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Jamie Oliver’s orange and polenta cake in a wood fired oven


00:00:00so what I’m gonna do now is a beautiful

00:00:01orange and polenta cake okay it’s a

00:00:03really lovely recipe it works every

00:00:05single time just because it’s a wood

00:00:07oven doesn’t mean you can’t do desserts

00:00:09now historically they would have had

00:00:12little tins like this with little lids

00:00:14and they would have sunk it in ash and

00:00:16then put the lid on top and put the ash

00:00:18on top and you’d have been able to slow

00:00:20cook all sorts of lovely desserts okay

00:00:22so what I want to do now is a beautiful

00:00:24orange and polenta cake you can do

00:00:26desserts really successfully in the wood

00:00:28oven at the end of the day I tend to do

00:00:30them when the oven temperatures gone

00:00:31down and it hits around 190 170 degrees

00:00:35I still use these traditional little

00:00:38thermometers here just to sort of see

00:00:41what the temperature is so I’m kind of

00:00:43confident that I’m not gonna burn it or

00:00:45undercook it so I’ve got that in there

00:00:46is a hundred and eighty at the moment so

00:00:49this lovely recipes dead simple one pack

00:00:52of softened butter goes in just Nick a

00:00:56little bit of that butter and put it on

00:00:58the wrapper that you got it in and just

00:01:01smear that around a little 8-inch port

00:01:05mold with a removable bottom you could

00:01:08use a cheesecake mold if you want to but

00:01:10this is about four inches five inches

00:01:13deep by 8 inches 250 grams of butter

00:01:18goes in there 250 grams of nice

00:01:22unrefined sugar you could use caster if

00:01:25you wanted to also I’m just gonna sort

00:01:28of stab that up first and give it a mix

00:01:40I just sort of squash the sugar in and

00:01:44then I can sort of start to beat it as

00:01:49soon as you start to beat it like that

00:01:51then what I want to do is add the next

00:01:53ingredients I’ve got 125 grams of

00:01:56polenta comes in packets like that you

00:01:59can get it everywhere these days

00:02:00in all the supermarkets so 125 grams of

00:02:04that three large free-range eggs go in

00:02:09that’s gonna make it rise a little bit

00:02:13but then to make it properly rise I’m

00:02:15gonna use a heaped teaspoon of baking

00:02:18powder that goes in a little pinch of

00:02:21salt just to season the flour and I’m

00:02:25going to use 50 grams of flour and then

00:02:28to flavor it lightly I’m gonna use the

00:02:31zest of one orange there we go and then

00:02:50just slowly mix that up until you get a

00:02:52nice sort of thick batter

00:02:53it’s basically once you’ve dumped it all

00:02:55in it’s dead simple great to get the

00:02:58kids doing it well if you want to do it

00:03:03lemon flavour instead of orange you

00:03:06absolutely can or you could do lemon and

00:03:08orange and lime so once you’ve mixed all

00:03:12that up 200 grams of ground almonds and

00:03:17you have forgotten something that goes

00:03:19in great for flavor and we’re really

00:03:22using the ground almonds instead of the

00:03:24flour we just put a little bit in there

00:03:26we go okay so now you’ve mixed all that

00:03:30him if you want to you can spice it

00:03:32cinnamon cloves if you want to put a

00:03:35little vanilla fruit if you want to if

00:03:37I’m going to go straight in here into

00:03:43that mold

00:03:46and the nice thing is you know when

00:03:49using wood oven you know you kind of

00:03:52generally what I tend to do is fast

00:03:54cooking things roast cooking fish meat

00:03:56bread stuff like that first in the day

00:03:59and as the ovens cooling down that’s a

00:04:02perfect time for doing slow cooking or

00:04:04desserts so just using that little

00:04:08thermometer just to sort of reassure me

00:04:10that it’s a hundred and eighty degrees

00:04:11that’s perfect so once that’s in all you

00:04:15got to do is pop that sort of around the

00:04:17center of the oven close the door if

