Yogurt plumcake, perfect for breakfast or a light snack – and Greco di Bianco 🍷
Italian Plum cake is a simple cake, similar to the texture of a Pound Cake. It’s actually got nothing to do with the fruit! We think it got its name from a mis-translation of ‘pound’! Anyway – however it was named, you can enjoy it at any time of day, for breakfast or as a light snack. It is soft, with a delicate and delicious taste. Everyone I know likes plum cake, to be enjoyed as the Italians do, dipped in milk, or with some jam or cream. Try this recipe and find out how easy it is to make – and eat!
INGREDIENTS
- 200 g self-raising flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 200 g natural or apricot yogurt without pieces and at room temperature
- 3 big eggs
- 160 g sugar
- 100 ml light vegetable oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- grated zest of 1 lemon
- a pinch of salt
Pre-heat oven to 180° and lightly grease and oil a 9 inch (23 cm) loaf pan. In a bowl beat the eggs and sugar until creamy and light, approximately 5 minutes. Then add the yogurt, lemon zest, oil and vanilla, beat on medium speed for about 2 minutes. The yogurt must be at room temperature, if it is too cold you can warm it up on the hob.
In a separate bowl mix the flour with baking powder and a pinch of salt. Then add the powders to the wet ingredients and work with the whisk briefly until the dough appears smooth and silky. Pour the dough into the loaf tin. Bake 30 minutes at 180° and then 15 minutes at 160°.
GONE IN A MINUTE!!!
🍷AGNESE RECOMMENDS…
This time my suggestion is GRECO DI BIANCO DOC (not to be confused with Greco Bianco). It is one of the few wines from the Calabria region. It’s an amber wine, sweet, soft, warm and harmonious. It’s 17% alcohol, with an ethereal and characteristic aroma and a robust aftertaste. It is considered the oldest wine in Italy, the vines were brought to Calabria by the Greeks in the seventh century BC. The grapes are dried on racks exposed to the sun for 10 days. They are aged in steel barrels for a year and, then, for three months in wood. This gives them subtle aromas, rare in sweet white wines. It is perfect with the plum cake because it has a sweetness that does not stand out and that balances the gentle sweetness of the plum cake. It also has an aftertaste that perfectly balances the sourness of yogurt, one of the main ingredients of this recipe.
You can buy Greco di Bianco DOC from producer Baccellieri at the following link
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/baccellieri+passito+greco+di+bianco+calabria+italy
It is not cheap, but as it is a sweet passito (dried grapes) wine it can be drunk in small quantities and you can store the open bottle for a while.