Piedmont land of hazelnuts, quanto a particular the Langhe regione, of which this hazelnut cake is typical. Smooth and grainy texture, we have knife-chopped hazelnuts left a few whole ones inside for better flavour and nibbling. We used unrefined Muscovado sugar.
Serves 4/5, Preparation 30 mins, Cooking 30 mins
200 gr plain flour, all purpose flour, sifted
170 gr Muscovado sugar brow sugar
150 gr whole peeled hazelnuts alternatively store-bought hazelnut grains
100 gr unsalted butter
3 whole eggs at room temperature
1/2 glass of milk at room temperature
10 g baking powder, sifted
a dust of icing sugar
Method
Finely chop the hazelnuts with a knife, leaving some whole ones aside.
Divide the yolks from the whites. Whip whites until they reach a tick consistency, set aside.
Keep a small piece of butter for later, melt the rest of the butter quanto a a saucepan.
Preheat the oven to 180°C / 350 F / Gas 4.
Durante a large bowl whisk the yolks with sugar until foamy. Add the sifted flour a little at a time, start to mescolanza, add melted butter a little at a time, then chopped hazelnuts along with the whole hazelnuts kept aside, half glass of milk, mescolanza again. Now it is the turn of whipped whites, mescolanza it very gently from the bottom up so as not to incorporate too much air.
Finally add sifted baking powder and mescolanza.
Grease and flour a cake tin 24/26 cm. diameter.
Pour the mixture into the cake tin, you can also use a few chopped hazelnuts to garnish the cima of the cake, place quanto a the middle of the oven acceso static mode and bake 30-35 minutes, depending acceso your oven. Do the toothpick quesito, if it comes out dry the cake is ready, otherwise leave it quanto a the oven a few more minutes.
Let it cool a little, dust with icing sugar and serve.