This year I decided to bake something different for my birthday. Over the years I would have commonly resorted to one of European style buttercream tortes, those are my favorites. Vasina torta comes to mind first, probably the one I have made more than any other. However, this year I opted for a traditional cake from northern Spain: Galician almond cake. I have to say that more than anything else the motivation came from an enticing photos and presentation at Bake Street food blog, from where this recipe has been adapted. I have never heard of this cake before, I wanted to give it a try. You can choose to ride along with me and my take on the recipe or you can choose Bake Street recipe if you prefer, it is up to you. The ingredients and measures are the same, but I modified some bits and pieces and process techniques by drawing from my own baking experience.
The cake was a real surprise! It had a pleasant sweet and moist texture with accentuated toasted almond flavour. Interestingly, this was the first time I toasted almonds, that is not something that is often seen in the recipes. And to put in context I baked lots of cakes over the years. Toasted hazelnuts and walnuts are quite common, but not almonds. That might be associated with the fact that toasting almonds caries some risk of making them tasting bitter, if not done carefully enough. From my perspective, the bitterness is rather unlikely outcome if you toast almonds whole (rather then ground) and by using an oven method. You can grind almonds afterwards, when they completely cool off.
Tarta de Santiago is a surprisingly tasty cake yet very simple to make! The short crust dough is a classic preparation technique with no surprises. Simply cut butter into dry ingredients by using dough blender, add an egg and hydrate the flour mixture by using a wooden spoon. Only at the end use your hands to quickly bring everything together. Do not knead the dough, we don’t want to encourage gluten development which would make the crust hard.
For filling whip up eggs and sugar together with flavorings, pour the mixture into the prepared short crust and bake. That is all that is to it! Those are very few short steps to take and make this outstanding aromatic pastry!
Dust the cake with confectionary sugar and serve at room temperature!
When sealed or covered to prevent drying out, the cake can be kept at room temperature for up to a week.
| Prep Time | 30 min |
| Cook Time | 45 min |
| Passive Time | 30 min |
| Servings |
servings
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- 165 g all purpose non bleached flour
- 75 g unsalted butter chilled and cubed
- 50 g granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 pinch sea salt
- 300 g almonds toasted and ground
- 300 g egg
- 300 g granulated sugar
- 40 g unsalted butter melted and cooled
- 1 whole organic lemon zest
- 3/4 tsp ground cinamon
- 1 pinch sea salt
- 1 tart pan with removable bottom 28 cm (11 1/4") diameter
- confectioner's sugar for dusting
Ingredients
Dough
Filling
Accessories
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- Spread whole almonds across baking paper lined pan and toast in the oven at 350 °F. Watch carefully so almonds don't burn, toasting time is about 20 minutes. Set aside and let cool completely.
- Grind the almonds, set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl stir together flour, sugar and salt.
- Add cubed cold butter, toss together until coated with flour mixture.
- Use pastry blender to cut the butter in until the mixture resembles a coarse meal.
- Add an egg and use wooden spoon to mix and hydrate the mixture. Mix until you obtain a coarse granular structure without loose flour left in the bowl.
- Use your hands to quickly press together dough pieces just until they come together. Don't knead, we just want a rough dough that is held together in one piece!
- Transfer the dough on a kling wrap lined counter. Wrap the dough and roll over the kling wrap with rolling pin to create a disk.
- Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes.
- Butter the tart pan.
- Line the counter with overlapping sheets of kling wrap film to create large enough surface to roll out about 33 cm (13") dough round on top of it.
- Take the dough out of the fridge, unwrap and slowly roll out with rolling pin into thin, round with diameter of about 35 cm (14").
- Turn upside down by placing the center of stretch dough into center of tart pan. Carefully and lightly press around the pan perimeter to make tight fit between the dough and the pan bottom/side.
- Carefully peel off the kling wrap.
- Use the roling pin to roll across the top of the tart pan to cut off excess dough that is overhanging the pan edges.
- Cover the tart pan with kling wrap and place in the fridge while you are making a filling.
- Preheat the oven to 170°C (338°F), rack in the middle.
- Add sugar, salt and eggs, to a stand mixer bowl. Mix at medium high speed for 10-15 minutes or until the egg mixture is light color and well fluffed up.
- Mix in lemon zest, ground cinnamon, melted and cooled butter.
- Using rubber spatula or whisk incorporate toasted ground almonds into the mixture. Do it in 2-3 batches and in few short and sweeping strokes in order to integrate ground almonds but avoid deflating the egg mixture.
- Use a fork to prick the dough bottom in the tart pan.
- Pour the filling into the dough mold and bake for 40-45 minutes.
- Take the torte out of oven, leave it in the tart pan and let it cool completely on a cooling rack.
- Once completely cooled carefully unmold the cake, place on a serving dish and dust with confectionary sugar.
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