Sponge cake with walnuts

A new sponge cake recipe that we will cook with walnuts. These tall, fluffy, aromatic and delicious homemade baked goods make a wonderful addition to a cup of tea or a base for a wonderful cake. By the way, it is not necessary to use exactly walnuts - any others that you like the most (peanuts, cashews, hazelnuts, almonds and others) are perfect.

I propose this recipe for a biscuit for a multicooker (I have a Scarlett SC-411, the power of the device is 700 W, the volume of the bowl is 4 liters). In the absence of this useful electrical appliance, nut biscuit can be cooked without any problems in a simple oven. If you want a tall biscuit, take a mold (do not forget to grease with oil) with a diameter of 20-22 centimeters. Bake it in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for about an hour (focus on your oven) until it is dry.

Ingredients

• Wheat flour of the highest grade (180 grams)
• Sugar (180 grams)
• Chicken eggs (5 items)
• Walnut (120 grams)
• Natural honey (2 tablespoons)
• Baking powder (1 teaspoon)
• Vegetable oil (1 teaspoon)
• Vanillin (1 pinch)

Directions

1. To prepare a nut biscuit, we need the following ingredients: wheat flour (you can use the highest or first grade), medium-sized chicken eggs (45-55 grams each), granulated sugar, peeled walnuts (120 grams is a full glass with a top, with a capacity of 250 milliliters ), natural honey, vanillin (for flavor), baking powder, and also quite a bit of oil for lubricating the mold. You can use any refined vegetable or take a creamy one (then sprinkle a little with flour).
2. First of all, we sort out the peeled walnuts (carefully inspect for the presence of partitions, pieces of shell and remove them, since even one small fragment, falling on a tooth, will ruin all the pleasure of the dessert) and grind them. You don't need to turn nuts directly into crumbs - tangible pieces should remain.
3. You can chop the nuts with a knife or use a blender (pulse mode works best).
4. In a separate bowl, combine chopped nuts, as well as sifted wheat flour mixed with baking powder and a pinch of vanillin (can be replaced with a teaspoon of vanilla sugar). We mix everything thoroughly so that all components are evenly distributed over the dry mixture.
5. Next, you need to beat the egg whites with sugar. To do this, first wash the chicken eggs and wipe them dry with a towel or napkins. Then we separate the whites from the yolks - it is most convenient to gently break the eggs into a bowl, and then take out the yolks with your hand. Just smash the eggs on a flat surface, not on the edge of the bowl, to avoid damaging the yolks. Beat 5 egg whites with 50 grams (we take from the total amount indicated for the biscuit) sugar until stable, the so-called hard peaks. That is, the protein mass should keep its shape perfectly even when the bowl is turned over. I wrote in great detail about how to beat whites with sugar in the French meringue recipe, so if you are interested, you are welcome here.
6. Transfer the egg yolks to another dish, add the remaining 130 grams of granulated sugar and two tablespoons of natural honey to them. If you are allergic to this product, you do not need to use honey, but thanks to it, the finished biscuit will have an amazing aroma, taste and color.
7. Beat everything with a mixer or a whisk until a thick and completely homogeneous mass is obtained, which will increase in volume by 4 times from the original, and the sugar in it will almost completely dissolve. In consistency, it resembles condensed milk with sugar or sour cream 20% fat.
8. Add to the yolk base the dry mixture from step 4 (flour, nuts, baking powder and vanillin) and about a fifth of the whipped whites. Tip: so that all dry ingredients evenly and easily mix into the yolk mass, add them in portions, alternating with some of the whipped whites.
9. Mix everything thoroughly until smooth - at this stage it is even allowed to use a mixer, although with the help of a spatula everything turns out quickly and easily. Then, in 4 passes, we introduce whipped proteins into the dough, mixing them with a spoon or spatula in folding circular movements. That is, starting from the center of the bowl, we run the spatula along the bottom, go out to the wall of the dish and repeat the movement again. Under no circumstances use a mixer, otherwise you will sediment the proteins and you will definitely not see a fluffy biscuit. By the way, some culinary experts advise stirring the biscuit dough with your hand, but I tried this a couple of times and did not like it.
10. The result is an airy and firm biscuit dough with fine walnut pieces.
11. Grease a baking dish (preferably 20-22 centimeters in diameter) with a small amount of any cooking fat. We spread the biscuit dough into it and level it with a spoon or spatula. I traditionally bake biscuits in a slow cooker. I have Scarlett (Scarlett SC-411). The power of this multicooker is 700 W, the volume of the bowl is 4 liters.
12. In a preheated oven, cook a biscuit with walnuts at 180 degrees for about an hour (focus on your oven and check for a dry torch). In a slow cooker, I cook this biscuit for 75 minutes on the Baking mode. The finished biscuit will rise perfectly and will not fall off.
13. We take it out of the bowl using an insert for cooking food for steam and completely cool the baking on it. In general, for the preparation of cakes, biscuits are usually kept for at least 8-10 hours, so that they cut well, do not crumble, and when soaked, the dough does not get wet and does not turn into porridge. For cakes, I keep my biscuit for a day (I just covered it with gauze at room temperature), but you can let it stand for 3-4 hours if you are in a hurry.
14. Perfectly cut the biscuit with walnuts lengthwise into 3-4 cakes. To do this, it is most convenient to make cuts on the sides of the biscuit with a knife, and then cut the biscuit itself with a thread or fishing line. It turns out absolutely smoothly and very neatly.
15. It seems that home-baked lovers will appreciate this simple recipe for a fragrant and delicious biscuit with nuts. It can be served just like that with tea or coffee.