The last social thing I did before the lockdown, was to go out to dinner with some close friends at the Blue Heron. That night, for dessert we had lemon rosemary shortbread cookies. The cookie was flakey and buttery, but the lemon and rosemary added a lovely lightness and freshness. I have used lemon and rosemary to roast a chicken, but I have never tried to incorporate it into something sweet. I have been thinking about this flavor combination for a couple of weeks and finally, I created this recipe. The best part is that it is low in the sugar content and is gluten-free, which means, I can have cake for breakfast–right? Please try this recipe and let me know if you liked it or not.
Ingredients:
1.5 cups of quick-cooking oats
1.5 cups of almond meal or almond flour
4 springs of rosemary
Zest of 1 lemon
2 tsp of baking powder
2 tsp of baking soda
2 eggs
1 cup of yogurt
2 tbsp of lemon juice (fresh)
1/3 cup of olive oil
1/4 cup of honey
1 tbsp of sugar
Method:
Preheat oven to 350F
In a food processor, add the oatmeal and rosemary leaves and pulse (or grind) till it resembles “flour”.
Mix the oatmeal “flour” and rosemary mixture with almond meal, baking powder, baking soda, and lemon zest.
In a glass measuring cup, add eggs, lemons juice, olive oil, and honey. Whisk till it forms a smooth emulsion, almost like salad dressing.
To the dry ingredients, add in the oil mixture and yogurt and fold gently to combine.
Coat your baking pan ( I used a mini bundt pan with 6 cavities) with cooking spray. Take 1 tbsp of sugar and sprinkle it onto the baking dish–this will create a beautiful caramel-colored top to your cakes, which also means that you will be flipping the over the cake once it comes out of your baking dish.
Divide the batter amongst the 6 cavities of the mini-bundt pan and bake for 20 minutes. A toothpick should come out clean when you prink the center of the cake, after 20 minutes.
Let the cakes cool completely at room temperature before you invert them out of the pan.
Cakes are ready to be eaten! They taste good at room temperature, but even better if you warm them up in the microwave for 30 secs.
For a fancier presentation, you can glaze the cakes with a lemon drizzle. The recipe for lemon drizzle is below, but I skipped that part since I had every intention of eating the cake for breakfast; lemon drizzle might be a little too sweet for first thing in the morning.
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons freshly grated lemon zest
- 1 tablespoon milk
- Optional: 1 small drop yellow food coloring