One of my favorite Italian regions after Tuscany is Trentino Alto-Adige, a region where every summer I go to get a break from the scorching Tuscan sun, to hike on the majestic Dolomites mountains and enjoy uncommon dishes like this traditional buckwheat cake.
In the mountainous area of Südtyrol (which was under Austrian influence until WWI, hence the not so Italian cake name), buckwheat has been cultivated for centuries and used to prepare other traditional dishes like polenta mora (dark polenta).
The name buckwheat is deceiving because this plant is not a cereal and, although rich in protein, it is totally GLUTEN FREE!
So try this cake if you are gluten intolerant or you just want to take a break from wheat.
150 g of soft butter
3 eggs (separate egg whites from yolks)
150 g of buckwheat flour
125 g of sugar
150 g of hazelnut flour- or use almond flour as a substitute
1 peeled and grated apple (I like to use Golden apple for this one)
1 lemon peel- grated
1 pinch of salt
1/2 bag of Bertolini baking powder (8 g)
250 g of cranberry jam (or raspberry or currants)
icing sugar
Beat the egg whites with 50 g of sugar taken from the total and set aside.
Add one yolk at a time until you have a homogeneous cream. Add the buckwheat flour, the baking powder and mix well- it's normal for the mixture to be quite thick.
Add the grated lemon peel, the grated apple, the hazelnuts flour and mix with a spatula.
Add the whipped egg whites and gently incorporate them with the spatula.
Pour the mixture into a 20 cm greased and floured mold or lined with parchment paper. Let the cake cool down, then slice it in half: wrap a string (or dental floss!)around the half point of the cake until it overlaps, then pull until the cake is cut.
Fill abundantly with the cranberry jam, then place top half of the cake back. Decorate with icing sugar and serve.
