Hazelnut cake from Piedmont
Torta di nocciole delle Langhe
This hazelnut cake from Langhe Roero in Piedmont was a challenge as there is neither flour nor butter and oil among the ingredients.
We have just returned from a trip to Langhe Roero in Piedmont, where the local tonda gentile IGP hazelnuts are almost as cherished as the white truffles and the Barolo wine. Hazelnut bushes dot the hilly landscape in intricate patterns with the striped vineyards, and we came across this hazelnut cake without flour or butter again and again. Most notoriously in Cortemilia, where a visit to the Canobbio bakery is a must. Their hazelnut cake is a speciality the father, Giuseppe Canobbio, makes after a recipe, he learned from his grandmother, and the entire house smells of roasted hazelnuts.
Papà Giuseppe did not share his inherited recipe in detail, but tastewise this hazelnut cake comes pretty close to the original. I was a bit shocked by the copious amounts of sugar and nuts used, but the result is delicious. A sweet, aromatic kind of sponge cake that was too brittle and crumbly to get top marks for appearances, but compensated in taste and texture.
Ingredients
280 g sugar
250 g hazelnuts
4 egg yolks
4 egg whites
A pinch of salt
Preparation
Whisk egg whites to a firm snow, as the Italians describe it.
Blend hazelnuts finely with sugar and a pinch of salt. (If you want to do it properly you have to roast the hazelnuts and rub off the brown skin first)
Mix sugar and hazelnuts with egg yolks.
Fold the mixture into the egg whites.
Grease a round baking pan (ø24 cm) before adding the cake mixture.
Bake at 170 C / 340 F for about 40 minutes.
You can serve hazelnut cake from Piedmont with warm zabaione custard, but at this point my family had used up our daily ration of sugar and eggs. Yoghurt could make a nice alternative, if you don’t like to eat the cake ‘dry’.
We were invited to La Corte di Canobbio by the Gal Langhe Roero Leader and by ATL Langhe and Roero, but opinions are as always my own
Other recipes like this ‘hazelnut cake from Piedmont:
Hazelnut cake inspired by a visit to La Corte di Canobbio in Cortemilia
Delicious :)
Absolutely.
I’m racking my brain trying to recall if I’ve ever had something with Hazelnut in it. I know I certainly want to try it. I read your instruction line of, “Whisk egg whites to a firm snow..” and can just picture that! Hey, I think you need to offer mail order to the States on this one, Mette :)
There must be an import of this cake somewhere in the US. And if not you could start you own bakery Mike. I’m sure success would be instant.
Hi, I recently visited Piemonte, and had a wonderful cooking lesson there. They taught thus girgeous cake.
I gave tried to prepare this cake today and no luck:-(
It became very heavy, not flufy at all and very chewy… th eoriginal us a beautiful torte, airy and so light…
Can you please gove me sone tips… what could go wrong ?
Thank yuo so mich. vardit
Sorry to hear it didn’t work out as intended. Hazelnut cake from Piedmont is a kind of souffle, because it contains no starches apart from the hazelnuts. You have to blend the nuts ever so finely, and make sure you get the oven temperature right to make it puff, and under no circumstances open the oven door, while its cooking. Even so the hazelnut cake will deflate a little as it starts to cool. I sometimes add 1-2 tbsp flour to the batter, which I think helps to keep the cake light and fluffy, but I know it’s cheating;)