented, many I adapted, barely. And things are better shared.

Cooking is cooking, though and it has happened So much more frequently since the pandemic hit us 3 years ago (and I already cooked a lot)--also when I last posted--that talking about cooking/recipes too much rubbed me the wrong way. Did you feel similarly? 

I did write about pineapple and asparagus and edit many recipe galleries.

But this week, I made a ricotta cake and I can't stop thinking about it so I want to show it off a little, photo-shoot style. I'm not sure I need to make any other ricotta cake again. And that, friends, is the intent of my blog-- to find what I like and share it. 

Besides the ricotta, which, if you can get fresh ricotta, the cake will be that much better, the ingredients are scant. I like to swap in a tad of almond flour and add a little cinnamon. Somehow, this addition evoked a slight likeness to the inside of a chocolate-almond croissant or rugelach from Breads Bakery in the city, which I miss dearly. I'm thinking about picking up some things there for old time's sake next time I make it into town. 

What else is new? I'm cooking from Smitten Kitchen Keepers currently. I'm in love with the cover recipe, the spinach-sauced pasta. I wish my son would try it. Also the turkey meatloaf for skeptics is great. 

I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl on December 6, making us a quad. 

In Spring 2021, almost 2 years ago, we moved from our Jersey City building of 9 years, to a charming little house with a deck and yard in a town adjacent to where we grew up.

It was a change for sure. It's not the city, but there's space. There's not much in town as far as Main Street goes, but here lives the brick and mortar store for Jersey Girl Cheese (iykyk), which is where I bought the ricotta for this luscious little cake. 

RICOTTA CHIP CAKE

Adapted from Eater.com via Melissa Weller

1 cup mini chocolate chips
1 2⁄3 cups (200 grams) all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 2⁄3 cups (367 grams) whole milk ricotta
12 tablespoons (1½ sticks, or 170 grams) unsalted butter, cubed, softened
1 ½ cups (300 grams) granulated sugar
3 (150 grams) large eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon fine sea salt

Oven to 350. Line a big cake pan with parchment, or 2 smaller ones. Or halve the recipe and use one smaller pan. 

Whisk flour, baking powder and salt together in a medium bowl.

In a mixer, cream butter and sugar. Add vanilla, eggs one at a time, beating in to completely blend. Scrape down. Add ricotta, blend. 

Sift in dry ingredients. Gently mix on low until flour disappears. Remove mixer and stir in chips gently. Pour into pans, bake an hour-ish or until a tester comes out clean/reading 200 degrees +.

Cool.

Keeps several days and freezes well : )