I have always considered myself quite a nice person. I like food of all shapes, flavours and colours. From every country and continent. I don’t discriminate, I am an equal opportunity eater. It’s only the doctors who say I’m intolerant. And certain foods who refuse to tolerate me. They certainly refuse to recognise and respect my right to eat them without major physical discomfort and distress.


Gluten and lactose are not my friends.


Despite the negative attitudes surrounding me from many of those I love best, (cakes, ice cream, hot toast) I decided to become a chef. Not always easy when you live in a bread and milk filled world. I like to think that this has helped me become a better person as I embrace my differences and refuse to let the gluten get me down. I believe InTolerance. I am the InTolerant Chef.

Food should not be about what you can’t eat, but what you can and what you enjoy eating. This blog is about my journey of cooking and eating and discovery. It’s not a definitive guide to allergy awareness nor do my intolerances make me an expert. Your body is your responsibility, not mine. I only know what works for me.


I can tell you this..... No glutens were harmed in the making of this website.

January 31, 2013

Hazelnut Flour Buttercake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

















I love playing with new ingredients

Trying out tastes and textures, seeing how they work and what flavour they bring to the table.



You can just imagine then, how excited I was to be contacted by lovely Tania http://www.mykitchenstories.com.au/ on behalf of the great guys from Lario International
http://www.lario.com.au/index.php?osCsid=449aa484f9fe5c78e0a1d20e841daa95 with the offer to try out some of the great new nut products that they have introduced to their range of artisan food items, sourced from some of the very best suppliers in Europe. Lucky me!


I recieved some lovely organic Lara Walnuts- an heirloom variety with a light coloured skin and sweet taste; also some Lara Walnut Flour with a nice silky texture; and some Piedmont Hazelnut Flour with a nice toasty colour and amazing depth of flavour.

To start things off I turned to the hazelnut flour for my first testing, leaving the walnuts for another day and another recipe- stay tuned!




I didn't really know much about nut flour- ground nuts or nut meal is something I use on a regular basis though, so I thought I should do my due diligence and find out. Enter Mr Google... and a whole heap of confusion!
I found out that the terms Nut Meal and Nut Flour seem to be used interchangeably in a lot of reipes and web sites although they are really two totally different products. Nearly all the recipes I found though called for what I call for nut Meal, with so called nut Flour sometimes just made from nuts that have being blanched first before grinding. Totally different from true Nut Flour indeed.
They are so different in character, that to help things out I thought I'd do a little Show-And-Tell about my findings:

Hazelnut MEAL or GROUND Hazelnuts are made from ground up hazlenuts- that's it, nothing added or taken away. Skins usually left on, and all natural oils intact. Nice and mild tasting.

Hazelnut FLOUR is the by-product from hazelnut oil production. It can also be known as 'defatted' flour as the oil has already been extracted from the nuts before drying and grinding. Much tastier than the meal with a lovely toasted flavour, lighter and dryer in texture too. Not as fine as 'regular' flour though.



















I really wanted to see how the hazelnut flour worked in baking, but didn't want to screw up a whole heap of ingredients if I was on the wrong track. The best way to do this was to take a pseudo-scientific approach with an experiment of a nice basic butter cake- one with hazelnut meal, one with hazelnut flour and one with gluten free flour as a control. I bet the guys at MythBusters would be proud of me!

Exactly the same except for the flour content, ready to go:



















This is the end result:
As you can see, the Nut Meal cake is very moist and dense even sinking on top a little, the Nut Flour cake is a lot lighter indeed and not so wet and has a better crumb and firmer crust, and as expected the gluten free flour cake is very light and fluffy.
I don't think the two products could be substituted for each other very well at all, the added moisture and heaviness of the meal would be a real problem while the nut flour is tastier and dryer overall



















Hmmmm.....
I loved the toasty taste from the Nut Flour, but it still needed a bit of lift.....
Perfect solution- mix the Nut Flour and gluten free flour together!



Hazelnut Flour Buttercake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
















Cake Ingredients:

3/4 cup Hazlenut Flour
3/4 cup gluten free Flour
1 cup Castor Sugar
3 Eggs
125g Butter or lactose free substitute
1/2 cup lactose free Milk or substitute
2 tsp gluten free Baking Powder
2 tsp Vanilla Extract

For the Buttercream recipe, check out this older post.
For the chocolate taste I added in some dark chocolate to the milk mix while it was still warm and stirred it through to melt nicely
http://intolerantchef.blogspot.com.au/2010/07/buttercream.html






For the cake you simply place all the ingredients into a large bowl




















Now mix it for a few minutes until it's nice and fluffy and light.
How easy is that, right?




















Pop it into a greased and lined pan, then bake at about 160*C for 70 minutes or so, or until the top springs back when you touch it lightly, and a skewer comes out clean from the middle. The nut flour gives it a nice dark colour so just be a bit careful and don't think that the cake is ready as soon as it's nice and lightly golden




















Let it cool completely on a rack




















Due to a baking-pan-mishap over Christmas, the pan I used was really a bit too big for this cake. Not wanting a flat pancakey type of thing, I solved my problem by splitting the cake into layers and slathering on plenty of buttercream frosting. I ask you, is there any problem that buttercream frosting can't fix? :)




















TaaDaaa! They never need know....
















