This clever combination of olive oil and blood oranges from the Maman cookbook by Elisa Marshall and Benjamin Sormonte provides a stunning goûter (teatime) option.
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Maman: a home from home
When you walk into any of our Maman locations, the feeling is always the same. The aroma of culinary splendour wafts through the air, welcoming you, while the light buzz of conversation balances against the hiss of the espresso machine and the occasional clanging of pots.
The exact details of each Maman are unique, but features like exposed brick, rustic wood tables, mismatched china, and our signature blue-and-white patterns that are on everything from our to-go cups to our wallpaper create a familliar environment. The food always smells and tastes like something from your Maman’s kitchen, or maybe like a dish your grandmother taught you that you still make today. Coming into the café engages all your senses, embraces you, and makes you feel right at home.
Mama means ‘mother’ in French, but for us, it also embodies the comforting, cosy feeling of home we wanted to create when we opened our first café in a former art gallery.
At the time, late 2014, New York was filled with sleek spots that were all about being cool and trendy, but there weren’t a lot of places to settle into a good cup of coffee to concentrate on reading, writing, or sketching, or to lounge for a few hours enjoying a meal with friends, almost as if in your own living room. We couldn’t find exactly what we were looking for, so we decided to establish this sense of home for ourselves, which is how the café ultimately came to be. We set out to create a place that welcomes people with familiar sights, scents, and sounds – a place that feels like home.
Elisa Marshall writes…
In the yard of Ben’s childhood home stands a beautiful olive tree. When he was young, Ben and his brother collected buckets of olives from it to press at a local mill. Though continually disappointed with how little oil they produced, they remained motivated to collect more – they liked to see how the flavour differed depending on when the olives were harvested. Bright blood oranges pair perfectly with the richness of any high-quality olive oil, and their intense colour makes for a particularly attractive loaf, but you can use regular oranges, lemons, or grapefruit. While we love this loaf for breakfast, with the addition of a simple glaze it can certainly double as dessert. For extra crunch, fold in a large handful of poppy seeds.
Recipe Card
Olive oil and blood orange loaf
Ingredients
- Vegetable oil spray and flour for the pan
- 2 cups 290 g all-purpose flour
- 11/2 cups 300 g granulated sugar
- 11/2 teaspoons fine sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 3 blood oranges
- 11/4 cups 300 ml extra-virgin olive oil
- 11/4 cups 300 ml whole milk
- 3 large eggs
- 1/4 cup 60 ml orange-flavoured liqueur, such as Grand Marnier
- Confectioners’ sugar for garnish
Instructions
- Set a rack in the centre of the oven and preheat to 350°F (180°C). Coat a 9 × 5 in (23 × 12.5 cm) loaf pan with vegetable oil spray and dust with flour. Set a wire rack inside a sheet pan.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, granulated sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.
- Set aside 1 orange for garnish. Grate the zest of 1 of the remaining oranges, then juice both oranges and strain the liquid to remove any pulp. Measure out 1⁄4 cup (60 ml) of the orange juice and reserve any extra for another use.
- In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, combine the orange zest and juice with the olive oil, milk, eggs, and liqueur and whip until just combined. Add the flour mixture in 3 additions and mix on low, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed, until fully incorporated, about 3 minutes total.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the loaf comes out clean, 45 minutes to 1 hour.
- Set the loaf pan on the wire rack and let cool for about 20 minutes, then invert the loaf onto the rack. Flip it again so the loaf is right-side up and let cool slightly. Dust with confectioners’ sugar, then cut the reserved orange into thin slices and arrange on top of the loaf, and serve.
Notes
Excerpted from Maman: The Cookbook by Elisa Marshall and Benjamin Sormonte. Copyright © 2021 Elisa Marshall and Benjamin Sormonte. Photography © 2021 Linda Xiao. Published by Penguin Canada.
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