Torta di Noci
A dense walnut cake of ground walnuts, eggs, butter and a little flour with honey, baked for 40 minutes at 180C.
Photograph credit: Walnut cake by Ruth Hartnup · CC BY 2.0 · Flickr
Grind the walnuts yourself, and grind them only until they look like coarse sand. If you go too far, they release their oil and turn to paste, and the cake comes out heavy. Torta di noci is a dense, moist Italian walnut cake, with only a little flour to hold it together.
Separate the eggs. Whisk the yolks with the sugar and honey until thick, then stir in the soft butter, the ground walnuts and a spoonful of flour with the baking powder. Whisk the whites separately to stiff peaks and fold them in, in two goes, since they are the only raising in the cake. Take care not to knock out the air.
Bake in a lined 24 cm tin at 180°C / 355°F for about 40 minutes, until the top is firm and brown. A skewer should come out clean, with a few moist crumbs. Cool in the tin, then dust with icing sugar and decorate with a few whole walnuts. The cake tastes better the next day, when the nuts have softened into the crumb.
The Method for Torta di Noci
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Heat the oven to 180°C / 355°F and line a 24 cm tin.
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Whisk the yolks, sugar and honey for 5 minutes until thick. Beat in the butter.
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Stir in the walnuts, flour, baking powder and salt.
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Whisk the whites to stiff peaks and fold them in in two goes.
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Pour into the tin and bake for 40 minutes until firm and brown.
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Cool in the tin and dust with the icing sugar.
Related guide: Pan and tin size.
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A Few Pointers
- Grind the walnuts coarsely, not to a paste.
- Fold in the whites gently.
- Leave the cake for a day for the best flavour.
What to Serve With It
Coffee · Mascarpone · Sweet wine
Keeping and Reheating
Keeps for 5 days in a tin.
Torta di Noci Nutrition Facts
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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