A lovely, moist cake, perfect with coffee but also served as dessert, slightly warm and served with vanila ice cream or double cream.
When I want to add lightness to cakes, I often substitute some of the flour with very fine breadcrumbs we call ‘frygania’. You can buy them in the UK but you could also make them at home if you heavily toast in the oven some light white bread and then blitz in a powerful blender. These crumbs are great also as as a topping to moussaka, lasagna and are often used in professional patisseries to bulk out mixes of nuts in baklava or kataifi. I also use it to make my Karydopita (walnut and chocolate cake).
In this recipe, you may substitute the frygania with panko breadcrumbs too.
For the cake
- 125g butter
- 4 egg whites
- 50g blanched hazelnuts, toasted and ground
- 75g sugar
- 50g plain flour
- 35g very fine dry toasted breadcrumbs (frygania)
- 125g of tiny chocolate flakes or drops
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
For the chocolate ganache
- 50g chocolate (72% cocoa solids)
- 75ml double cream
For the praline
- 175g blanched hazelnuts, toasted
- 150g caster sugar
- 3 tbsp sunflower oil
- Pinch of salt
Method
Preheat the oven to 200C and butter a pretty cake mould.
Put all the hazelnuts on a tin and roast for 7 minutes until they turn a pale gold and release their beautiful aroma. Leave to cool.
In a spice grinder or small blender, grind the 50g of hazelnuts to turn to a meal. Do not overblend as the nuts will release their butter and turn into a paste.
With a knife chop 25g of the hazelnuts roughly to use to sprinkle the cake with and keep to the side.
Put the remaining hazelnuts in a blender. To make the praline, make a caramel but putting the sugar in a pan together with 2 tbsp of cold water. Bring to a medium heat and cook until the sugar has melted, shaking the pan from time to time until you have a golden caramel. Pour the caramel onto a silicone mat, spreading it to be as thin as possible. Leave to cool.
When the caramel has cooled, break up in small pieces and add to the hazelnuts in the blender. Add a pinch of salt and blitz for a few minutes to turn into a fine powder. Continue blending until the powder turns to a paste, scraping the sides of the blender as you go. Add the sunflower oil to help with this process a tbsp at a time until you have a smooth, slightly runny consistency. Transfer some praline to a piping bag and put the rest in a jar to enjoy another time.
To make the cake, melt the butter in a saucepan and continue cooking on a low to medium heat stirring as it foams until it starts turning golden in colour and the solids start to burn and sink to the bottom. Remove the butter from the heat when it releases a nutty aroma and looks golden brown. Leave to cool and strain through a fine sieve.
In a medium size bowl, put the flour, fine breadcrumbs and ground hazelnuts. Add the melted butter and stir to incorporate. Add the chocolate flakes or drops and mix in well.
In another bowl beat the egg whites to soft peaks. Use a spatula to mix the soft meringue into the cake mix. Transfer to the buttered cake tin, tap it a few times on the work surface so that the cake mix settles into the cake mould and bake in the oven for 25 minutes. Leave to cool and turn upside down on a cake plate.
To make the ganache, heat the cream and chocolate in a pan gently until it is fully incorporated. Leave to cool slightly and use to drizzle the cake. Cut a small hole in the piping bag and drizzle the cake some praline also.
Sprinkle with the reserved chopped hazelnuts and serve with some cream or vanilla ice cream.