Coriander seed! This spice is the seed from the same plant that produces the leafy herb that we know as cilantro—but the two flavors are worlds apart.

Even if you hate the leaf, don’t count on hating the seed. Actually, you’ve probably tasted coriander seed as one of several spices in savory Indian, Asian, and Middle Eastern dishes. It’s usually a member of a spicy chorus—such as the Indian spice blend, garam masala—rather than a solo voice or flavor. But what if it were on its own?

The professional food writer and researcher for www.food52.com, Alice Medrich, did some experimenting and found out that this jewel adds absolute magic to baked goods. She used just a couple of coriander seeds (you can do this without trepidation) and says you’ll find the flavor delightfully bright, citrusy, a little like grass or hay, and marvelously floral.

Her first thought was to use it as one might use mace, or nutmeg—alone, in a simple pound cake, butter cake, or Bundt cake. From there she messed around with butter cookies and sponge cakes. All tries were successful and met with lots of enthusiasm from her taste-testers.

Another thing she tried was grinding the seeds and mixing them into powdered sugar. This coriander sugar dusted atop her pound and bundt cakes was really delicious, she says. You can also mix your ground coriander with granulated sugar and substitute that when making cinnamon toast (only it would be coriander toast, as shown).

I’ll conclude with Medrich’s last coriander suggestion: Try mixing plain with toasted coriander seed. Ground toasted seed has richer and nuttier flavor notes that resonate perfectly in any cake; plain seeds are brighter and more citrusy, perfect for topping your cake.

And to tempt you to try coriander seed (if you haven’t already), here is Alice Medrich’s recipe for her coriander seed bundt cake. Everyone at our house loved it and says this under-rated spice deserves a BIG applause!

CORIANDER SEED BUNDT CAKE

¾ cup buttermilk

¼ cup water

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

3 large eggs, at room temperature

1 large egg yolk, at room temperature

3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt (fine sea salt is perfect for this)

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

18 tablespoons unsalted butter, slightly softened (pliable but not squishy)

2 cups sugar

2 tablespoons whole coriander seeds, toasted and ground (see Author Notes) or simply ground

TOPPING

3 tablespoons powdered sugar

1 teaspoon whole (untoasted) coriander seed, ground, or purchased ground coriander seed

1. Position the rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. (If using a convection oven, adjust the temperature according to instructions with your oven and look for doneness early.) Spray a 12-cup Bundt pan with baking spray that contains flour, or thoroughly grease and flour it.

2. Mix the buttermilk with the water and vanilla and set aside.

3. Mix the eggs and yolk together in a measuring pitcher and set it aside.

4. Whisk the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda together in bowl large enough to do this job thoroughly—whisking not only combines the ingredients, it fluffs up the flour so that it blends more easily into the batter which in turn prevents over mixing. Set this aside.

5. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the sugar, butter, and ground coriander on medium high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Very gradually pour the eggs into the bowl in a thin steady stream taking 1 to 1 1/2 minutes in total.

6. On low speed, starting and ending with the flour mixture, add the flour in three additions, alternating with the buttermilk mixture in two additions. Scrape the bowl as necessary and mix only enough to incorporate each addition.

7. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and spread it evenly. Bake until a skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, 50 to 55 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking.

8. Cool the cake in the pan on a rack for about 10 minutes before inverting it on a rack to finish cooling. To serve, mix ground coriander with powdered sugar and sift over the top.

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