We’ve teamed up with Josie Eveleigh of Where Josie Goes to bring you an exciting online series Feasting in France.
Follow Josie’s cooking adventures in France as she joins well-known South African chef and author Marlene van der Westhuizen in her home in Charroux to learn how to cook French style. If you missed last week’s recipes, click here.
This week’s recipes are for Haddock Gratin and a decadent chocolate hazelnut and toffee cake. Let us know if you try them out by tagging us on Instagram using the hashtag #FeastinginFrance.
CHOCOLATE, HAZELNUT AND TOFFEE CAKE
(Serves 6)
INGREDIENTS
200ml hazelnut flour
200ml cake flour
2T cocoa powder
1T baking powder
1t bicarbonate of soda
½t cinnamon
¼t nutmeg (grated in)
¼t salt
150ml hazelnut oil
160ml castor sugar
½t vanilla paste
3 eggs, lightly beaten
3 egg whites
Daim chocolates (one bag of the minis or 4 normal sized chocolates, cut into equal squares)
FOR THE GANACHE
slab white chocolate
cream
TO SERVE
nut praline (store-bought or home-made by roasting almond flakes and coating in a home-made toffee, left to set and then broken into shards)
METHOD
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Grease a 20cm spring form cake tin and line the base and sides with baking paper.
3. Mix the flours, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt together and sift thoroughly.
4. Using an electric mixer, whip the hazelnut oil and sugar together.
5. Add the vanilla and gradually add the 3 eggs, little by little.
6. Fold the wet mixture with the sifted dry ingredients.
7. In a very clean bowl, beat the three egg whites to stiff peak.
8. Fold the stiffly whipped egg whites gently into the wet mixture to make a batter; try to lose as little air as possible.
9. Pour a third of the batter into the lined tin and level it out. Evenly space a layer of the Daim chocolates on top.
10. Cover with another third of the batter, levelling it over the chocolate pieces. Add another carefully spaced layer of Daim chocolates.
11. Top with the last bit of batter, covering all the chocolate.
12. Bake in the oven for about 1½ hours or until a skewer comes out clean.
13. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
14. Make a ganache by the melting the white chocolate and adding a little cream until smooth and glossy.
15. Pour over the cake and finish with shards of nut praline.