The Resurrection of Angel Food

Today’s angel food cake is nothing like the heavenly cake that I remember from my childhood.

Those were delicate but sturdy cakes with a pleasingly plain taste that was a perfect foil for fruit, berries or custards. James Beard liked to talk about sitting at a drugstore counter in his youth and ordering a slice of toasted and buttered angel food cake. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, angel food cakes and pound cakes were extremely popular. James Beard said they were so popular that you found them at every lunch counter, sliced and ready to go in little wax paper bags.

The modern versions wouldn’t take to that treatment. They are refined and frail, and so wimpy that when you bite into them they dissolve like cotton candy. Often there is even an unwanted and faintly eggy taste.

I set out to bake an angel food cake as good as the ones I remembered. After testing a half dozen recipes, altering and juggling the ingredients with no success, I began to think I was like the widow of a difficult spouse. Maybe I had romanticized the cake; maybe the cake of my memory never actually existed?

And then, with the simplest change of ingredients, came success. Instead of using cake flour I used all-purpose flour. It was amazing how this small substitution changed the texture of the cake. Even the taste was different: The hint of “egginess” had disappeared. It was the cake I remembered.

Although cake flour appeared in the market about 70 years ago (Gold Medal brought out cake flour in 1923 and Pillsbury introduced Snosheen cake flour in 1929), most home bakers continued to use all-purpose flour, partly because cake flour was a luxury in the Depression, and cakes turned out nicely without a special flour. But with the end of the wars the recipes changed.

The other recipe is quite the opposite--it requires no fiddling with at all. In fact, this ratatouille needs no exact measurements. Just use the following as a guide:

Combine summer squashes, zucchini, crookneck, patty pan, bell peppers (red, green and yellow), eggplant, onions, garlic and fresh herbs. Chop, salt and pepper everything, spread out in a large shallow baking dish and drizzle olive oil over. Put into 325-degree oven for a couple of hours, loosely covered with foil the first half of the baking time. Pour off excess liquid and check so the ratatouille doesn’t dry out and scorch.

I store this in the refrigerator so it is waiting to be eaten whenever hunger strikes. I serve it with bread and cheese or add it to a steaming bowl of basmati rice or pasta. Sometimes I put a large scoop of the vegetables in the middle of a bowl of polenta. It is also splendid in a supper frittata.

OLD-FASHIONED ANGEL FOOD CAKE

1 cup flour

1 1/4 cups sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups egg whites (12 large egg whites will yield approximately 2 cups)

1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar

2 teaspoons vanilla

Combine flour, 3/4 cup sugar and salt and sift onto sheet of wax paper. Sift flour mixture 5 times. Set aside.

Beat egg whites in mixing bowl until foamy. Add cream of tartar and beat, adding remaining 1/2 cup sugar slowly. Beat only until whites hold soft peaks. Add vanilla and beat another second to mix well.

Sprinkle 1/2 cup flour over whites, put towel over mixer and whisk on low speed just until flour is mixed in. Repeat with other 1/2 cup flour. Remove bowl from mixer. (If beating by hand, gently fold in flour in 4 parts. Fold in only until no floury streaks turn up.) Gently spoon batter into ungreased 10-inch tube pan and spread evenly. Use spatula to gently go up and down in circle around center of batter to remove any air pockets.

Bake at 325 degrees 30 minutes or until top is golden and wood pick or straw inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven and invert. Let cool completely in pan before removing. Makes 10 servings.

Each serving contains about:

158 calories; 209 mg sodium; 0 cholesterol; 0 fat; 34 grams carbohydrates; 5 grams protein; 0.03 grams fiber.

FRITTATA WITH VEGETABLES

8 eggs

1 1/2 cups cooked vegetables, drained of excess liquid

3 tablespoons olive oil

3 tablespoons chopped parsley

Salt, pepper

Parsley sprigs

Preheat boiler. Mix eggs well with fork in bowl. Stir in vegetables. Place skillet over medium-low heat and pour in egg mixture, stirring to mix well. Spread olive oil over bottom of heavy skillet. Cover and cook about 2 minutes, until eggs shrink slightly.

Slip under broiler to brown slightly. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Garnish with parsley. Makes 4 servings.

Each serving contains about:

250 calories; 203 mg sodium; 425 mg cholesterol; 20 grams fat; 4 grams carbohydrates; 13 grams protein; 0.38 gram fiber.