When I got home, the report was that it was a hit there as well, so much so that another pack of sauce was needed. Well then, we just have to bring more next time around...

Amalfi? The name just conjures up images of a breath taking coast line. Beautiful scenery, blue skies, azure waters, gentle sea breeze, small villages, cobbled stones, friendly folk, but lemons? Maybe...

After coming home with a 4 lb bag of lemons from Costco, I was searching for a lemon cake and came across this one. Also seized the opportunity to try out my new baking mold, a souvenir from Paris. Okay. I'm bragging.. but it's so pretty. Just look..




Now between the zest and the lemon peel, I used about 8 lemons, then as I baked the cake for dessert for dinner, we had lemonade in the afternoon. But that's another recipe.

I made my own candied peel for this recipe, pretty easy. Here's how:
1. Remove just the yellow peel (not the pith) with a vegetable peeler and add it to a pan of cold water. I used 4 lemons for this recipe
2. Bring the pan to a boil, remove the peel and discard the water.
3. Repeat the boiling process two more times and then simmer the peel in a strong sugar syrup (roughly 2 parts sugar to 1 part water) for 10 minutes or so until the peel is transparent. (If you do include more of the pith, then it will take longer).
4 Toss the peel lightly in caster sugar once it's cold and store it in an airtight container until needed.

Ingredients:
225 g softened butter (extra if using metal baking pans)
190 g icing sugar
Zest of 3-1/2 lemons, very grated
90 g candied lemon peel, finely chopped
1-1/2 tsp vanilla paste or extract
3 eggs, lightly beaten
190 cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
150 g ground almonds
150 ml milk

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 160°C or 350F.
2. Butter and line a 20 cm round cake tin or, if you're like me, just use a silicone mold.

3. Cream the icing sugar and butter together thoroughly.
4. Briefly mix in the lemon zest, candied peel and vanilla paste and then gradually stir in the eggs.
5. Mix in the flour and baking powder.
6. Add half of the ground almonds and stir in gently.
7. Add half of the milk and do the same.
8. Repeat with the remainder of the ground almonds and the milk.

9. Put the mixture into the prepared tin and level it.
10. Bake for 40 – 45 minutes until you see a clean skewer.

11. Let the cake cool down in the tin before removing it.
12. Dust the top of the cake with icing sugar if you feel so inclined.

Best served with espresso.

This recipe I found online is based on a recipe by Salvatore De Riso, the celebrated pastry chef and baker from the Amalfi coast.

So today, we were put to the 'gruelling' test of making not one, not two, but four batches of mamons. And surely, after all those trials (and a slight error), we can say that we are confident pulling off a batch at our own kitchen; and possibly even to open a specialty mamon bakery in
Vancouver : D

Gie admits his recipe is a result of 10 years of testing, and it isn't just for anyone and everyone that he will let out this secret. And so that we would get it right, he didn't want to just give us the recipe, he had to make sure we could bake it on our own, by having four practice sessions.

Kudos to Cheekie and Joy who did most of the work, supervised, of course.

Now we know how to execute the recipe, but were it not for the fact that we were making four batches, we wouldn't have known what not to do as well. So before we start the recipe, here are additional tips:

Baking cases:
We did two batches of individual serves. For this, Gie used an ingenious container: aluminium cases (from Costco's pot pies) lined with coffee filters, cut down half an inch. These served two purposes, that they were aluminium, so they baked quicker, and second, the coffee filters were cheaper and fits better than any cupcake liner sold. So we didn't need any special baking tins of muffin pans.

Baking tins:
The second batch was baked in two different pans, aluminium and non stick. Now to truly test these, both of them were on the same rack in the oven. The non stick pan baked faster, in 20 minutes. And the aluminium pan took about 8 more minutes to bake. Both rose the same, however, since we didn't want to remove the non stick pan first, it subsequently produced a more dense and golden cake. And while we lost some millimeters from the middle of the aluminium cake, sagging in, the non stick cake lost none. So there!




The third batch was poured into a Swiss roll pan. We would have reduced the quantity a little bit and put some into single serve cases, as the sheet that resulted was a tad on the thick side. However, these would make excellent bars.

Mixing:
First, make sure the oven is clear before we start the next batch, as after the mixer turns off, it's a race against time to get it from mixing bowl to oven. So we have to work fast.
Second, when we slow down the mixer to add the ingredients to the egg whites, we need to crank it up again really quickly, because the last batch we did produced a bit too many bubbles as a result of mixing gone slow. The resulting mamons became a bit more dense as it didn't have enough air incorporated into the mixture.

Well now that we got that out of the way, here's the much coveted, delectable, lucious, super soft mamon recipe, a result of 10 years of testing... perfected, as only someone with self-proclaimed OCD knows how.

Thank, Gie. Appreciate it immensely.

This recipe makes
10-12 individual pot pie cases, or
2 of 9-inch pans, or
1 half baking sheet of 12x15.
It's never been more important to have everything miss en place for this recipe.

Ingredients:
1-1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour (maybe would try cake flour next time)
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
9 eggs, separated, at room temperature (important)
1-1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1-1/2 cups extra fine granulated sugar (or granulated sugar, blitzed)
2 tsp vanilla extract, lemon juice, or Cointreau
Zest of 2 oranges (optional)
3/4 cup vegetable oil

Directions:
1. Prepare baking cases: line cases with coffee filters :), or line tins and pans with parchment paper on the bottom. Do not line or butter the sides.
2. Preheat oven to 350F.

3. Separate eggs. Whites go directly into a mixing bowl with a whisk attachment, yolks go into a small bowl.
4. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl, then set aside
5. Start mixing the egg whites on low speed, when frothy, add the cream of tartar, then continue mixing on medium high speed until soft peaks form.
6. Add the sugar in 4 instalments, slowing down on the addition and cranking it up again immediately, mixing until stiff peaks form.
7. Now add vanilla (or Cointreau with orange zest), mix till incorporated.
8. When wrinkles or lines appear on top of the mixture, pour the vegetable oil in, mix for a minute.
9. Alternately add egg yolks, then flour in 3 separate batches. Whisk just till mixed. Do not overwork the batter.

10. Very quickly fill baking containers and bake in the same oven rack for:
15-18 minutes for 10-12 single serve cases (2 large scoopfuls or 1 cup each)
20-25 minutes for 2 8-inch pans
15-18 minutes for 1/2 baking sheet, until a skewer comes out clean.
11. Leave on a cooling rack until just slightly warm.
12. When using baking tins/sheet: pry the sides loose with a small metal spatula or knife, then invert to a plate.

13. Best enjoyed immediately.
14. For a local Filipino twist, slather a bit of butter cream and a shaving of freshly grated Romano on top.