I made this hazelnut cake after watching Pierre Hermé’s live on Instagram a few days ago. Hard for me to resist when hazelnuts are involved. The chef presented us with a 100% hazelnut dessert entitled “infiniment noisette”, made up of a hazelnut financier, a hazelnut chantilly cream and a little pure hazelnut praline for even more indulgence. The whole thing is made with Piedmont hazelnuts because they are the ones with the most flavour.
I had already made a 100% hazelnut praline recently, so all I had left to do was make a hazelnut paste. By the way, I strongly advise you to make these preparations yourself, it’s so much better. And for those who are wondering: a hazelnut paste is quite simply hazelnuts blended for long enough to obtain a more or less liquid paste. There’s no sugar, unlike praline. In the chantilly for example, the sugar comes from a little hazelnut praline in addition to the hazelnut paste. Personally, it was lacking a bit of sugar for me, so I added a little more praline 😀 Finally, you must not forget to roast the hazelnuts but also the ground hazelnuts to strengthen the flavours.
The chef used a spring Corsican maquis honey and muscovado sugar for this recipe. I’m absolutely no honey specialist (and besides, I don’t like it) so I used the honey I had to hand. In the live, the chef says that you can replace the honey with white sugar if necessary. As for the sugar, muscovado sugar adds a little something in terms of taste (and is increasingly easy to find now) but if you have a sudden urge to make this recipe and you don’t have any, use brown sugar or, failing that, white sugar.
Visually, I preferred to pipe balls of chantilly cream which I hollowed out with a melon baller to spoon in some praline. Mmmmm, this praline is just insane, I could eat it by the spoonful. In short, as you’ll have gathered, if you’re a hazelnut fan, this hazelnut cake is totally made for you! Here, this cake was devoured by 2 of us. It’s simple, indulgent and really delicious.
Ingredients & method
5 components · Full recipe
Hazelnut praline
Ingredients
- 100 g (3.5 oz) Piedmont hazelnuts
- 65 g (2.3 oz) sugar
- 18 g (0.6 oz) water
- 1/2 used and dried vanilla pod
Method
Hazelnut paste
Ingredients
- 100 g (3.5 oz) hazelnuts
Method
1
In a food processor, blend the hazelnuts until you get a smooth paste.
Hazelnut financier
Ingredients
- 70 g (2.5 oz) egg whites
- 7 g (0.2 oz) honey
- 60 g (2.1 oz) muscovado sugar
- 95 g (3.4 oz) hazelnut powder
- 12 g (0.4 oz) flour
- 0.7 g (0 oz) baking powder
- a pinch of fleur de sel
- 42 g (1.5 oz) browned butter
- a handful of crushed hazelnuts
Method
1
Preheat the oven to 165°C / 325°F fan.
2
Make a browned butter: melt the butter over low heat in a saucepan; once melted it will start to foam on the surface. Watch until it turns a beautiful golden colour and smells nutty. Off the heat, add the honey and stir, then leave to cool.
3
In a bowl, mix together the previously toasted hazelnut powder, half the muscovado sugar, the sifted flour, the baking powder, and the pinch of fleur de sel.
4
In the stand mixer bowl, beat the egg whites until they begin to foam, then add the remaining muscovado sugar in 3 additions. You should obtain a meringue that forms a bird’s beak.
5
Fold in the dry ingredients in several additions. Mix well using a rubber spatula, lifting the batter from the centre outwards.
6
Take a small portion of this mixture and add it to the saucepan. The mixture may look a bit odd, but it’s just to help incorporate the butter more easily into the previous mixture.
7
Now pour the butter into the batter and fold one last time with the spatula.
8
Place an 18 cm (7.1 in) diameter ring on a sheet of parchment paper, itself placed on a baking tray. Pour the batter into the ring and level with a small offset spatula.
9
Scatter crushed hazelnuts over the top of the biscuit, gently pressing them in slightly, then bake for around 20 minutes. Check doneness by inserting a knife in the centre — it should come out clean.
Hazelnut whipped cream
Ingredients
- 150 g (5.3 oz) full-fat liquid cream
- 15 g (0.5 oz) mascarpone (personal addition)
- 10 g (0.4 oz) hazelnut praline
- 30 g (1.1 oz) hazelnut paste
Method
1
Place the bowl and electric whisk attachments in the freezer for at least 15 minutes.
2
Pour the cream and mascarpone into the bowl and start whipping at medium speed; once the cream begins to firm up a little, increase the speed.
3
In a small bowl, mix the hazelnut praline with the hazelnut paste.
4
Once the cream is whipped, take a small portion and fold it into the praline/hazelnut paste mixture, then pour this mixture back into the rest of the whipped cream. Fold gently with a spatula to avoid deflating the cream.
Assembly of Pierre Hermé’s “Infinitely Hazelnut” cake
Ingredients
- None
Method
1
Place the cooled hazelnut financier on a serving plate, then pipe rounds of hazelnut whipped cream evenly over the top.
2
Using a Parisian melon baller, hollow out each mound of whipped cream. It’s easier if the spoon is warmed first (I run it under boiling water, then wipe it dry and repeat every 2 mounds).
3
Pipe a little hazelnut praline into each hollow, then finish by arranging a few caramelised hazelnut halves on top.
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