Several years ago, I had the privilege of accompanying a group of food bloggers on my first tour of olive tree groves in Northern California, where I learned about the production of olive oil, from planting trees to bottling. That tour taught me that I had no clue about how fresh olive oil should smell and taste, much to my surprise.
Good quality extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) — oil that is alive with antioxidants — should be cold-pressed as close to harvest as possible to retain all its healthful benefits. The best-tasting oils come from olives harvested just as they’ve begun to turn from green to violet. The oil should smell of freshly cut grass. It should be fruit-forward with a peppery finish, and when you swallow, the back of your throat should tingle. That sharp taste and tingling sensation are indicators of the oil’s high concentration of beneficial antioxidants. If your EVOO doesn’t tingle the back of your throat when you taste it, buy a fresh bottle. It’s either old, highly processed, or most likely rancid.
My primary cooking oil is EVOO. I regularly sauté with it and often use it for poaching low and slow, but I still use it when I’m cooking at medium-high heat. Good quality EVOO is primarily monounsaturated fat that can withstand the slighter higher heat (for my rare high-heat cooking, I use grapeseed or avocado oil). I also love to finish dishes with a generous drizzle straight from the bottle.
Following my first olive tree grove tour, I began reading olive oil labels, as I did for any other food I carefully selected. Olive oil is, after all, olive “juice,” so freshness and harvesting practices count. If a bottle doesn’t list a harvest date or say it’s a first cold-pressed extra-virgin, it goes back on the shelf. I also skip it if it has multi-country sourced olives or oils (with all that traveling involved, how can I be sure that the olives were milled quickly after harvesting? Or, if the manufacturers pressed the olives first, how long did the oil travel to get to its bottling facility? How was it stored in transport?). To ensure I’m bringing home a good quality oil alive with antioxidants, I forgo imported oils and buy California EVOO certified by the Olive Oil Commission of California, the California Olive Oil Council, or Applied Sensory (an independent evaluator). All three have logos that can be applied to labels by growers that pass their stringent testing. This extra layer of oversight indicates that the olives were grown, harvested, pressed, and bottled meeting strict criteria. Buying certified California EVOO helps me feel more confident that the oil I buy at my local grocery store has spent the least time in transit possible and is the most healthful.
My advice is to buy the best olive oil your budget affords. I consistently rely on two brands in my kitchen: California Olive Ranch (only their 100 percent California line) and Cobram Estate, both available at Walmart.
I’ve now done several grove tours. The ranch at the last grove I toured had a staff chef who created recipes using their oil. He prepared dinner for our group and, for dessert, made a tasty carrot cupcake with an olive oil frosting that was sublime. I’ve been baking with olive oil ever since.
Of course, butter has its place in baking, but if you’ve never used olive oil in your baking, you’re missing out. I’ve used olive oil for loaf and snacking cakes as well as for cookies. The cakes come out incredibly moist, tender and lighter than their butter counterparts. Unlike in my coconut oil experiments where coconut became the dominant flavor, olive oil doesn’t overpower; instead, it adds another layer of flavor and savoriness. It’s especially perfect in baked goods that aren’t heavily sweetened.
And that’s where today’s cake comes in.
A homage to that cupcake I had all those years ago, this Pistachio Olive Oil Cake with Olive Oil Frosting is a wonderfully nutty cake with just a hint of sweetness that gets even better with age. Seriously. This cake is delicious the day you bake it. But every day after, the cake will get more tender and flavorful with the more delicate notes of the olive oil bursting through while the pistachio flavor becomes a little more pronounced.
Oh, and this frosting? It’s just what I remembered. I had asked the chef how he had made the frosting, and he said, “EVOO and confectioner’s sugar. That’s it!” It truly is simple and much less heavy than buttercream.
I used my NutriBullet to make my pistachio flour. A food processor or high-speed blender will also work if, like me, you don’t own a grain mill. Sieve the flour, reprocessing the bits that don’t filter through.
