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| Torta de Santiago Santiago is a contraction of the Galician name for St. James—Sant Iago |
Once upon a time you would have
to start with raw almonds, blanch them to soften their the brown skin, and rub it off each almond. Then you would need to grind the white almond meat into a grainy flour. Today you just buy a bag of blanched
almond flour and save yourself a lot of time and trouble.
A stand mixer makes mixing much
easier because the end result is a thick, sticky dough.
3 egg whites
1 tsp almond extract
3 cups powdered sugar
3 cups almond flour
Preheat the oven to 350°. Grease one 8 or 9 inch layer-cake pan with butter, then line the bottom with waxed paper, and finally,
generously grease the waxed paper with more butter. Be thorough, or you’ll have
trouble peeling it off later.
Start with the wire-whip beater to
beat the egg whites to a soft peak. Reduce speed and add the almond extract,
then slowly add the powdered sugar, mixing and scraping the sides of the bowl
until it is all incorporated.
Change to the flat beater and
slowly add the almond flour, scraping the sides of the bowl until you have a sticky
wet dough.
If you want to be authentic, drop four to six raw almonds into
the bottom of the cake pan, and turn out the batter on top of them. Cover with
plastic wrap and use your fingers to press the dough evenly into the pan, then peel
it off carefully.
Bake for 45 minutes.
Remove from oven and cool until
you can handle the pan. Run a knife around the edge of the pan and invert onto
a plate, bottom-side up. Peel off the wax paper. Place the stencil on the cake, dust with powdered
sugar, and carefully remove the stencil.
Cut very small wedges when serving as it is very rich and sweet. Serves 8 to 12 people. It keeps for a week on the counter, covered, but it so tasty it will disappear before then.
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Click here to download a St. James Cross stencil. Print it and cut out the outline.