00:04:21you’ve got little valves like this just

00:04:23having sort of half open that should

00:04:25maintain it sort of a hundred and eighty

00:04:27degrees status for around about 25

00:04:30minutes but go into all about half an

00:04:32hour in you can shift the little tin

00:04:36around so it’s got even heat and also

00:04:38just check the temp if it’s gone down to

00:04:40160 you can just get a little bit of

00:04:42kindling and just throw it up a few

00:04:44little extra bits of kindling I’ll just

00:04:45take the heat slowly up and keep it

00:04:47around if it’s around about 170 to 185

00:04:51that’s the sweet spot that’s a really

00:04:53really good thing

00:04:54so that cooks now for around about 55

00:04:56minutes to about an hour and 10 minutes

00:04:58depending on your oven temperature and

00:05:00when that’s cooked I’ll show you exactly

00:05:02how you can tell if it’s cooked on up

00:05:06okay so the orange and polenta cakes had

00:05:08an hour now let’s have a little check

00:05:15beautiful you can see it’s got nice and

00:05:17golden on top there I’m just gonna get

00:05:22my cloth here hold one side and then

00:05:26push up if that’s why we want the

00:05:27retractable bottom nearly okay angle off

00:05:40my arm beautiful now let me show you how

00:05:45you can check if it’s cooked or not

00:05:47really really simple get yourself a

00:05:50little knife or a cocktail stick just

00:05:52going one of the little cracks and just

00:05:55slip it in right to the mop right to the

00:05:57bottom hold it for three sir

00:05:59and take it out if it comes out clean

00:06:01which that is it’s cooked if it’s a bit

00:06:04sticky and you need to put it back in

00:06:06the oven and carry on cooking it but

00:06:08that’s good I mean the nice thing if I

00:06:10can just show you let me just take this

00:06:13off here straight onto a cooling rack

00:06:19the nice thing about this is when you

00:06:23cook in wood ovens you know you do get

00:06:25like this side a slightly darker than

00:06:27that side sometimes it just catches a

00:06:29little bit on the bottom ultimately you

00:06:31don’t want it to be like cremated you

00:06:33know but the beautiful thing about wood

00:06:35oven pastries baking cakes is you get

00:06:39this kind of personality and and it is

00:06:41not perfect all the way around like in a

00:06:43perfect normal oven the other thing is

00:06:45like if you ever do like creme caramels

00:06:47or creme brulee sorry and lemon tarts

00:06:50when you put sugar on the top you fire

00:06:52that bad boy up so it’s really hot and

00:06:54it just caramelizes the whole top so

00:06:57quickly you wouldn’t believe so you know

00:06:59the wood oven and pastries and cakes

00:07:01absolutely phenomenal and all I’m gonna

00:07:03do to this now is put it off onto a

00:07:06little cake stand so what made you is

00:07:14like a little syrup I’ve got the juice

00:07:15of one orange about the same amount of

00:07:17water and about a hundred grams of sugar

00:07:19and I’ve just made like a nice little

00:07:20syrup if you want to make it a little

00:07:23bit more acidic you can put a little

00:07:25lemon juice in there as well I’m just

00:07:26gonna bring that syrup but I’ve simmered

00:07:28that for about five minutes what I like

00:07:30to do is just like prick this all over

00:07:35like that and just pour this in and it

00:07:40will just sink through and that will

00:07:43give you the most beautiful orange

00:07:46flavor just drizzling all the way

00:07:48through it

00:07:55just get yourself a fork and just prick

00:07:57it around and it will make little holes

00:07:59and then literally the syrup will just

00:08:02go down those holes and when you cut

00:08:03through it you’ll just have a little fun

00:08:04Avenue beautiful syrup there all that

00:08:07lovely orange flavor but that let that

00:08:08cool down now for an hour so of that

00:08:10nice little wedge of some creme fraiche

00:08:12or vanilla ice cream some raspberries or

00:08:14strawberries and that will be absolutely

00:08:16beautiful