Chocolate Hazelnut Cake

Chocolate Hazelnut Cake

Ingredients:

For the Cake:
6 large eggs, separated
pinch of salt
1/2 cup soft unsalted butter
14 oz Nutella
1 tbsp water
scant 1/2 cup ground hazelnuts
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted
a 9-inch springform pan, greased and lined with parchment or wax paper

For the icing:
4 oz hazelnuts (peeled weight) - optional
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tsp water
4 oz bittersweet chocolate

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl, whisk the egg whites and salt until stuff but not dry. In a separate bowl, beat the butter and Nutella together, and then add the water, egg yolks, and ground hazelnuts. Fold in the cooled, melted chocolate, then lighten the mixture with a large dollop of egg whites, which you can beat in as rougly as you want, before gently folding the rest of them in a third at a time. Pour into the prepared pan and cook for 40 minutes.

Toast the hazelnuts in a dry frying pan until the aroma wafts upward and the nuts are golden brown in parts: keep shaking the pan so that they don't burn on one side and stay to pallid on others. transfer to a plate and let cool. This is imperative: if they go on the ganache (icing) while hot, it will turn oily. (This whole step is optional as far as I say. I don't like a lot of nuts in my food, so I left these off).

In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, add the cream, water, and chopped chocolate, and heat gently. Once the chocolate's melted, take the pan off the heat and whisk until it reaches the right consistency to ice the top of the cake. Unmold the cooled cake carefully, leaving it on the base as it will be too difficulty to get such a damp cake off in one piece. Ice the top with the chocolate icing, and dot thickly with the whole, toasted hazelnuts.
submitted by: Amy Langford