Millet Cake

Country of Origin: Austria

This recipe is incredibly delicious and the expenditure of time really pays off. It is a cake that fits to every holiday season and which can easily be adjusted to various berries or fruits. However, plums are definitely my favorite as they give the dish an intriguing taste of summer.

Total Time: 95-105 min (cooking time: 95-105 min, preparation time: 30-40 min)
Yield: 1 serving (1 cake)
Difficulty: Medium

Ingredients
2 cups millet
4 cups water
½ cup curd cheese (alternatively: quark/ farmer’s cheese/ fromage blanc)
½ cup butter
3 egg yolks
3 egg white
5-6 tbsp honey
untreated lemon peel of an entire lemon
pinch of real vanilla
½ cup wholemeal wheat flour
3 tbsp wholegrain semolina
½ tbsp baking powder
2 cups plums

Preparation
1 Rinse the millet under hot water. Put the millet together with the water in a pot and let it boil up briefly before reducing the heat.  Close the pot with a lid and let it swell for about 15 more minutes until the entire water is absorbed by the millet.

2 Beat the butter together with the egg yolks, the honey and the curd cheese until the mixture has a fluffy texture.  Add to this mixture the wholemeal wheat flour, wholegrain semolina, baking powder, vanilla and the lemon peel.  Allow it to soak for about 15 minutes.

3 While the dough is resting prepare another bowl for the egg white and beat it until it reaches a firm peak. Now it’s time to mix the millet with the rested dough. After you mixed them well together, carefully fold in the firm egg white.

4 Grease and flour a tart pan and fill in the dough evenly. Cover the dough with the halved plums, whereby the cut surfaces of the plums shall face upside.

5 Place the cake form on the lower rung of the pre-heated oven and back the cake for 60-70 minutes at a temperature between 350°F and 400°F.

6 Enjoy the cake – warm or cold!

Cooking Tips
! Additionally to the plums you can add red currant and sprinkle them over the plums. Red current adds up to a rounder taste as they compensate the sweeter note of the plums.
! In general, sweet millet dishes are perfectly complemented by lemon peels or natural orange flavor and cinnamon – for my taste, it can never be a mistake to add a bit more of them then recommended!
! Depending to your own liking, you can serve the millet cake with whipped cream and/or maple syrup.

Translated from German by Raffaela Bubner