Spanish Almond Tart with Blood Orange
by meike peters
No butter and no flour: The traditional Galician Torta de Santiago is only made with almonds, sugar, and eggs plus a little lemon zest and sweet wine for flavouring. Originating in the Middle Ages, when people didn’t really think about gluten-free or butter-free baking, it’s a cake that happens to please even the ones who want to cut down on calories or avoid normal flour in their diet in the year of 2016.
I’m neither of them but I got hooked on the idea of baking a cake with only three main ingredients – about one third of this cake is nuts, the other third is sugar (it’s still a cake) and the rest is eggs, seven to be precise. No baking powder or baking soda. The original Galician tart is more flat than mine – I wanted a juicy cake – and it has a pattern of the Cross of Saint James in the icing, which is where the sweet gets its name from, it translates to Cruz de Santiago. I skipped the religious reference. I also replaced the lemon with blood orange (zest and juice) and left out the wine. Cinnamon crept in instead and gave it a warming, wintery touch. Although this cake may seem quite unspectacular, it tastes wonderful: It’s moist, nutty, and fragrant. The inside is almost fudgy, but before you get there, you have to break the crisp crust. It’s as delicate as the outside of a French macaroon and once you cut through it with a knife, the center of the tart will collapse a little, just a bit, there’s no need to worry. This combination of soft cake and crispiness – apart from its delicious taste of course – is my personal highlight of this Spanish cake classic.
Spanish Almond Tart with Blood Orange
ground almonds (or hazelnuts) 350g / 12 1/2 ounces
freshly grated blood orange zest 2 tablespoons
ground cinnamon 1 tablespoon
organic eggs 7
granulated sugar 350g / 1 3/4 cups
freshly squeezed blood orange juice 2 tablespoons
icing sugar, to dust the cake
Preheat the oven to 180°C / 350°F. Butter a 20 cm / 8″ springform pan.
In a large bowl, combine the almonds, zest, and cinnamon.
Using an electric mixer, in a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar for 1 minute until creamy.
Fold the almond mixture along with the orange juice gently into the egg-sugar mixture until just combined. Bake the cake for about 55 minutes or until golden brown and springy on top. Check with a skewer, it should come out almost clean. The centre of the cake will be a bit fudgy. Let the cake cool for about 10 minutes before you take it out of the pan. Sprinkle with icing sugar.
Hi! This cake looks so beautiful – planning to give it a try this weekend. I was just wondering what I could swap the orange/lemon zest for. I am not too keen on adding a fruity taste (weird I know!). Would something like coconut oil work?
You can just leave out the zest and add rose water or orange blossom water. I have no experience with coconut oil so I can’t say, I doubt that it’ll work and it’ll definitely change the taste.
I made this to enjoy during the world cup final. My mother in law is highly critical of baked good but she loved it!
It was so delicious I had to have a late night piece before bed.
I swapped white sugar for a cup of coconut sugar and the sweetness was on point. Mine came out a lot flatter than the pictures. I feel I may have over beat the eggs – could that be why? Also, I’m not 100% sure if I actually used a blood orange! It may have been a grapefruit… I got flustered in the market when picking one out. The flesh was less red, more pink. The juice was still bright and sweet but the pulp was bitter. Either way I love this recipe!
I’m happy that you and your family enjoyed the recipe!
It sounds like you used grapefruit, but that wouldn’t affect how much it rises. Maybe you used a bigger springform pan?
I tried this recipe today, without changing anything 🙂 It was amazing! I used almonds from Portugal, which gave it a special Iberian touch, I would say! Thank you for the recipe!
Thank you, Sofia! I’m glad you enjoyed it 🙂
Do you think it would work with Meyer lemons? My parents ship a ton to me from their garden in California so I have them on hand and they’re beautiful.
Hi Jane! Yes, this cake is usually made with lemon, I just love it with blood orange. So, using Meyer lemon, you’ll be right in between 🙂
Thanks for a delicious recipe! I followed everything to a T. Ground my own almonds in the thermomix and just used a regular naval orange as mentioned in comments. I was worried when the batter seeemed runny but it was spot on! I did reduce the sugar to 220 grams and will try 150gmas next time as I don’t like it too sweet. But this was a lovely moist cake! Lots of compliments and I was very pleased! Thanks again!
Dear Carmella, I’m happy you enjoyed the cake! I aimed for a sweet Mediterranean treat, but I often reduce the sugar – even half of the amount in the recipe above – depending on my mood. xx
[…] flour again! After my Spanish Almond Tart with Blood Orange, I got a little hooked on no-flour cakes. I don’t follow a gluten-free diet – luckily, […]
i’ve just made it and could not wait till it gets any cooler. AWESOME!! Thanks for sharing.
Thank you Andrea for letting me know! I’m glad you enjoyed it 🙂
Hi, can I use lemon instead of the blood orange?
Tks
Hi Andrea, yes but I would use 1 tablespoon juice and 1/2 to 1 tablespoon zest in that case. Enjoy!
Thank you so much!
This cake is sooooooooooo good, but these pictures make it even more inspiring! Thanks my dear Meike!
Thank you so much Aleksandra!! xxx
Made this tonight, and everyone liked it! Here were my modifications:
* use less sugar: only 1-1/4 c
* didn’t measure the orange zest, used the zest from one blood orange
* cocoa powder instead of sugar on top
* walnut meal instead of almond/hazelnut
For next time:
* a whole tablespoon of cinnamon was too much (maybe it was a typo for a teaspoon?). I’ll use less next time.
Took 35 mins to cook in my convection oven (conv + bottom heat).
Hi Jane!
Thanks for sharing your modifications! The original Torta de Santiago recipe uses about 1/3 almonds – 1/3 eggs – 1/3 sugar, it’s true, it’s quite a sweet treat but I like it in this case, it reminds me of traditional Mediterranean sweets. I like the idea of cocoa powder, I have to try this next time! 1 tablespoon cinnamon is right, I like it when it comes through, rather than having just a hint of it, especially next to the almonds. I’m impressed that yours baked so quick, mine needed the 55 minutes but I only used convection setting and not convection plus bottom heat. I never tried this setting for cakes, only for pizza, but I’ll try one day.
I’m glad you enjoyed the cake!
I am so impatient to bake this cake, especially after viewing the tantalizing photos; on my to do list for today…I might have to substitute regular freshly squeezed orange juice for the blood oranges if I cannot find in the market; hopefully the flavor will not suffer too much:)
Hi Laurel, it’s totally fine to use regular oranges for this cake, don’t worry! Have a nice day!
I used clementines I had on hand and it was just delicious. I was thinking to experiment with flavoring with liqueurs (framboise perhaps?) though the taste from the fresh fruit is probably best. Thank you for another terrific recipe that is bound to be a staple in my dessert file:)
I love it when food has a history behind it, makes it special to make it and eat it.
Hi Mariana! Food is such an important and beautiful part of our culture and history. It’s unique, every country has its own kitchen traditions but it connects us all over the world at the same time. I love this! There’s so much to learn from each other 🙂 Meike xx
This cake sounds amazing! Is the 2 tablespoons orange juice the correct amount? Doesn’t sound like it would be enough. Either way, can’t wait to try this.
Thank you Deborah! Yes, it’s 2 tablespoons orange juice. Using 7 eggs, the cake is already quite moist. More juice would have been too much for the texture. Have a beautiful Sunday! xx
Ah ok, that makes sense 🙂 Have a fabulous Sunday too!!