If the gestation of the first recipe I sent to the Fiandino Farms’ Contest was long and painful, I had no doubt about the second recipe (I could send how many recipe I want, but I opted for two recipes, a savoury one and a dessert) since the first moment I saw, made and tasted it during the professional pastry class that I am attending.
Ta dà! Surprise! I didn’t tell you, yet, but I’m attending a professional pastry class at the Chefs’ Association in Turin, and I’m finally learning the basics of pastry, which I wanted to learn for a long, long time, and now I’m finally learning them.
During the lesson about short pastry for tarts and tartellette we made a great Piedmontese classic, the Langarola (which means “from Langhe“, wonderful Piedmontese lands) cake, a triumph of butter and hazelnuts, a delicious cake in which a sort of frangipane cream (made with hazelnuts instead of almonds, though) is enclosed in a shell of short pastry, a real bomb of flavor (and calories, but I didn’t tell you this). A cake perfect for a special occasion, rustic but elegant and refined at the same time .
Maybe it’s my Piedmontese DNA, but I love it … and you?
- FOR THE SHORT PASTRY
- 500 g all purpose flour
- 300 g unsalted butter
- 200 g sugar
- 4 egg yolks
- a pinch of salt
- vanilla bean/lemon rind/orange rind
- FOR THE FILLING
- Apricot jam
- 125 g whole eggs (an egg usually weight about 50 g)
- 150 g sugar
- 50 g flour
- 150 g powdered hazelnuts
- 150 g unsalted butter, melted and cold
- Amaretto liqueur
- Vanilla bean
- Fruit jelly to garnish
- Chopped hazelnuts to garnish
- Prepare the short pastry in advance (even the day before): put on a worktop butter at room temperature, add the sugar and mix briefly with the tip of your fingers until sugar is absorbed. Make a hole in the mixture, pour the egg yolks and mix until they are absorbed. Then add the flour (add to it a pinch of salt and the aromatic part -vanilla or citrus rind) and knead briefly until you get a ball of dough: cover it in plastic wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator for at least one hour. [With short pastry leftovers you can make very good cookies].
- After this time has passed, roll out the pastry to about 5-7 mm thick and coat a baking dish 24 cm in diameter, riddle with holes the bottom of the dough and spread a thin layer of apricot jam.
- Pre-heat the oven to 338°F (170°C).
- Whip the eggs with the sugar for a long time; when the mass will be firm, add (with your bare hands, a spatula or a wooden spoon) flour and the powdered hazelnuts from the bottom up.
- Add some vanilla seed, melted butter and amaretto liqueur (a cap is enough).
- Pour the batter into the baking pan (previously) lined with short pastry. Let it rest for 5 minutes at room temperature and then bake in a pre-heated oven for about 35 to 40 minutes.
- Remove from the oven, let it cool completely and then remove the cake from the baking dish. Polish it with fruit jelly and garnish it with chopped hazelnuts.
Loading...
