Buckwheat cake is a typical dessert of Valtellina, in northern Italy; it is a soft and leavened baked cake, stuffed with blueberry jam.
It is prepared with buckwheat flour which has a high fiber content, and the starch composition allows it to lend itself optimally to sweet and savory preparations.
Let's see how it is prepared.
The original recipe for buckwheat cake
Ingredients:
> 300 of buckwheat flour
> 4 eggs
> a vanilla bean
> 1 sachet of baking powder
> 200 grams of sugar
> 200 gr of melted butter in a bain-marie
> 150 gr of chopped almonds
> blueberry jam (from 200 to 300 gr depending on how thick the filling is to be made)
Preparation : the egg whites are separated from the yolks and they are whipped (the egg whites) until stiff, adding half the sugar to rain.
Separately, the butter is dissolved with the remaining sugar and the egg yolks, reaching a smooth cream free of lumps: the sugar will be melted in the warm butter and the yolks will have perfectly mixed together.
Add the flour, baking powder, ground almonds and the contents of a vanilla bean to this mixture. You can use vanilla yeast instead of fresh vanilla.
Combine the whipped egg whites a little at a time, incorporating them with a movement of the spatula from the bottom upwards, to prevent them from being disassembled.
Lining a mold with parchment paper or greasing it, pouring the contents and baking for 50 minutes at 180 degrees.
Once cooked (try the toothpick) remove it from the oven and let it cool.
When it is at room temperature it will cut in half in the sense of width: you can use a tall knife for bread or a nylon thread. Using a lid or a large plate, open the cake and fill with the jam. Recompose the two halves, sprinkle with icing sugar, and serve. You can add whipped cream or ice cream.
Here are 4 more recipes with buckwheat flour
Vegan and gluten free buckwheat cake
The original recipe calls for the use of products of animal origin, but it is possible to obtain a tasty vegan buckwheat cake, replacing eggs and butter with soy and soy or rice derivatives.
Ingredients :
> 200 of buckwheat flour
> 100 grams of rice flour
> two jars of unsweetened white soy yogurt
> 1 sachet of baking powder
> 200 gr of cane sugar
> 150 gr of chopped almonds
> rice or soy milk
> blueberry jam (from 200 to 300 gr depending on how thick the filling is to be made)
Preparation : combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix the flour with the sugar, baking powder and almonds. Then the yogurt is added and mixed together. The mixture must have the soft consistency of the plum cake and margherita cakes dough. If resolved too dry you can add half a glass of rice or soy milk.
Pour the mixture into a mold lined with baking paper and let it cook in the oven at 180 degrees for 40 minutes. If the toothpick test says it is cooked, it is baked and left to cool.
It is then cut in the width direction in half, stuffed with blueberry jam, and closed. It is dusted with icing sugar and served with whipped cream, sour cream, ice cream, or with nothing added.
Buckwheat
Buckwheat, despite its name, does not belong to grasses (cereals), a family of which classic wheat is part. However, it has the same appearance in grains and the flour can be used as an alternative to traditional flours. The absence of gluten makes it suitable also for preparations for celiacs and people with intolerances .
Buckwheat is a very ancient food, whose origin dates back to the far north east of Europe. It then spread from the coldest countries to central Europe.
In Italy, some northern regions count among their traditional recipes the use of buckwheat, especially for winter preparations. Its properties are in fact heating and suitable for latitudes and cold seasons.
Its nutritional properties include it among the foods with a high biological value of vegetable proteins, fibers, amino acids, vitamins and minerals.
