Name: Jacqueline den Hollander
Class Year: FF 1984
Country of Residence: Netherlands

Why is this recipe great? What’s its backstory? 

A long time ago (I was barely a teenager), our family vacationed in the Dordogne, one of the most beautiful regions of France. And a heaven for food-lovers! Think foie gras, confit de canard, pommes à la sarladaise, truffels and more… One restaurant served a walnut-chocolate cake to die for. It took quite some persuasion but we succeeded in securing the recipe. What did the trick was the fact we too had some walnut trees on our property… Over the years, we have adapted it to our taste. Foremost by reducing the amount of sugar (and it is still very sweet…) and letting go of the chocolate topping (there is a limit to the amount of calories one wants to gobble on one serving…). But go right ahead and indulge if you feel like it!

Walnut Cake

Serves 12. Takes approx. 1 hour.

Ingredients:

90 gr flour
300 gr sugar
1 tsp baking soda
A pinch of salt
180 gr butter (just melted)
6 eggs
300 gr coarsely chopped walnuts (keep a few walnuts halves apart). The cake will become oily if you chop the walnuts too finely.

Chocolate glazing: 125 gr dessert chocolate + 25 gr butter + some walnut halves

Instructions:

Pre-heat your oven (250° C).

Mix the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and melted butter.

Add the egg yolks and the walnuts.

Whip the egg whites until foamy.

Gently fold the egg whites into the batter, add the leftover walnut halves.

Pour the mix into a cake pan (any shape will do). 

Bake at 250° C for 15 min. Cover with some aluminium foil, lower the temperature to 200° C and bake for about 35 minutes more. Total baking time will depend on your oven and the type of pan you use (longer in a cake pan, shorter with a flatter type of pie pan, even shorter as cupcakes).

Chocolate glazing: melt the chocolate and the butter, mix well. Pour over the cake, smooth with a spoon or other utensil, decorate with the walnuts and leave until the chocolate has hardened.

Enjoy!

Source: Family elaboration on a local French recipe