Semolina Cake With Orange Confites

Submitted by Chef Kate

"Using semolina as the base for cakes and sweets is an art in Greece. This "cake" is not baked, but cooked and chilled in a mold and decorated with candied orange segments and rind. It's beautiful and delicious. Try to use organic oranges. I've said there's 5 hour of passive cooking time--the time to cool and then chill the cake--but I haven't included time involved making the candied orange which obviously could be done while the cake chills or the night before."

 

• Ready In: 5hrs 45mins
• Ingredients: 12
• Serves: 8

ingredients

• For the Cake

• 1005.50 ml milk
• 148.83 g sugar
• 1 vanilla bean
• 2.46 ml salt
• 1 orange, zest of, grated
• 99.22 g butter, unsalted
• 226.79 g farina (cream of wheat or semolina)
• 3 large eggs
• butter (to grease the mold)

• For the Confites

• 2 oranges
• 473.18 ml sugar
• water

directions

1. For the cake:

2. Generously butter a mold or bundt pan (I use a 9" non-stick bundt pan).
3. Pour the milk into a heavy saucepan over medium heat and add the sugar, the vanilla bean, the salt and the grated orange zest.
4. Add the butter and stirring occasionally bring just to the boil.
5. Remove from the heat, add the farina all at once and whisking, replace over low heat and whisk gently until it begins to thicken.
6. When thickened, remove the vanilla bean (you can wash it off and put in a sugar bowl) and add the three eggs.
7. Continue whisking over low heat until the eggs are combined, the mixture is smooth and comes to the gentlest of simmers.
8. Pour into the prepared mold and allow to cool slightly before covering with plastic wrap placing in fridge.
9. Chill for at least four hours (or overnight).
10. Unmold onto serving plate and garnish with candied orange segments and candy orange rind.
11. Note: If cake seems reluctant to leave mold, loosen sides with a thin knife and/or dip bottom of mold into hot water.

12. For the Candied Orange:

13. First, the rind:

14. Using a vegetable peeler, remove rind (try to get no white pith) in long strips.
15. Place rind on cutting board and slice into the thinnest julienne you can.
16. Place in a small heavy saucepan, cover with water, bring to a boil and drain off the water.
17. Now, add a cup of sugar and about 2/3 of a cup of water to the rind and place over med low heat and allow to simmer (not boil) until the syrup is reduced by 3/4's (about 45 minutes).
18. Leave the peel in the syrup until it is quite cool, then drain the rind (and reserve the orange syrup for another use).
19. Spread the rind out on parchment paper, toss with sugar, and allow to dry.
20. Store in an air-tight container in a cool dry place or freeze if you want to keep it longer than a few days.

21. Now the orange sections:

22. While the rind is simmering, place the two stripped oranges on a cutting board and cut off the top and bottom of each, removing all white pith.
23. Stand each orange on end and using a sawing motion, slice down the sides of the orange, removing all the pith.
24. Now, with your knife, slice in and out of the memberanes so that you will have nice, membrane free segments of orange.
25. Place these in a small saucepan.
26. Add any juice you can squeeze form the membrane or that has accumulated on your board.
27. Add about 3/4 of a cup of sugar and enpoough water so tht the oranges are just covered with liquid.
28. Now proceed as for the rind, cooking the segments at a gentle simmer until the syrup has reduced by 3/4's.
29. Allow to cool, drain the segments, spread them on paper and toss with sugar.
30. Store as for rind.

Reviews

[evelynathens]

Absolutely delicious. This is a kind of halvah - a semolina pudding we make here in Greece. This one is lighter than most versions and the orange confites really made it special. Made for our Father's Day Lunch.