A very traditional Mediterranean flavor combination with walnuts and orange. This naturally gluten-free, flourless cake is just walnuts, sugar, eggs, and orange zest. It’s very chewy on the inside with a crisp top that gets dusted with powdered sugar. It’s a thin cake that is more like a chewy walnut brownie than a cake and it’s delicious! I’ll be making this for the holiday season. Because it’s so sticky, to make it easier to get out of the baking dish, I would line the bottom of your baking dish with parchment and spray the parchment and sides of the dish with cooking spray.
Flourless Walnut Cake with Orange Zest
Ingredients
1 1/4 cups walnuts
2 eggs
10 tablespoons granulated sugar
Zest of 1 orange
Confectioners sugar for dusting
Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut a round circle of parchment paper to line the bottom of an 8-inch pie plate or a tart pan with a removable bottom. Spray the parchment and baking dish with cooking spray.
Put the walnuts in a food processor and coarsely grind, not too fine.
Using an electric hand mixer, beat the eggs with the granulated sugar until pale and thick, about 4 minutes. Add the orange zest and then fold in the walnuts until well mixed.
Pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish and bake for 30-40 minutes. It should be firm to the touch.
Serve dusted with confectioners sugar.
Recipe adapted from Claudia Rodin’s new cookbook, Mediterranean.
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Judy Matusky, RDN, LDN 