Sunday 5 June 2011

Tarta de Santiago (Dedicated to my sister)

Hi. It's been a while. I've been setting up a new computer and working quite hard lately so I haven't really had much time to blog. But I'm back with a very easy cake recipe dedicated to my sister. Whenever she's in Spain to visit me she usually asks for Tarta de Santiago which is a traditional almond pie from Galicia in the North of Spain. We've usually bought it but one day surfing the net I came across the recipe which turned out to be really dead simple. And not only that, it's also an officially regulated recipe by the Consejo Tarta de Santiago, which provides the one and only acceptable way to make it. For example it states that you have to use 1 of 6 sorts of Spanish almonds for it to be a true recipe. The only "free choice" you have is about the seasoning and how coarse you want your almonds.

Here's what you need:
250g sugar
250g almonds (ground finely to a flour. You can do it n a food processor)
5 eggs
Optional:
Shredded lemon zest from 1/2 a lemon
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

A bit of butter for the form
Icing sugar for decoration
A cut out Santiago cross (click the link and print)

Preheat the oven at 200ºC. Mix the sugar and the ground almonds with the lemon and cinnamon. Just use a fork to make sure all the sugar is evenly distributed.

Mix in the 5 eggs until it's homogeneous. No need to over mix or blend.
Grease a spring form with a bit of butte and dust it with flour. Pour the cake batter in. Bake at 200ºC for 40-50 minutes until the top is golden brown.

Take it out and let it cool down completly before cutting the sides loose.
Place the cut-out Santiago cross on top and sprinkle it with icing sugar.

Carefully remove the cross and enjoy.

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