(Anita L. Arambula / Confessions of a Foodie)
I shelled roasted pistachios, but you can save yourself some time by buying shelled. To make flour from nuts and grains, I use a milling blade in the small cup for my NutriBullet, so making fine flour is a breeze. To make, fill the cup halfway with the nuts, run the NutriBullet for 20-30 seconds, and then pass the flour through a sieve. Put the bits that didn’t pass through back into the milling cup and add more whole nuts. Repeat the process until you have 1 ½ cups of flour. Save any large nut meal that didn’t pass through the sieve for garnishing.
If you don’t have a grain mill blade for your NutriBullet, regular grain mill or a milling attachment for your KitchenAid, pulse the nuts in a food processor using the “S” blade. Just be careful not to overprocess, or you will wind up with pistachio butter. If you have a high-powered blender such as a Vitamix or Blendtec, you can also use them to make the flour.
Pistachio Olive Oil Cake With Olive Oil Frosting
This cake is even better the next day, making it a great make-ahead dessert. To bake, you’ll need an 8-inch-by-2-inch round cake pan, parchment paper to line the bottom, and baking spray. If you’ve never used baking spray, it is a terrific timesaver as it has the flour incorporated into the oil so you can skip flouring the pan. I prefer Professional Bak-Klene ZT, but Baker’s Joy is another choice. Because I’m not a fan of lots of frosting, the recipe makes just enough frosting to cover the top of the cake with a thin layer. This frosting has just a kiss of sweetness as the olive oil adds savoriness to balance the flavor.
Makes 8 servings
FOR THE CAKE:
1 ¼ cups whole shelled pistachios
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
2 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest (from approximately one large lemon)
4 large eggs
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
¼ cup organic honey
½ teaspoon vanilla bean paste (or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract)
¼ cup milk (whole or 2 percent)
Baking spray
FOR THE FROSTING:
⅓ cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus 1 tablespoon, divided
⅔ cup powdered sugar, plus 2 tablespoons, divided
FOR GARNISHING:
¼ cup roughly chopped pistachios (or leftover pistachio meal)
Add the nuts to your grain mill (or food processor with the “S” blade attached). Run the mill (or process for 20 seconds, being careful not to overprocess, or you’ll wind up with nut butter). Pass the nut flour through a mesh sieve. Place any nut meal that didn’t filter through back into the mill (or processor), add more nuts and repeat the process until you have 1 ½ cups of pistachio flour. Reserve the chunkier pieces of nut that didn’t make it through the sieve for garnishing.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Give the bottom of an 8-inch round cake pan a quick light spray with baking spray, then line the bottom with parchment paper. Spray pan generously with baking spray; set aside.
Whisk together the two flours, baking soda and salt in a large bowl until well combined, then whisk in the zest; set aside.
In another bowl, beat the eggs on high until light and frothy, about 2 minutes. Add the olive oil, honey, vanilla paste and milk. Beat on high for 2 minutes. Pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture and, using a rubber spatula, gently fold to incorporate until there is no dry flour. Pour batter into the cake pan and bake for 20-22 minutes or until just golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean with just a few tender crumbs. Place on a wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes in the pan. Carefully turn out from the pan, peel off parchment and set right side up on the cooling rack. Cool completely.
In the meantime, make the frosting by beating ⅓ cup of olive oil and ⅔ cup of powdered sugar until light and fluffy. If the frosting is too thin, add the reserved powdered sugar 1 tablespoon at a time to reach a fluffy consistency. If it’s too thick, add the reserved oil a little at a time until you get your desired consistency.
When the cake is thoroughly cooled, transfer to a cake pedestal or serving plate and frost the top of the cake. Garnish with the nut meal.
The cake will keep at a comfortable room temperature, covered, for up to four days. If storing longer, or if the weather is warm or humid, place the covered cake in the refrigerator. Let the cake warm to room temperature before serving.
Recipe is copyrighted by Anita L. Arambula and is reprinted by permission from Confessions of a Foodie.
Arambula is the food section art director and designer. She blogs at confessionsofafoodie.me, where the original version of this article was published. Follow her on Instagram: @afotogirl. She can be reached at anita.arambula@sduniontribune.com.
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