I'm beat, beet red

Up until this past year, I was very adept at avoiding beets. My father would eat them out of a can while I grew up. I'm feeling queasy just thinking about it. A couple of years ago, my wife brought some home from the grocery store and the more-mature me decided to give them a try. I had learned by that point that you can't condemn a vegetable just because some people choose to eat it out of a... Oh boy. Would you believe he eats canned potatoes, too? Urp.

Our first attempt at cooking beets didn't go great. My wife found a recipe in Joy of Cooking for roasting them. They were ok, but nothing special. I could see that beets had potential, though. I just needed to find a better recipe.

The following summer, I vowed to try beets again. By this time, I had become enamored with Cooks Illustrated and had access to their fantastic online library of recipes. Unfortunately, even they don't have a huge selection of beet recipes. The one I chose to make was called Beets Roesti, which is basically a beet hash-brown. My five year-old daughter LOVES these "beet cakes", as she calls them. While eating them this way, I noticed how similar beets are to carrots. That led me to wonder what it would be like if I were to replace the carrots in my carrot cake with shredded beets.

Now, carrot cake is something that I take pretty, pretty seriously. I spent several years searching for a 3 inch spun aluminum cake pan that would let me make a whole round carrot cake at once. Prior to that, I had spent a weekend making carrot cake after carrot cake in two 1 inch round pans to try and find the optimal baking time for my favorite recipe in those particular pans. I can whip up a carrot cake so fast that I knew that making it with beets wouldn't be a big waste of time.

Reading Lisa's blog entry about beets reminded again of my desire to beetify my carrot cake recipe. Several weeks later, I sprang quickly into action!

My first attempt was using Alton Brown's carrot cake recipe, which was my gold standard for years. It's fast: his book gives you all of your measurements by volume AND weight, so if you use a kitchen scale (and you should if you bake), you can whip up some batter in just a few minutes and barely dirty any dishes. This recipe treats the carrot cake like a muffin. You assemble your dry ingredients and your wet ingredients, and then mix them until they're just barely combined before putting them in the pan. In Alton's instructions, you toss your carrots in with the dry ingredients and stir them up. I found that when I did that with the beets, the flour "insulated" the beets and keep them from contributing much color at all to the cake. I would have loved to have had my cake come out looking like a red velvet cake, or pinkish at the very least. Alas, it was not to be. The cake itself was delicious, though. To me, the only differences were that it was slightly moister and the streaks of beet were a bit darker than the carrot bits would have been.

I wanted to take another stab at what I was now calling a Schrute Cake (if you don't watch The Office that probably went right over your head). I compared the Cooks Illustrated carrot cake recipe to the Alton Brown one that I had used before and found that it contained a lot more carrot. I chose to go with the more carroty option, and for good measure, I threw in about half-again as much beets as it called for. This time, I also mixed the beets in with the wet ingredients first instead of the dry ingredients.

Look at the amazing color of my batter before it went in the oven!

 

I was positive that I'd get a reddish-purplish product when it was done. However, it's just not to be: I don't think that the red pigments hold up to heat and they darken while baking. Here's the finished product:

To me, it still tastes like a carrot cake, albeit moister and maybe a little sweeter due to having used extra beets. I'm sure I could completely fool even the most ardent beet-hater with this cake. Not that I'd ever do that to someone. Which reminds me... I need to write up an entry about the seaweed fritatta I fed my daughter this weekend...

Here's the recipe as modified from the Cook's Illustrated carrot cake recipe:

Schrute Cake
2 1/2 cups unbleached flour (12.5 oz)
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 pound beets, peeled
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar (3.5 oz)
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil (safflower oil or canola oil)

Cream Cheese Frosting
8 oz cream cheese, softened but still cool
5 tablespoons butter, softened but still cool
1 tablespoon sour cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups confectioner's sugar (4.5 oz)

1. For the cake: adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 13 by 9-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Line bottom of pan with parchment and spray parchment.

2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt in large bowl; set aside.

3. In food processor fitted with large shredding disk (see below for mixer method), shred beets; transfer beets to bowl and set aside. Wipe out food processor workbowl and fit with metal blade. Process granulated and brown sugars and eggs until frothy and thoroughly combined, about 20 seconds. With machine running, add oil through feed tube in steady stream. Process until mixture is light in color and well emulsified, about 20 seconds longer. Scrape mixture into medium bowl. Stir in beets. Stir in dry ingredients until incorporated and no streaks of flour remain. Pour into prepared pan and bake until toothpick or skewer inserted into center of cake comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking time. Cool cake to room temperature in pan on wire rack, about 2 hours.

4. For the frosting: When cake is cool, process cream cheese, butter, sour cream, and vanilla in clean food processor workbowl until combined, about 5 seconds, scraping down bowl with rubber spatula as needed. Add confectioners' sugar and process until smooth, about 10 seconds.

5. Run paring knife around edge of cake to loosen from pan. Invert cake onto wire rack, peel off parchment, then invert again onto serving platter. Using icing spatula, spread frosting evenly over surface of cake. Cut into squares and serve. (Cover leftovers and refrigerate for up to 3 days.)

Comments

[March]

I should try beets too..but carrot cake I just can't do. SO gross.

[Jason Raven]

What?! You didn't eat the cake at our wedding? I knew I should have had a plate of Krispy Kremes there for you.

If you want to try beets, here's the simple recipe I always use. My kids ask for it often.

It's up to you to figure out how you like them. You can cook them until they're pretty crispy or only let them go until they soften up.

I skip the oven part and just serve them as I make them. I also lay them on a paper towel-lined plate to get rid of some of the excess oil before serving.

Beets Roesti

4 medium beets, peeled and coarsely grated (about 4 cups)
1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup vegetable oil
table salt and ground black pepper

1. Heat oven to 200 degrees. Toss beets with flour in medium bowl.

2. Heat 1 tablespoon each butter and oil in an 8-inch saute pan or omelet pan. When butter stops foaming and oil is very hot, measure 1 cup of beet mixture into pan and quickly spread and press it flat with back of fork.

3. Cook over medium-high heat until bottom is well browned, about 2 minutes. Loosen carefully with spatula, put plate over pan, and invert. Slide beet cake back into pan; cook until remaining side is well browned, 1 1/2 to 2 minutes longer. Carefully loosen and slide onto an oven-proof platter; add salt and pepper to taste. Reserve in a warm oven; repeat 3 more times to make 4 beet cakes. Serve immediately.

[Carissa]

That is so interesting! It amazes me that your batter was such an amazing shade of red/pink, but once baked it ended up looking just like carrot cake. I will definitely have to give it a try. Growing up, I only ever tried pickled beets - blech! But, I havea feeling I'd like them in either of the recipes you posted. Thanks!

[Julie]

I noticed your ingredient list is missing the amount of brown sugar. From Cook's Illustrated, it should be:

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar (3 1/2 ounces)

[Jason Raven]

Is that in the print version of the magazine? I just double-checked the web site and I see brown sugar in the Pickled Beets with Orange and Rosemary recipe, but not in the Roesti.

If you see this comment, please confirm that because I'd really like to know if the web version is missing it. It seems sweet enough as it is, but brown sugar does make just about everything taste better. =)