The use of a little brown sugar and cocoa adds some colour to the cake batter, as well as enhancing the flavour of the hazelnuts; the ground nuts help keep the cake moist. I prefer to use a chopped bar of chocolate rather than chips, as I like the appearance of randomly shaped chunks in the cake.
Ingredients
175g butter, softened
125g caster sugar
50g light muscovado sugar
190g SR flour
60g ground hazelnuts
1/2 tablespoon cocoa
3 large eggs
a little milk, as necessary
40g chopped toasted hazelnuts
75g plain chocolate, coarsely chopped or in chips - I used 85% cocoa solids
Notes - I would usually add more chopped nuts, but these were already very finely chopped and 40g looked enough when I was weighing out the ingredients. The amount of chocolate can be increased too - I often add up to 150g, depending on what I have available, and of course it's OK to use chocolate with less cocoa solids. I was feeling frugal after some recent extravagances! The cocoa is to enhance the nut flavour, not to make the batter chocolate flavoured (a Dan Lepard tip!).
Method
Preheat the oven to 170C, prepare an 8" diameter round tin. [I base-line a springform tin with a circle of silicone liner.]
Sift the SR flour and cocoa together and whisk in the ground hazelnuts to distribute evenly.
Cream the butter with both sugars until light and fluffy.
Beat in the eggs, one at a time, with a teaspoon of the flour mix to prevent curdling.
Fold in the flour, in three batches, adding a little milk if necessary to give a soft dropping consistency.
Stir in the chopped hazelnuts and chocolate and spoon the mixture into the prepared tin. Level the surface. Bake for 65-75 minutes, or until the cake is done when tested.
Cool in the tin for 15 minutes before removing to a wire rack to complete the cooling.
7 comments:
Your chief taster has good taste. Chocolate and hazelnuts is a lovely combination. And toasting the hazelnuts is worth it for the smell alone.
Looks fab, Suelle! I love cakes with ground nuts in them, like your marble cake recipe. They always stay so moist, and keep so well!
This looks so yummy Suelle.
I'm putting this one on my to bake list too! Looks like a scrummy one!
The cake looks great - and I am with you on preferring to use block chocolate to cut into chunks. The best of all are bars like Lindt that are quite thin and easy to chop.
It looks lovely, really nice proportions and interesting how the cocoa brings out the flavour of the nuts, rather than flavouring the cake.
I prefer chopped chocolate as well - the flavour always seems better than with choc chips.
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