This is a traditional “mountain cake” recipe typical of Südtirol, the northern area of Trentino Alto Adige region, in Italy.

“Schwarzplententorte” is the name used in the German speaking villages (schwarzplentenmehl means buckwheat in the local German dialects, other German names for this flour are buchweizenmehl or hadnmehl), but in the villages where people speak the Ladin language it is known with the name “Turte de poia“.

In this area the traditional cuisine is very simple but rich of flavor, and it is based almost exclusively on local ingredients, and the buckwheat is one of those (actually it is a traditionally ingredient also in other neighboring mountain areas, like in my region too, Lombardia, for example it is used in the Pizzoccheri of Valtellina, or in the Polenta Taragna made in the mountain areas of Sondrio, Bergamo and Brescia provinces).

It’s a very simple cake, but with great taste. I really like buckwheat, it has a very particular flavor and it has an amazing perfume, and it gives a very rustic touch to many recipes. Moreover, as I already said in other posts, it is a naturally gluten free flour, so also people with gluten problems can eat it.

This cake is traditionally filled with lingonberry jam, but if you don’t have it then any other wild berries jam will be perfect: blueberry, blackberry, mountain currant, redcurrant, raspberry, or black mulberry as I used in this case 🙂

Let’s see the recipe.

 

INGREDIENTS (for a 26 cm shape):

For the cake:

• 250 g buckwheat flour (whole grain or not it’s up to you)
• 250 g butter (soft)
• 250 g almonds (you have to make a flour with it)
• 200 g muscovado sugar (but also normal sugar is fine)
• 6 eggs (at room temperature)
• 1 vanilla bean (optional)
• 10 g baking powder

For the filling:

• 400 g jam (read above)

To garnish:

• powdered sugar

 

1. First of all take out the butter from the fridge at least few hours earlier, we need it very soft. Put also the almonds in a kitchen robot and reduce them into a flour.Then take a bowl and add the butter and 130 grams of sugar, and start mixing them together. Add also the 6 yolks, and keep mixing until soft. If you would like to use it, add now the vanilla pulp taken from the bean.
2. Take another bowl, add the egg whites and start whisking them with an electric whisker, add also the remaining 70 grams of sugar. Keep whisking until fluffy and stable.
3. Now mix together the buckwheat flour, the almond flour and the baking powder, and add it gradually to the bowl with the yolks/sugar/butter and make a homogeneous cream.
4. Then add gradually the egg whites, and incorporate them gently, paying attention not to deflate the air from the egg whites.
5. When you have obtained a homogeneous dough, take an oven pan greased with butter and pour everything inside. Spread it homogeneously and bake it at 180 °C, static oven, for 45-50 minutes. Control with a wooden stick if the cake is well baked.
6. When it’s ready let it cool down completely inside its pan, then cut it in half and spread the jam in the middle.
7. Sprinkle powdered sugar and serve it 🙂 maybe with some whipped cream if you would like 🙂 but it’s perfect also without! It’s really a nice cake, soft and very rustic!

PS: it fits perfectly with a hot black tea, but for my experience it’s a great match with Rooibos tea too! 🙂

 

 

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Products used:

Buckwheat flour: Bio Hajdina liszt from Pásztói Malom

Eggs from a local farmer

Butter: Natur Aktiv Bio vaj

Jam: black mulberry jam, with berries picked up personally 🙂