Gâteau aux Noisettes
It’s Belleau Kitchen Random Recipe challenge time again and for this month’s challenge the magic number is 18. So I chose the bottom shelf of books and counted 18 from the left. My random choice last month was a chef’s book of French recipes and so, for a complete change, this month’s random choice is a chef's book of French recipes. (Not all of my books are cheffy French recipes, I promise).
This month's book is Pierre Koffmann’s ‘La Tante Claire’ published in the early nineties. On the random page – 21, as it happens – is the recipe for ‘Gâteau aux Noisettes’.
My first thought was that this would be a cake made with ground hazelnuts but it's actually quite different. The finished dish is more like eating a French tart with a crisp base and a softer topping, filled with nuts. It makes a pleasing and easily-made dessert, although only if you really like hazelnuts. Although the gâteau isn't large, it should easily feed 6 since there's a limit to how many nuts you can eat, unless you're the squirrel that lives at the bottom of my garden. It's best served with a crème anglaise – M. Koffmann suggests a hazelnut crème anglaise.
I've made some very minor adjustments to the recipe in the light of experience.
150 g light brown sugar
120 g plain flour
65 g butter
120 ml sour cream
½ tsp baking powder
1 egg
100 g skinned hazelnuts, lightly toasted
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Chop the hazelnuts into halves – you don’t need to be too precise about this. Butter a 19 cm round cake tin – the tin needs to be about 3 cm deep.
Mix together the sugar and flour and then rub in the butter until the mix feels uniformly sandy. (Incidentally, I'm coming round to thinking that rubbing in butter is just about the least interesting job you can do in the kitchen, other than cleaning the oven. I found that listening to the latest Decemberists album helped.).
Place half of the mixture into the prepared cake tin and spread it out evenly. Whisk together the sour cream, baking powder and the egg and then stir this thoroughly into the remaining half of the pastry mixture. Pour this into the cake tin over the base that you’ve already made, making sure that it’s spread evenly.
Sprinkle the chopped hazelnuts over the gâteau and bake in the oven for 35 – 40 minutes. After this time, the top should be set but still moist. Allow the gâteau to cool before removing from the tin.
This month's book is Pierre Koffmann’s ‘La Tante Claire’ published in the early nineties. On the random page – 21, as it happens – is the recipe for ‘Gâteau aux Noisettes’.
My first thought was that this would be a cake made with ground hazelnuts but it's actually quite different. The finished dish is more like eating a French tart with a crisp base and a softer topping, filled with nuts. It makes a pleasing and easily-made dessert, although only if you really like hazelnuts. Although the gâteau isn't large, it should easily feed 6 since there's a limit to how many nuts you can eat, unless you're the squirrel that lives at the bottom of my garden. It's best served with a crème anglaise – M. Koffmann suggests a hazelnut crème anglaise.
I've made some very minor adjustments to the recipe in the light of experience.
150 g light brown sugar
120 g plain flour
65 g butter
120 ml sour cream
½ tsp baking powder
1 egg
100 g skinned hazelnuts, lightly toasted
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Chop the hazelnuts into halves – you don’t need to be too precise about this. Butter a 19 cm round cake tin – the tin needs to be about 3 cm deep.
Mix together the sugar and flour and then rub in the butter until the mix feels uniformly sandy. (Incidentally, I'm coming round to thinking that rubbing in butter is just about the least interesting job you can do in the kitchen, other than cleaning the oven. I found that listening to the latest Decemberists album helped.).
Place half of the mixture into the prepared cake tin and spread it out evenly. Whisk together the sour cream, baking powder and the egg and then stir this thoroughly into the remaining half of the pastry mixture. Pour this into the cake tin over the base that you’ve already made, making sure that it’s spread evenly.
Sprinkle the chopped hazelnuts over the gâteau and bake in the oven for 35 – 40 minutes. After this time, the top should be set but still moist. Allow the gâteau to cool before removing from the tin.
Phil that looks stunning! And so French! I really love it. Thanks so much for taking part. Maybe next month youll finally break free of the french!
ReplyDeleteOoooh, wow!! That looks like a cake my whole hazelnut loving family would adore.
ReplyDeleteI managed to get the Cookery Course as my random book, and have to make a tuna recipe (of course, tuna is really really expensive here, so its going to have to be frozen :-))
This looks wonderful Phil. I cannot wait to give this a go now. A slice of that and a cup of hot drink... I haven't decided whether it's tea or coffee.
ReplyDeleteHave a nice day.
This looks delish! I love hazelnuts..I think this is something that would be loved...Blessings, Catherine
ReplyDeleteThis looks marvelous! I could go for a slice right about now!
ReplyDeleteHave a wonderful evening,
Tammy~
Love hazelnuts and think I'd love this cake. Now what you mean about rubbing butter into flour - it's the main reason I hate making pastry.
ReplyDeleteI love this, I'm a proper little squirrel when it comes to anything containing nuts, I could probably scoff that whole cake.
ReplyDeleteI can tell you that rubbing fat into flour isn't the most tiresome job in a kitchen - that award goes to coating anything in breadcrumbs (I mean the whole flour, eggwash, breadcrumbs process). In my last job we used to fight over who had to do it :)