This turned out to be a perfectly wonderful cake with loads of hazelnut flavour and light and fluffy to boot. The buttercream frosting was nice and silky without being overwhelming and it was certainly rich indeed!
A chocolate ganache would also be good- if you served smaller slices! But this was fine and really let the taste of the hazelnuts shine through.


I found the Hazelnut flour to be a great baking ingredient, adding loads of flavour and colour to an otherwise quite plain cake. It does need the 'regular' gluten free flour to carry it though-  just for the lightness and lift that baking so often needs.


I'm going to have fun playing around with this lovely nut flour and making more adventurous recipes than this, and have a couple of other nut products to review for Lario as well- so Dear Readers, Stay Tuned!
















So Dear Readers, have you ever tried Nut Flour before, and do you have any recipe hints?



Disclosure:
Nuts and Nut Flour supplied by Lario International - Thanks guys!

http://www.lario.com.au/nuts-hazelnut-flour-defatted-pariani-p-409.html?osCsid=449aa484f9fe5c78e0a1d20e841daa95







.











33 comments:

  1. I've got a single packet mix for chestnut flour chocolate cake (from the usa) and I've put off using it not in case it doesn't work, but just in case I love it. It was in the supermarket but got discontinued so I only get one cake from it.

    I can't eat hazelnuts, but I'm looking forward to reading how the walnut flour works out.

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    1. I hoard things like that too Ista! I think you should make it for a just-because-you-deserve-it-day :) Enjoy!

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  2. Rebecca - your cake looks divine...I want to dive in! Can't wait to see what you do with the walnut flour.

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  3. Ooooooh, how very interesting and sooooooooo delicious! Bookmarking this one for sure!

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    1. Thanks Lizzy, you should certainly try some of the nut flour- it's delicious!

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  4. Interesting!!! I didn't bling when you said hazelnut flour, I assumed it was the same as meal. Of course! I've used coconut flour but that's it. This looks and sounds absolutely beautiful.
    Heidi xo

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    1. Coconut flour is actually produced the same way Heidi, but the nut flour doesn't have the same moisture-sucking effect as coconut flour. It certainly tastes lovely too

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  5. The cake looks great, I was spoilt when I lived in Turkey they sold Hazelnut flour by the way so I used to buy it frequently. It is a lovely flour to play around with.

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  6. That is such a great looking cake. I love nut flavour through cakes. And your decorated cake looks amazing. I'd love a slice - when are you moving to Sydney? xx

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    1. I wish I could send you a slice Charlie! I wish they would get around to making a VFT to Sydney so I could just pop up when I felt like it :( So near, yet so far xox

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  7. i love the comparison. i have never actually cooked with nut flour, would love to try it out. the cake looks beautiful, and such a nice looking texture.

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    1. Thanks Muppy! You can order the flour online from Lario's, and they have so many other delicious goodies too :)

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  8. Hey Rebecca, Mythbusters just rang me and they want you on the program!!. Ha, what a great job you did with your comparison. Ive used the flours a bit this week too. I also came to the conclusion that I mixed it with gluten free flour x snap. The walnut flour is still a little oily. I might toast mine and see what I think. Thanks for your scientic post
    Tania

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    1. Thanks Tania!I had a lot of fun with these ingredients,that's for sure :) I'll post some more recipes soon!

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  9. Well done you - this looks spectacular. And, yes - like chocolate, buttercream can fix most things. :-)

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  10. OH MY! That cake is making me drool! I particularly like that you drop all of the ingredients in one bowl and mix... no fuss no muss! The next birthday cake I bake will be this one.

    I'm very appreciative of the info on the nut flour vs meal. My friend Angela has been doing a lot of baking with nuts and I know that she will really appreciate having this info too... so will be forwarding a link to this great post.

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    1. Thanks GFG, it's nice to save on washing up isn't it? I hope your friend finds this helpful :)

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  11. Becca, I knew there was a difference between nut meal and nut flours, but never knew exactly what it was. Thanks for the headsup! I'm guessing that's the same with chestnut flour as well? Your cake looks stunning!

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    1. I think so Celia, it's certainly the same production used as for coconut flour. The result is just so delicious! Thanks for the compliment sweetie, I gave most of it away to friends and neighbours to stop me from eating it! xox

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  12. I absolutely love baking with nut flours and meals - especially hazelnut. Thank you 1) for the delightful recipe and 2) for the link to lario. Off to check it out now.

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    1. Thanks Sherilyn! I hope you enjoy it. They have some seriously awesome stuff there- truffled anchovies, garum fish entrail sauce, and lots of goodies indeed!

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  13. Such a beautiful cake! I've played with plenty of nut meals but not the flours before. Really, there are so many cool things to play with in the kitchen aren't there :-)

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    1. Thanks Brydie! Yes there are, and I love exploring them!

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  14. Fantastic review! I had no idea about the flours and I just love hazelnuts, favourite nut hands down! Your sponge looks amazing, have bookmarked to make for my GF mother in law (as with so many of your recipes!!!).

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    1. Thankyou and thankyou Christie! I'd been wanting to get my hands on seemed of the flours for ages. I really love macadamias and pecans, but hazelnuts have a lovely earthy taste too, don't they?

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  15. Wow, your cake looks absolutely delicious! Hard to believe that it's allergy free! I haven't tried hazelnut flour, but I use hazelnut meal all the time. Is it similar? I definitely want to try your recipe, either way!

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