Lemon Blueberry Cornmeal Cake

We’ve been on a healthy dessert kick recently. I saw this recipe on http://www.neverhomemaker.com/2013/01/lemon-cornmeal-cake-blueberries.html  and knew we had to make it. I recall once splitting a slice of polenta cake at a Pizza Express with my Mother-In-Law and it was delish. This recipe is just like that--tart from the lemon with a hint of sweetness and a few bursts of blueberries. Plus healthy, but it doesn’t taste like it. That’s the best kind.

I did adapt the recipe slightly (Spiderman says this is a pathological trait with me--I can’t cook without a small tweak) 

Preheat your oven to 180C/350F

Lemon Blueberry Cornmeal Cake

You need:

1 cup rolled oats, pulsed into flour

2/3 cup yellow cornmeal (I used fine polenta)

1 TB baking powder

½ tsp sea salt

Juice of 2 lemons (1/3 cup)

Zest of one lemon

¼-1/3 cup sugar (I used ¼ cup Light at Heart--half Demerara sugar half stevia-- which is as sweet as ½ cup sugar)

½ cup “milk” (she used almond milk I used Oatly)

1 flax egg (1 TB ground flax mixed with 3 TB hot water and allowed to jell for a few minutes)

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 cup frozen blueberries (she used ½ a cup blueberries but for me I wanted more so I just dumped the whole punnet in there)

How to do it:

Note: she cooked hers in a cast iron pan that she preheated in the oven and it took half as long as mine did in my 9 inch ceramic pie pan that was not preheated. We once tried to preheat the ceramic pan and then spoon cold dough with frozen blueberries into it and the pan exploded. Not fun. So I’ll give directions for both kinds of pans.

1. In a food processor, pulse your oats until they resemble flour. Then briefly pulse in the cornmeal, baking powder and salt. Pour into a large mixing bowl

2. Add the rest of the ingredients--minus the blueberries--and mix until well combined.

Note: mine was a bit like a science experiment--the baking soda and the lemon made a fizzing noise when I mixed them. That was the fun bit!

3. Stir in the blueberries.

4. EITHER take out your hot cast iron pan and add a TB of oil and pour it in and swirl it around to grease the pan OR do like I did and grease your not preheated pan well with some oil.

5. Pour the mixture into the pan.

6. If you are baking in the preheated cast iron pan she said bake it for 15-20 minutes until centre is set. If you are baking in the not preheated  pan then bake for 30-35 minutes until golden brown and set.

7. Let cool before slicing into wedges.

8. Optional: glaze with ¼ cup sifted icing sugar and a drizzle of “milk” to make it

glaze-y. It hardens into a sweet crackle top that is a nice contrast to the tartness below.

The second best bit after the fizzing is this:

When you’ve eaten a few wedges it looks like PAC-MAN!