I originally noticed this recipe during a morning session of drinking coffee and viewing the daily Facebook news feed. The recipe and photos were enticing enough to get me outside to harvest a few cups of mulberries and make it myself. Quatre Quarts is made similarly to pound cake, where most of the ingredients are measured by weight, rather than volume. Using olive oil instead of butter makes the end results light and fresh tasting, just like summer.
This recipe comes from Saveur, one of my favorite culinary magazines. I made a few modifications to make his cake gluten-free. By replacing the white flour with almond and buckwheat flour, the final product is nutty and a bit more dense then the white flour version would create. Also, I used the fruit I could harvest from the land, so mulberry is the feature here.
Olive Oil Quatre Quarts w/ Mulberries
The ingredients are to be measured by weight. The 3 eggs in the shell should weigh about 6 ounces, so the flour, sugar, and oil, should be weighed to equal the weight of the eggs.
Ingredients:
- 3 large eggs
- 1 1/4 cup buckwheat flour ( or a mix of almond + buckwheat)
- 3/4-1 cup Rapadura or coconut palm sugar
- 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, a variety more on the lighter side then bitter
Also Add:
- 2 cups chopped fruit
- pinch of sea salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter and flour a 9 inch spring form pan.
- Weigh the eggs in the shell. Keep track of the weight then separate the whites and yolks. Set aside. Weight out the sugar, flour, and olive oil to the same as the eggs. Set aside a few tablespoons of sugar to be whipped into the egg whites.
- Add the sugar to a stand up mixer and on high, slowly whip in the olive oil until well combined. Continue to beat until fluffy.
- Next add the egg yolks and continue to beat well. Add the flour, 1/4 at a time until all is well combined. Stir in the vanilla extract. Scoop this mixture into a mixing bowl then wash and dry the mixer bowl.
- Add the egg white to the mixer and whip until soft peaks are formed. Add the remaining sugar then continue to whip until medium peaks are formed. Carefully fold the whites into the batter.
- Spread half of the batter into the bottom of the pan then top with some berries followed by the remaining batter. Spread to cover the fruit as best as possible then top again with additional fruit. Place in the oven and bake for about 45 minutes or until golden brown and if tested, a toothpick comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven, and let cook on a rack before serving.