PICHET ONG'S CONDENSED MILK POUND CAKE

ong's condensed milk pound cake

I was recently visiting Cakewardrobe's blog and noticed she baked Ong's Condensed Milk Pound Cake. Her post reminded me of the little flag I stuck on the recipe in my own copy of Ong's book. It's been there a while but now that I've seen her scrumptious results, I was motivated to make the cake.

the pound cake cracks a smile

I had all the ingredients on hand. I love condensed milk so it's always kicking around. The best brand of Condensed milk is the one with a picture of that old guy on the front. That's the Longevity Brand, I think.

I didn't follow the recipe exactly. Of course.

I buzzed up a whole vanilla bean in my Bullet. Then I proceeded to dump everything into my trusty Kitchenaid. I didn't want to lug out my food processor. Ong makes the whole cake in the processor but I find it a hassle to clean the processor lid so I'm always reluctant to use it for stuff like this.

I beat the butter and salt first, then added the ground vanilla bean sugar. I made sure it looked nice and fluffy and then added the flour mixture and the eggs and poured it into the loaf pan.

Here's where Ong's recipe goes awry. His timing's way off. I don't know if he used convection mode or not but he states to bake the pound cake for about an hour. I kept checking the cake and at 60 minutes, it was light golden and jiggled in the middle. I added 5 minutes and it still didn't look done. By the time it was done, I had added a full 20 minutes onto the 60. Looking at the illustration in the cookbook, it appeared the pound cake was quite brown externally. It was not golden brown by my standards. My pound cake was not brown, but it was a tad past the dark golden stage.

the crunchy, caramelized crust is the best part

love those vanilla bean specks

The cake was perfect in every way. The crust was crunchy and sweet. It almost tasted deep-fried! The crumb was fine. The cake had a subtle condensed milk flavour. I loved the specks of ground vanilla bean in the cake. I hadn't even bothered sifting it like Ong indicated in the recipe. I like a few bitty chunks of vanilla in there. The Bullet is able to get the vanilla pod ground up quite fine.

because i didn't sift the ground vanilla sugar, i had tiny vanilla bean chunks throughout: bonus!

Stomach loves the pound cake. Bib and Bebe loved it too. It's a keeper and I highly recommend it. However, if I were you I wouldn't bring the cake out of the oven too quickly. Ong's timing is way off.

CONDENSED MILK POUND CAKE

from Pichet Ong's Sweet Spot

[my adaptations to the recipe & techniques are in brackets]

Makes one 8 1/2 -x- 4 1/2 inch cake, about 12 servings
1 cup (8 oz/226 g unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for greasing the pan
1 1/3 cups (7 oz/200g) all purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup (3 3/4 oz/ 106g) sugar
1 vanilla bean, chopped, or 2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup (8 oz/239g) sweetened condensed milk
3 large eggs

• Preheat the oven to 325° F.
• Generously butter an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 - inch loaf pan and set aside.
• Sift together the flour and baking powder and set aside.
• Put the sugar and the chopped vanilla bean, if using, in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade and pulse until the vanilla bean is finely ground. Sift through a fine-mesh sieve and return the sugar mixture to the food processor. If not using the vanilla bean, just put the sugar in the processor. [I buzzed the sugar and vanilla bean in my Bullet]
• Add the butter and salt and process until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl occasionally. Add the condensed milk and pulse until well incorporated, about 15 times, scraping down the sides of the bowl once. [I used the stand mixer and the beater attachment to beat the butter, salt and ground vanilla sugar mixture until fluffy. Then I added the condensed milk and beat until combined]
• Add the sifted dry ingredients and pulse until no traces of flour remain, about 10 times. Add the eggs and pulse just until combined, about 5 times. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl, add the vanilla extract, if using, and finish mixing by hand to fully incorporate the eggs. [Add the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl and beat until combined. Then, add all the eggs and continue beating until thoroughly incorporated.]
• Transfer the batter to the prepared loaf pan. Bake until the top is dark golden brown and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 1 hour. Cool completely in the loaf pan on a rack, then unmold. [I baked my pound cake for one hour 20 minutes!]