EPIC. Andrew turned 30 recently, and my advisor had a BBQ to welcome a student who will start in the fall, so brought a birthday cake to the BBQ. There are a ton of ripe loquats in the garden, so went looking for a recipe.
This lady made a loquat upside down cake that looked amazing so I wanted to do that, but used the gingerbread cake from the Tassajara Bread Book instead of her cake, doubling the recipe to make a birthday-sized cake. The only thing I'd change is I only had 27 loquats on hand when I was baking it, it needed more, maybe double that. But otherwise it was great. Amazing with some freshly whipped Straus cream.
Loquat upside-down Tassajara gingerbread cake:more than 27 ripe loquats, halved and pits removed
1 stick butter
6 oz sugar
~1 lb (4 1/2 C) sifted whole wheat flour
1 T baking powder
1 t sea salt
1 t soda
1 t ground cloves
2 t powdered mustard
2 t ginger
2 t cinnamon
1 c oil
2 c molasses
2 eggs
2 c hot water
350 oven. butter and sugar in a 13x9 pyrex pan throw it in the oven for 5-10 min till butter and sugar are happy. Lay loquats cut side down on the mixture.
Sift together flour, baking powder, salt.
Mix soda, and spices into oil. Put into a bowl, add beaten egg, then mix in molasses.
Add flour mixture and hot water to wet ingredients, alternating as you go. Beat well.
Pour over loquats.
350 45 min.
I've gone much more low-tech when making yogurt. I used to use a le Creuset or Descoware pot and a silicone whisk -- I thought I needed a pot that would carry over the heat better when the yogurt bacteria were doing their thing in the pilot-light-warmed oven. Turns out it doesn't matter. Lately I've been using a stainless steel pot with a clad bottom, Farberware or Revereware, that kind of thing -- so not total trash, but something you can easily get at a thriftstore or whatever. Rinse the pot with water right before you pour in the milk and the milk hardly sticks at all. For stirring I like the wooden spoons with a hole cut out. It let's you scrape the bottom but with the hole you don't get a whirlpool going when heating the milk. The old technique still applies (heat to 190, cool to 121), I'm just using different hardware. Three notable pluses of the new method: milk doesn't scorch as bad on the bottom of stainless pots, the milk heats and cools faster when using stainless steel, and you get to save your expensive pots for dishes that take advantage of them.
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