Torta di Nocciole (Italian Hazelnut Cake)
Inspired by Cellar Door team member Trix, and her recent travels through Italy's most famed wine regions, Viv sought to recreate a Piedmont baking treat, Torta di Nocciole. A delicious and comforting cake using hazelnuts, which Piedmont is known for, serve simply with icing sugar or a dollop of Piedmont's other famous export - Nutella!
Ingredients
- 210 g whole hazelnuts, roasted and peeled
- 175 g cake and pastry flour (or substitute with plain flour)
- 1 orange, zest finely grated
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- 225 g unsalted butter, softened
- 200 g white sugar
- 2 eggs
- 60 ml full cream milk
Method
- To prepare hazelnuts, preheat oven to 170°C. Spread hazelnuts on a baking tray and roast for about 15 minutes, shaking every 5 minutes, until golden and skin is crackled. Pour the hazelnuts onto a clean tea towel, fold the towel over and rub to remove most of the skins. Pick out the peeled nuts to cool and use for the recipe, discard the papery skins. (Alternatively, you could purchase skinned hazelnuts and simply roast them.)
- Preheat oven to 175°C. Grease and line a 22cm loose bottomed / springform cake tin with baking paper.
- Place the cooled hazelnuts, flour, orange zest, baking powder, and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Process by pulsing until the hazelnuts are finely ground. (Some texture from the nuts is fine.) Set aside.
- Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or a hand mixer), cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then add the eggs, one at a time, beating well to incorporate before adding the next. With the mixer on low speed, add half the flour and hazelnut mixture and half the milk, mixing to combine, and repeat with the remaining flour mixture and milk. Once the ingredients are fully incorporated, beat on medium-high speed for just a few seconds.
- Transfer the cake batter to the prepared baking pan. Bake for about 45 minutes, or until the cake is golden brown, puffed up, and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out with a few crumbs attached to it. Transfer the tin to a wire rack and let the cake cool to room temperature in the tin (the cake will deflate to an almost perfect flat shape as it cools down).
- Remove cake from the pan and carefully peel away the baking paper. Transfer to a serving platter or cake dish to serve. The cake is lovely topped simply with some icing sugar and extra chopped hazelnuts or strips of orange / lemon zest; or serve with a dollop of Nutella, or some double cream.
- Recipe adapted from blogger Marie Asselin on 'Food Nouveau'
Wine pairing
No wine pairings assigned.
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