Chocolate hazelnut bundt cake with nutella glaze

chocolate hazelnut bundt cake
Usually, I don't know what I'm going to bake at first: normally I start with an ingredient then think about what I'm going to make with it later. I get out all the cook books, spreading them out across the table and flick through their glossy pages looking for inspiration. By the end they've inevitably sprawled out across the whole kitchen and there's already a mess before I've even got out the measuring scales.

Flicking through the cook books I went through a lot of hazelnut recipes: a hazelnut truffle torte (River cafe) - too rich I thought, spelt and cobnut fairy cakes (short and sweet) - too dainty maybe, and a gianduja gelato (the perfect scoop) - which would have been perfect, but I didn't have any cream on hand unfortunately. In another cookbook I also saw a bundt cake and, taking the idea of the gianduja (a chocolate and hazelnut paste like an Italian nutella) from the ice cream recipe, I thought I'd make a chocolate and hazelnut bundt cake. The cake is nicely moist from the ground and chopped hazelnuts, though still light and fluffy, with just a hint of chocolate from a little cocoa and drizzled with a smooth nutella chocolate glaze. The cake has quite a long baking time (1 hour 15 minutes) but stick with it - it's worth it.bowl of hazelnuts
I actually have a hazelnut tree (although for some reason I've always known it as a cobnut) in the corner of the garden. It's quite a pretty tree, with slightly furry lime green leaves and tall, slender stems, holding delicate catkins at this time the year, coppiced into a crude circle.
catkin
 Though it's not bearing any nuts at this time of the year, in the autumn, around early October, we go out to pick the hazelnuts - hopefully before the squirrels have got to them. Then we spend an afternoon on ladders and buckets trying to pick as many as we can, which becomes increasinlgy difficlt as the low branches are picked and only the just-out-of-reach branches are left. You actually pick the hazelnuts when they're still a pastel green because they have to be matured,until they turn an ochre brown, before they can be used. Once matured they just have to be cracked open, by which time you begin to suspect that it would have been easier to just buy a pack of hazelnuts from the shops. They don't last long though, with most being eaten as they are and only a few actually making it to the kitchen. Those that do are used simply so not to lose the subtle hazelnut flavour that was worked so hard for.
Hazelnut and chocolate bundt cake
Hazelnut and chocolate bundt cake


Chocolate hazelnut bundt cake
Makes 1 large bundt cake

Nutella glaze:
100g Nutella
30 ml milk
15g cocoa powder
30g icing/confectioners' sugar

1. Beat together the nutella and milk until smooth then sifts the cocoa and sugar and beat again until smooth.

Bundt cake:
150g hazelnuts
250g butter
150g brown sugar
50g white caster sugar
150g sour cream
4 large eggs
10g cocoa powder
1 teaspoon instant coffee powder, ground to a powder
300g self-raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

1. Toast the nuts in a dry pan until they are golden brown all over then leave to cool. Grind 2/3 (approximately) of the nuts to a fine flour the consistency of ground almonds (don't worry if there a a few chunky pieces). Chop the other 1/3 of the nuts so that some are almost whole and others are the consistency of coarse rock-salt. Set aside.

2. Sift the sugar into a bowl (brown sugar tends to come in lumps) then add the butter and cream until it's light and fluffy. Add the sour cream and whisk to combine. Next add the eggs, one at a time, whisking constantly until all combined.

3 . Sift in the cocoa, coffee powder, self-raising flour and baking powder and beat in (on low) until combined.

4. Pour into a greased and floured 2 litre bundt cake tin and bake in an oven preheated to 175C for 1 hour 15 minutes, or until when a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. Leave to cool then turn out and 'dribble' on the chocolate glaze.

2 comments:

  1. What a lovely blog. Great pictures and nice recipes. Keep going.
    :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the first comment! I'm glad to know you're enjoying it and that someone's actually reading my little blog :)

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