Gateau de Noix – French Nut Cake #BundtBakers

Based on traditional recipes from Périgord, this gateau de noix or French nut cake is made lighter than the original with flour and baking powder in addition to beaten egg whites. It is still dense and rich with a wonderful buttery nutty flavor.

This month my Bundt Bakers and I are celebrating a milestone: five years of baking Bundts together! Our members live all over the world but we get together virtually on the third Thursday of each month, sharing treats both sweet and savory which have been baked in Bundt pans. We take turns hosting as well as choosing the theme of each month’s online event.

It was my pleasure to host the inaugural Bundt Bakers event in January 2014, choosing “nuts” as our must-use ingredient so it only seemed fitting to reprise that theme for the fifth anniversary. After all, we are not only nuts about this small band of Bundt loving friends, we are also nuts about Bundt baking itself.

Gateau de Noix – French Nut Cake

This simple French-inspired gateau de noix or nut cake could not be easier. The batter is made almost completely in a food processor, aside from the egg whites, which are beaten then folded in. It is mix, fold and bake; easy but oh, so rich! Since this is a French inspired recipe, it seemed only fitting to bake it in my Nordic Ware, Fleur de Lis 10-cup Bundt pan.

Ingredients
7 oz or 200g shelled hazelnuts
3 1/2 oz or 100g shelled walnuts
1 cup or 200g sugar
1 cup or 125g flour
3/4 cup or 170g unsalted butter, melted and cooled, plus extra for pan
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 large eggs at room temperature
Pinch cream of tartar
Optional: 1/3 cup or 80ml Frangelico (or other hazelnut liqueur) for brushing on the cake after baking
Extra chopped nuts for garnish

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your 10-cup Bundt pan by buttering and flouring it.

Pulse the nuts in the bowl of your food processor to make a fine powder. There may be some small pieces left and that is okay. Be careful just to pulse in short bursts and give the processor a shake in between. We don’t want to end up with nut butter!

Separate your egg whites from the yolks, adding the whites to a clean, grease-free mixing bowl and the yolks to the food processor.

Add in the sugar, butter, flour, baking powder and salt.

Pulse to combine. Scrape down the sides of the processor with a rubber spatula. This makes a thick dough.

Whisk the egg whites with a pinch of cream of tartar until they form stiff peaks.

Spoon the thick dough into a large mixing bowl. Gently fold about 1/4 of the egg whites into the batter.

The dough is soft but a bit dry so this first batch is a challenge. Just keep folding slowly, coming up from the sides and bottom of the bowl with your spatula to gently turn it over the egg whites.

Add another 1/4 of the egg whites into the bowl and fold again. It should start getting easier. Gently does it.

Now spoon your batter into the bowl with the balance of the egg whites and fold them together.

Again, gently does it. Try to keep as much of the air in the whites as possible.

Spoon the batter into your prepared Bundt pan.

Bake in the preheated oven for 45-50 minutes or until the edges are golden brown and a wooden skewer comes out clean.

Leave to cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then carefully turn the nut cake out onto a wire rack to cool completely. If desired, brush the Bundt with hazelnut liqueur and fill the hole with some chopped hazelnuts and walnuts.

You could even serve it along with little glasses of liqueur, if you’d like. This is a celebration after all!

Enjoy!

I’d like to thank all of my fellow Bundt Bakers for their support these last five years. It’s been a labor of love for sure and I cherish the friendship we share. Check out all of our nutty 5-year-anniversary Bundts!

• Almond Amaretto Bundt Cake from Patty's Cake
• Baklava Bundt Cake from All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Bundt Cake Nueces Pacanas from Merce`s Cake
• Bundt Pan Banana Nut Bread from Palatable Pastime
• Date & Walnut Bundt Cake from Living the Gourmet
• Gateau de Noix – French Nut Cake from Food Lust People Love
• Peanut Butter Cake from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Nutty Upside Down Cake from Sneha's Recipe

#BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all our of lovely Bundts by following our Pinterest board. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about BundtBakers, can be found on our home page.

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Barberry Pistachio Saffron Rice #FoodieExtravaganza

Elevate rice from plain to a bejeweled side dish with golden saffron, crimson barberries and bright green pistachios. Barberry Pistachio Saffron Rice is as pretty as it is tasty. If you have a rice cooker, it’s super simple as well.

