The other day, I bought this amazing green (of course) mini-bundt pan from Ten Hands Pottery on Etsy (https://www.etsy.com/shop/TenHandsPottery). It arrived late last week and the very first thing I thought was what to make — and came up with this recipe for a Hazelnut Chocolate Red Currant Bundt. It was a riff on my standard pound cake recipe, so I wasn’t sure that it would come out as planned, but it’s delicious. And it photographs well in the lovely pan.
(note: recipe is for a full-sized bundt pan, however I made a mini-cake with approximately half the written recipe)
Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 2/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
5 eggs, separated
2 cups unbleached flour + 1 teaspoon salt, sifted
1/2 cup hazelnut flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 cup fresh or frozen red currants (if frozen, bake from frozen; do not thaw)
Directions
Preheat an oven to 325F. Generously butter and flour a bundt pan.
In the work bowl of your stand mixer, cream together the butter, sugar and salt until the mixture is pale and creamy, about 5 minutes. Transfer mixture to a second large mixing bowl (you will need the stand mixer bowl again). Wash the stand mixer bowl.
Separate the yolks and whites. With the whites, put them in the stand mixer bowl and whip until soft peaks form. In the meantime, add the egg yolks, one at a time, to the butter and sugar mixture, beating until just combined after each addition. Fold in the flour to the butter and sugar mixture in 2 batches, mixing after each addition until well combined. Be careful not to over mix. Fold in the whipped egg whites, carefully not to deflate too much.
Divide your batter in two. For one, add the hazelnut flour and extract, and gently fold in half the red currants. For the other, add in the cocoa and gently fold in the remaining red currants. Spoon half the hazelnut batter into the bundt pan, then the chocolate, and then the remaining hazelnut. Swirl together by running a knife through it gently.
Bake for 45 to 55 minutes, or until a skewer poked into the cake comes out clean. Cover the pan loosely with aluminum foil if the crust browns too quickly. Remove cake from oven and cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before inverting, removing the pan and letting cool completely.
