This recipe from Yotam Ottolenghi is traditionally made with Semolina flour, but we swapped it out for our Flourist '00' Durum Flour and were so happy with the results! Dense and moist, this cake comes together easily and pairs perfectly with a cup of tea or coffee. We made ours with ground hazelnuts but any nut finely ground will do.
Olive Oil Durum Cake
1 1/2 cup (135g) ground hazelnuts
1/2 cup (80g) Flourist '00' Durum Flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
3/4 cup olive oil
1 cup + 2 Tbsp (243g) granulated sugar
1 lemon, zested
3 eggs
2 tbsp (30g) lemon juice
Combine olive oil, sugar, and lemon zest and whisk to combine. Add eggs one at a time and whisk. Add lemon juice. Combine dry ingredients together and add to liquids. Whisk together and pour into an oiled loaf pan.
Bake at 350°F for about 45-50 minutes, until a knife inserted into the cake comes out clean.
Let cool for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool. If desired top with a glaze made with icing sugar and lemon juice.
Comments
Hi Tania! If after 45-50 mins of baking and the knife or skewer inserted in the middle comes out completely clean and your cake is still collapsing, I would bake for an additional 5 mins and also keep the cake in the pan longer to cool before transferring to a wire rack.
I’ve made this cake twice and love the flavour. But both times, in a loaf pan, the cake collapsed in the middle. Any suggestions? Thanks
I used roasted hazelnuts and ground in a food processor.
This was an amazing cake, I highly recommend! I should have used a ring of parchment on the base however, as the bottom did stick… luckily the cake is so moist, that I pressed it back together and it was not discernible.
I baked for 40 minutes in a convection oven at 350F in a well oiled, 10" pan.
I always use parchment paper.
Teresa, did you use a nonstick pan or another kind of pan that is dark? Dark pans, especially ones that have a nonstick coating, soak up the heat of the oven, and this causes burnt edges. The manufacturers leave it to “us” to find out for ourselves that the recommended procedure for dark pans is to start the recipe at 350F, then turn the oven down 25F after a few minutes. If you don’t do this, the pan cooks the batter at a faster rate, so…! Because I always forget to turn down the oven, I now only bake in aluminum pans without nonstick coatings.
Hi Teresa! I’m sorry to hear that! This recipe definitely caramelizes on the edges pretty deeply but should not be burnt. My best guess would be that the nuts were not ground fine enough and so they did not help to absorb all of the liquids as much as they could. I would suggest trying to grind the nuts finer, moving the rack in the oven further from the bottom of the oven, and tenting the top with foil if you feel that the top is getting too dark. I hope that helps!
Had to bake for 1:15 before the knife came out clean. Burnt bottom & sides quite badly. Ground the nuts in a food processor and used 1.5 cups ground. Suggestions?