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Tarta de Santiagocon melocotón/ Almond flour-less cake with peach

 

A traditional Galician dessert elaborated with marcona roasted almonds, sugar, eggs and lemon zest. Galicia is an autonomous community of Spain located in the northwest of the Iberian peninsula and has,  without a doubt,  one of the rischest gastronomy of Spain.

Mouthwatering beef, iconic local boiled octopus with paprika and potatoes, excellent seafood platters known as Mariscadas Gallegas (gooseneck barnacles, mussles, razor clams, scallops) and today’s recipe Tarta de Santiago, are just few examples of their amazing food. If you considder yourself a true foodie and you are planning a trip to Spain, we definitely encourage you to place Galicia in your top 5 regions you must visit.

The simplicity of this a traditional speciality is probably what makes it so unique, but obviously, the secret to ensure an amazing flavour is the use of high quality basic product. Organic fresh eggs, freshly zested lemons, and, of course, Spanish marcona almonds.

Currently over 100 varieties of almonds are grown in Spain. Being spanish almonds of an excellent quality due to their high content in oils, wich add extra juicyness, delicate texture and flavor to them. Among all Spanish almonds Marcona and Largueta are probably two of the most treasured and well known. Marcona is by far the most expensive variety and of higher demand for confectionery producers.  Largueta, in the other hand, is narrower and slightly longer (larga) than marcona, and is mainly used as a snack and appetizer.

As usually, at Cook and Taste we enjoy adding our personal touch local recipes. Our chefs  love the combination of almond and peach, adding extra juiciness and floral aromas to this simple recipe with only 4 ingredients; almonds, sugar, egg and lemon zest.

We encourage you to prepare this simple and gluten free recipe, all year around, using fresh peaches in summertime and why not, canned ones, the rest of the year

 

Ingredients (serves 6)

5 large fresh eggs

250g sugar

250g of Spanish marcona almonds

Zest of 1 lemon

½ tsp cinnamon powder (optional)

2 large rippe peaches (or canned peaches, strained)

Powdered sugar to decorate

 

Method

Preheat the oven 180ºC.

In a pan gently toast the almonds until slightly golden. Let cool down completely before grinding. In fact, ideally, you should freeze them before grinding to ensure an almond flower, rather than an almond paste. If you like some texture in your cake, you could even grind the almonds in two batches, a really fine one, and a rather grainy one.

In a large bowl whisk together sugar and eggs until a light texture and color, add lemon zest and cinnamon powder and gently fold in the almonds.

Grease a springform pan with butter, or use small cupcake molds if you want to make individual portions. Turn the batter into the pan.

Peal the peaches if fresh, and remove the pit. Cut in thin and even slices (about half a cm), and decorate the top of you cake with them. To add an extra crsipy texture, sprinkle some brown sugar on top of the peaches.

Bake for about 30 minutes, cover with tin foil and bake for extra 10, or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let cool down completely before decorating with powdered sugar and serve at room temperatura to better enjoy the flavours of this delicious cake!