I have a foodie confession to make.
I have always really disliked Polenta. I can't stand it when a beautifully cooked piece of meat in a restaurant is resting on a gluggy yellow heap of polenta, I don't like polenta chips and have been known to grumble "They are NOT chips" when they show up on my plate.
When Nigella shared that she shakes par boiled potatoes in polenta before she bakes them so that they will be extra crisp I trusted her, overcame my phobia and bought a packet. Husband loved them. I thought they were like potatoes rolled in sand. Clearly my issue was one of texture.
After that disappointing episode i was stuck with a container of polenta and nothing to do with it - I even considered using it to blind bake a tart case once when I was out of rice!
And then one day I was approaching the used by date on a jar of lemon curd and hunting for a recipe to use it in. I was in desperate need of some baking therapy too so when I found the recipe for lemon polenta bars I thought (as usual :) I have all the ingredients for that!
Let me just tell you - Polenta should always be served in this way. The sweet hint of corn with lemon and a slight bite to the moist texture is just divine. It might be my new favourite kind of cake which is kind of amazing considering how much I despise polenta usually!
200g room temperature butter
200g Caster sugar
4 eggs
100g instant polenta
1 cup self raising flour
grated rind of 3 lemons (I used limes)
1/4 cup lemon curd
Preheat oven to 180C, Grease and line a 30x20cm baking pan.
Beat all ingredients except lemon curd together until creamy and smooth with a pinch salt.
Smooth into pan and drizzle the lemon curd all over the top. Bake for 35mins or until a skewer comes out clean.
Cool in pan for 10mins and then turn out.
Combine 1/4 cup sugar and the rind and juice of one lemon and drizzle it over the cake while still hot.
I found that this worked in an upside down cake kind of way because the curd sunk through to the bottom but it still worked so don't panic.
It is delicious!
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