Today we are making the fluffly hazelnut cake together! Here is my mouth-watering version of the Italian hazelnut cake recipe, made with just 3 ingredients.
The hazelnut cake is a fluffy and fragrant dessert originating in Piedmont, where it is known as “torta Cortemilia”.
Although its origins are in Piedmont, it is also popular in the rest of Italy due to the fact that other regions such as Lazio, Campania and Sicily are producers of different types of hazelnuts. This is why, in the Bel Paese, it is often easy to find sweet and savoury preparations based on this type of dried fruit.
The Italian hazelnut cake is a dessert with a strong flavour and mouth-watering aroma. The soft yet moist texture is one of the features that makes it so popular. Sweet to the right point, it is perfect as a snack accompanied by a cup of coffee or tea, but can be enjoyed on any occasion, from breakfast to after dinner.
The hazelnut cake is mostly an autumn preparation, precisely because it is the time of year that coincides with the harvest of this fruit. However, it is not difficult to find it in pastry shops even at other times of the year, thanks to the large quantities of roasted, chopped or otherwise processed hazelnuts available in Italy and around the world.
This fruit, by the way, is also very interesting on a nutritional level as it is rich in important health substances such as antioxidants, fibre, vitamins and many more.
The hazelnut cake, however, is only one of the many popular desserts in Italy as it is possible to find many other recipes that have this fruit at their base, starting with the countless number of variants that this cake can have (vegan, vegetarian, chocolate version, etc. …).
In fact, in Italy, master pastry chefs use this product a lot to make desserts such as crispy cakes, spreads, panettone, spoon desserts and many others.
Let’s make the Hazelnut Cake!
In this article, I will tell you about my recipe for Italian hazelnut cake. To make it, you will only need 3 ingredients (eggs, brown sugar, hazelnut flour). And, believe me, you will make a cake that is very easy to make: soft, fragrant and with a flavour that I assure you will amaze you.
Italian Hazelnut Cake Recipe
– Preparation time: 60 minutes (15 minutes for preparation + 45 minutes for cooking)
– Difficulty and cost: low difficulty and average cost as high-quality hazelnuts are quite expensive
– Ingredients:
- 4 whole eggs
- 50 g brown sugar
- 200 g hazelnut flour (roasted)
– Utensils:
- cooking bowls, 18 cm baking mould, electric or planetary whisk or classic whisk, licker
– Procedure:
- To make the hazelnut cake, whip the egg whites with 50 grams of sugar from the total until stiff and fluffy.
- In the meantime, mix the egg yolks with the sugar and then add the hazelnut flour, continuing to mix until the mixture is well blended.
- At this point, combine the two mixtures with slow movements, from the bottom to the top, so as not to make the mixture come apart.
- Transfer the mixture into a buttered and floured 18 cm mould and bake the cake in a preheated oven at 175º (ventilated) for 40/45 minutes.
- Remove the cake from the oven, let it cool and finish the preparation by adding a dusting of icing sugar to the surface.
About the soft hazelnut cake!
Now I want to tell you that I really like the Italian hazelnut cake and I usually serve it with fior di latte ice cream and fresh berries. Believe me, these flavours combined together will make the dessert taste even better.
However, if you are not a hazelnut lover, you can easily replace the hazelnut flour with pistachio or almond flour and it will be just as good.
As for storage, it keeps well for three to four days at room temperature closed in a container or under a cake bell.
Now that I have given you my Italian hazelnut cake recipe, you just have to try it! And be sure to let me know what you think in the comments.
If you want to taste the hazelnuts in the places where they are produced, remember that Italia Delight allows you to book tailor-made food and wine experiences as well as foodie holidays, directly with the best Italian Food Experts. 😋
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