kladdkaka: sticky chocolate cake

This simple chocolate cake is apparently ubiquitous across Sweden.

I haven't visited Sweden yet, so I think I should probably do a serious research trip soon to confirm that.

But in the meantime, I can make kladdkaka at home in approximately two seconds. (Or half an hour, which is the equivalent of two seconds in the cake-baking world.)

Kladkakka is the original Swedish word and it's pretty fun to say. Kladdkaka is sticky and dense with ground hazelnuts and practically breathes chocolate. It also has a fudgy centre. In other words, it's just what I want in a quick weekend dessert.

The original recipe in the lovely Fika calls for unroasted almonds ... but hazelnuts are my very favourite nut, so I went with them. I also roasted them first because a roasted hazelnut is the ultimate hazelnut.

This cake seems pretty forgiving, though – I think you couldn't go wrong with roasted or unroasted almonds, hazels or walnuts, or even a combination of all three.

Kladdkakka also has the fun option of sprinkling poppy seeds on top! How unexpected is that? That's why I love these recipes from other parts of the world. I didn't have any poppy seeds in the house, but I'll definitely put them on next time.

So, if you have some nuts and cocoa, go ahead – make kladdkaka!

one year ago: ginger meringues
two years ago: hazelnut cacao nib granola
three years ago: japan in pictures


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sticky chocolate cake (kladdkaka)
slightly adapted from fika by anna brones and johanna kindvall
note that this recipe halves beautifully

1/2 c. (71 g., 2.5 oz) hazelnuts, if possible roasted and rubbed in a tea towel until their skins come off*
1/2 c. (113 g., 4 oz) butter
2 eggs
1 c. (198 g., 7 oz) sugar
1/3 c. + 1 tbsp. (28 g., 1 oz) unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp. salt
3 – 4 tsp. poppy seeds (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (175 Celsius). Grease a 9-inch (23-centimetre) springform pan.

Put the nuts in a food processor and grind until almost fine.

Melt the butter. Set aside to cool.

Whisk the eggs and sugar together in a bowl. Stir in the cocoa powder and salt. Then add the almonds, then the slightly-cooled butter. Stir until smooth.

Pour into the prepared pan. Sprinkle the top evenly with poppy seeds. Bake 15 to 20 minutes, until it's set on top but still a bit sticky inside. To check this, carefully lift one side of the pan. It's done if it doesn't move. If it still looks runny, let it bake a little longer.

Cool before serving – either alone or with a dollop of whipped cream.

*The original recipe calls for unroasted almonds. I think walnuts would be good too.

walnut pesto

Sadly, my friend Isabelle recently moved to Toronto.

Happily, she gave me a big bag of walnuts before she left. (Not to mention other pantry treasures: pomegranate molasses! a big vat of olive oil! glass noodles!)

I had never had such a big bag of walnuts before. I knew they wouldn't last forever, so I set about finding ways to use them.

First, I whirled them up with extra asparagus and parmesan. I slathered the sauce over pizza dough with feta cheese and pickled red onions. After that, I roasted a quarter of the bag and took them to work every day as a snack. Next, I added them to my granola recipe.

But then. Then I came across a recipe for walnut pesto on Smitten Kitchen. It looked so easy –  the perfect thing for the dinner party we were hosting that weekend.

Sure enough, it was incredibly simple to roast them and throw them in the food processor along with parmesan, garlic, thyme and a splash of sherry vinegar. After I pulsed them, I stirred in olive oil and chopped sun-dried tomatoes, tasted for seasoning and spread it on a cracker.

It was a beautiful, beautiful thing. Well, not exactly beautiful because it's brown with little flecks of red from the sun-dried tomato. But the taste! A beautiful, beautiful thing. Needless to say, our dinner guests agreed and wolfed them down.

