France: Gâteau à la Noix

Oh France.  J’taime.  I love your language.  I love your varied landscapes.  I love your history.  And I really love (most of) your food.  Vive la France!

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  Cassaniouze: Baker’s van ready to deliver to all the surrounding villages – like an ice cream truck for carbs!

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  Lyon: Rarest burger I have ever eaten. I think they cooked it over a candle . Next time I’ll ask them to light the candle.

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  Chinon: Dangling meat. Quelle présentation!

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  Grand-Vabre: The husband doesn’t just threaten to eat cow brains…

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  … he actually does it (and likes it).

Gâteau à la Noix

Recipe Adapted From: a long-ago cake-baking course from a local kitchen/culinary store

Level of Difficulty: low, as long as you know what you’re doing when you whip egg whites

Time Consumption: low

Kitchen Destruction: low, though you will dirty a surprising number of bowls and pans for such a simple cake*

Wow Factor: low upon seeing, high upon tasting

Ingredients:

• 12 TBS (1½ sticks) unsalted butter
• pinch salt
• 1 vanilla bean
• 5 oz (mostly) skinned hazelnuts
• 1 1/3 C powdered sugar
• 1/3 C all purpose flour
• 5 large egg whites
• ¼ C granulated sugar
• fleur de sel

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350° F.  Place a medium skillet over low heat and add the butter and salt.  Cut the vanilla bean in half lengthwise.  Scrape the seeds out with a sharp knife and add them to the melting butter, then add the bean halves. When the butter turns golden (about 15 minutes, but keep an eye on it—if you burn it you’ll have to start again), remove from heat.  Remove and discard vanilla bean and transfer butter to a bowl.

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A single vanilla bean can cost a small fortune, so if you burn the butter and have to start again, you’ll need to forego about three overpriced lattes to afford another one. Unless you enjoy the taste of coal tar (or perhaps Marmite), do NOT add burned butter to your cake.

Spray a 10″ round cake pan with cooking spray and line the bottom with parchment.

I stole this counter-saving idea from the husband: Open your dishwasher, set the pan on the open door, and spray the pan there. Genius!

Grind hazelnuts with powdered sugar in a food processor.  Place this mixture in a large bowl with the flour and stir well.

Beat the egg whites and sugar together until stiff peaks form.  (See picture below.  If the tip flops over like a spoon at a Uri Geller performance, it’s only a “soft peak.”  Not good enough.  Keep whipping.)  Fold the whites into the nut/flour mixture.  Fold in the cooled butter.

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Whipping whites can be an occasion for tears and swearing. See Notes below.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pan.  Bake until a toothpick in the center comes out clean, about one hour.  If you then use the toothpick to clean your teeth, do not reinsert in the cake.

Cool 10 minutes on a wire rack.  Run a knife around the edge and unmold.  Cool completely, then upturn cake so it’s right-side-up.

Frequent bakers: reusable silicone cake rounds beat the (cream of tar)tar out of fussing with cutting parchment paper circles each time.

Cut into servings and sprinkle with fleur de sel or other large-flake sea salt.  If words like “fleur de sel” make you roll your eyes, go ahead an use regular ol’ table salt, but whatever you do, don’t skip the salt.

The salt on top is crucial. It brings out the hazelnut flavor and practically makes the cake. Do not skip this flaky flavor flourish!

Confessions of an Imperfect Baker: Miraculously, none!

Notes: When separating your whites and yolks, it’s imperative that you get absolutely no yolk in the whites.  If you do, the whites will not form peaks.  (Ditto if your mixing bowl has any schmutz in it from the last time you used it.  It must be perfectly clean and dry before adding the egg whites.)  If this whipping woe befalls you, let loose a string of expletives if that helps (it always does for me), dry your tears, and start again.  Chin up—you can use your ruined whites in an omelet.

Another tip: separating yolks and whites is easier if the eggs are cold.

And another: always crack eggs on a flat surface rather than the edge of a bowl.  You decrease the chances of a) introducing bacteria from the outside of the shell into your whites and yolks, and b) getting bits of shell in your whites and yolks.

*Final dirty dish count: Three bowls and two pans.  Get ready for dishpan hands.

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  I don’t know if yolks are bad for your heart…

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  … but they’re disastrous for your whipped whites.