Summer's Cake: Peach and Ricotta Gateau Breton

The nights are slightly colder. I’ve adapted to the thick blanket of humidity at night. Milo at my feet and the air conditioner running. I keep a robe on a bedside chair, in case I ever get too cold. I wouldn’t dream of turning the air down, though. There’s no ceiling fan in this room, the ceilings barely hit six feet. So I stretch on the bed and shudder. I grab for the puppy in the middle of the night, check to see if he is still breathing, put his head on a pillow next to mine. I dream of Heathrow airport and look up how to how to say “damselfly” in Spanish. I stayed awake until one in the morning, reading cookbooks and scribbling notes. And at three in the morning, I woke up to a moth hitting my window in a manic apache dance, leaving small floury dust on the mesh window screen. A Catherine, disheveled from her cocoon.  It’s the pubescent hour of stretching and yawning, the transition between yesterday and today and I loathe it now, the beginning of summer ending. Too fast it’s already blurry and I find myself beating my shoulder against every window, begging to be left in. The only trace of me is dust, powder, particulate and leftover.

So I baked a cake to celebrate the season. An elegy, a eulogy. A begging for forgiveness for taking it for granted, being home and safe and wrapped up in bed, waiting for the heat to break.

Peach and Ricotta Gateau Breton

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cup AP flour
• 2 TB cornstarch
• ¾ cup brown sugar
• pinch of salt
• ½ cup butter, softened
• 1/3 cup ricotta
• 6 egg yolks, plus 1 for egg wash
• 1 TB pure vanilla extract
• 1 TB orange juice
• 1 TB orange zest
• 1 large peach, slice

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375*F
2. Prepare an 8-inch springform pan with butter and parchment paper, set aside
3. In a bowl of a stand mixer, sift all dry ingredients together
4. Add butter and ricotta and beat on medium-low with the paddle attachment
5. With mixer running, add yolks, one at a time (do not add subsequent yolk until previous is completely incorporated)
6. Add vanilla and orange juice and zest
7. Turn mixer off, use a rubber spatula to hand fold a couple times to ensure all ingredients are fully incorporated
8. Arrange peach slices on your parchment-lined pan
9. Gently pour batter over peaches in pan
10. Batter is very sticky, so sprinkle a little flour onto the top (or with floured hands) to help press dough into pan and along the edges
11. Bake for 15 minutes at 375*F, then reduce oven to 350*F and bake for an additional 30 minutes or until golden brown on top
12. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before removing from pan
13. Turn out onto a plate so peach-side is facing up
14. Serve cooled or warmed up a bit. Can keep for up to two days.