Thank you, Isabelle. I now know that my pantry won't be complete without a big bag of walnuts. And if you come over for dinner any time in the next few years, I think you know what we'll be serving you as a little appetizer.


one year ago: pasta with yogurt, peas and chile and martini rosso
two years ago: penne with smoked trout and asparagus and quick zucchini sauté
three years ago: chewy granola bars and asian slaw

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walnut pesto
slightly adapted from smitten kitchen

1 c. roasted walnuts*
1/4 c. parmesan cheese, grated
1 garlic clove, crushed
couple small shakes of dried thyme**
nice salt to taste
small splash sherry vinegar
1/4 to 1/3 c. good olive oil
3 tbsp. sundried tomatoes, chopped finely (oil-packed or re-hydrated dry tomatoes)

Pulse the walnuts, parmesan, garlic, thyme, salt and a small splash of sherry vinegar together in a food processor. You are looking for a coarse grind, not a uniform paste. Scrape it out into a bowl and stir in the smaller amount of olive oil. Add more olive oil if you'd like it to be looser. Stir in the sun-dried tomatoes. Taste for seasoning and decide if you need another small splash of sherry vinegar or more salt.

Spread on crackers and eat. Store what you don't use in the fridge for quite a few days.

* To roast the walnuts, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Spread the walnuts on a cookie tray and roast them for about 10 minutes until they smell good and you can see the nut meat has become golden.  
** Smitten Kitchen's original recipe calls for the leaves from 3 sprigs of thyme. I'm sure that would be even better but I don't always have fresh thyme around. 
 

three-nuts chocolate torte

Dear readers, I fly to Japan tomorrow!

I am going for two weeks with my mother, as part of a cultural exchange between my home town of Kelowna and Kasugai in Japan. Even though I have now checked into my flight and my bags are packed, I can still hardly believe it.

I will tell you all about it when I get back. But in the meantime, I wanted to share this heavenly new cake recipe with you. My co-worker Portia shared it with me after everyone at work raved about it.

They were right to rave. It's originally from Jamie Oliver, and it's kind of like a flourless chocolate cake with lots of nuts in it. His original recipe calls for just almonds and walnuts, but I find it difficult not to add hazelnuts to chocolate – it's the German in me – so in they went.

(I do believe you could stick with his original version of 150 g. walnuts and 150 g. almonds and also be quite happy).

You whiz everything together in the food processor and end up with a thick but light batter from all those whipped egg whites.

The batter bakes into a substantial cake that's moist and dense with nuts and rich with chocolate. And, of course, lovely with a dollop of hazelnut-scented whip cream on the side.

I might note that if you don't like pumpkin pie, it also makes a fine Thanksgiving dessert. (Which I tested for you yesterday, just to make sure.)

Sayonara!

one year ago: 27 hours in saskatoon and homemade ricotta cheese
two years ago: quince almond cake and roasted beet risotto
three years ago: pear ginger jam

three-nuts chocolate torte
slightly adapted from Jamie Oliver

100 g. peeled almonds
100 g. walnuts
100 g. mostly-peeled hazelnuts*
300 g. dark chocolate (70% cocoa or higher), broken into rough pieces
1 tsp. cocoa powder, heaped + cocoa for dusting the pan
255 g. butter, at room temperature
100 g. fine sugar or caster sugar
6 large egss, separated
pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Choose an 8 or 10-inch cake pan (preferably spring-form) and line the bottom with parchment paper. Then butter the bottom and sides, and dust with cocoa. Set it on a cookie sheet, in case a little bit of butter weeps out while it's baking.

Put the nuts in a food processor and whiz until finely ground. Add the chocolate and cocoa, and whiz another 30 seconds to break the chocolate up. Spoon it out of the food processor and set aside.

Beat the butter and sugar in the food processor until pale and fluffy. Add the egg yolks one at a time, then mix in the chocolate and nut mixture. Set aside in a separate, large bowl.

In another bowl, beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until they form stiff peaks. Gently fold the egg whites into the big bowl of chocolate-nut-butter mixture. Pour it all into the prepared pan.

Bake about 40 – 45 minutes for an 8-inch pan, possibly 35 – 40 for a 10-inch pan. You want this cake to be moist, so trust your nose! You should also stick a cake pin tester into the cake for 5 seconds and have it come out clean when it's ready.

Let cool before serving.


hazelnut whip cream

500 ml. whipping cream
3 tbsp. fine or caster sugar
3 tbsp. Frangelico or hazelnut liqueur

Beat the cream with the sugar and liqueur until it's puffy. Serve a big dollop with each slice of cake.


* You might need to roast the hazelnuts to get much of their peels off if you can't buy them peeled.