One of the best things about moving to a new place is learning about the local food culture and discovering new ingredients. New to me five years ago were barberries, a featured staple in our neighbor-across-the-gulf, Iran.

Barberries are little sweet and sour jewels that add a lovely sharp flavor to many dishes in the Middle East. The population of Dubai is such a wonderful mix of nationalities and cultures that just about every ingredient known to man must be available here, if you just know where to look for it. I came across barberries for the first time during a foodie tour with Frying Pan Adventures. If you are ever in Dubai and want to see how the real people eat, never mind the fancy, shiny high-rise hotel restaurants, I highly recommend booking the Frying Pan Middle Eastern Food Pilgrimage.

The flavor of barberries reminds me of dried cranberries so if you can’t get them, chop up some cranberries instead. Ottolenghi suggests substituting dried currants soaked in lemon juice, but I know that currants are hard to come by in the United States. If you live in Australia or the UK (or somewhere else they are available) those would be a good option as well.

I’ve adapted this Barberry Pistachio Saffron Rice from two recipes. 1. from Ottolenghi.co.uk, which gives more explicit instructions for cooking the rice and 2.  from a community member of Nigella.com which says simply, “Cook rice in a rice steamer.” I chose to use my rice cooker so those instructions follow.

The amounts below should also work on the stovetop, in a heavy pan with a tight-fitting lid. My mom always says that the right amount of water is 1 cup for each cup of rice plus 1 cup for the pot. Or follow the instructions on your bag of rice.

Ingredients
For cooking the rice:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 cups or 275g long grained basmati rice, rinsed under cold water and drained well
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 1/2 cups or 600ml cold water

For the dish:
1/2 teaspoon good quality saffron threads
3/4 cup or 50g dried barberries
2 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon olive oil, divided
1/2 cup or 75g whole unsalted, roughly chopped pistachios
1/4 teaspoon salt
Few good grinds fresh black pepper

Method
Pour 1 tablespoon of boiling water over the saffron and set it aside to steep for 30 minutes.

Put the barberries in a small bowl and pour enough boiling water to cover them along with a 1/2 teaspoon of sugar. Leave for 10-15 minutes, then drain.

Pour 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in your rice cooker then add the rice, stirring to make sure the grains are well coated.

Add the cold water and 1 teaspoon fine sea salt. Stir well. Put on the lid and set to “Cook” mode. When the rice cooker switches from cook to warm, set a timer for 10 minutes and cover the still closed pot with a couple of dry tea towels.

When the timer rings, open the lid and pour your soaked saffron with the golden water on one small portion of the rice. Cover again with the lid then tea towels while you prepare the rest of the dish.

In a large saucepan, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and lightly toast the chopped pistachios along with the drained barberries over a medium heat. Add in the salt and a few good grinds of black pepper.

Use a spoon to remove the saffron colored section of the rice and fluff it up in a small bowl. Use a fork to fluff up the rest of the white rice.

Set aside a small amount of the barberries and pistachios to decorate the top, then add the rest to the rice pot, lightly folding them in till well combined. Then fold the saffron rice in lightly as well.

Spoon the rice into a serving dish then top with the reserved barberries and pistachios. Serve warm.

Enjoy!

Complete your meal by making my Persian Lamb Meatballs and Egyptian Date Crescents for dessert.

Barberry Pistachio Saffron Rice is my contribution to this month's Foodie Extravaganza where we are sharing recipes with nuts. Many thanks to our host is Caroline from Caroline's Cooking.

• Barberry Pistachio Saffron Rice by Food Lust People Love
• Canadian Pecan Butter Tarts by Tara's Multicultural Table
• Healthy Granola Cakes by Sneha's Recipes
• Pecan Chicken by Family Around The Table
• Pumpkin Nut Braid by Passion Kneaded
• Pumpkin-Nut Crumble Cake by Hardly A Goddess
• Pumpkin Praline Cheesecake by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Walnut Sauce by Caroline's Cooking

Foodie Extravaganza celebrates obscure food holidays or shares recipes with the same ingredient or theme every month.

Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook group Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you!

If you're a reader looking for delicious recipes, check out our Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board!

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