At Canele brunch, we served slices of this pound cake with a dollop of whipped cream on top and an espresso shot on the side. The idea was that you would pour the espresso onto the cake. We called it coffee cake. It’s also great with berries and whipped cream.

If cooking it in a loaf pan, know that it takes nearly an hour to bake. You can also make these in muffin tins to save time.

 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more to grease the baking pan

1 1/2 cups sugar 

1 vanilla bean 

1 1/2 cups whole-milk ricotta cheese (Gioia)

1 1/2 cups flour (AP or cake)

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Slice the vanilla bean in half and with the back of the knife, scrape the beans out of the pod and mix into the sugar. Use your fingers to try to separate all the seeds and flavor the sugar.

With a paddle attachment in a standing mixer, cream the butter, sugar and ricotta.

With the mixer running, add 1 egg at a time and the vanilla extract.

Combine (sift together) the dry ingredients and slowly add them to the mixer. Once it is all incorporated, beat for 30 seconds and then stop!

Pour the batter into a prepared loaf pan and bake for about 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Once it’s cool enough to handle, transfer to a cooling rack.