Creamy Santiago Cake Coulant: Easy Step-by-step recipe!

Ingredients

🥚 4 free range eggs
🍚 115 g white sugar
🌰 215 g natural ground almonds
🌾 30 g all-purpose wheat flour
🍋 The zest of half a lemon
🍥 40 g powdered sugar
🧈 1 knob of butter
🍮 Individual removable moulds
📏 A cardboard to make the cross of Santiago

One of the dessert recipes that cannot be missing from any self-respecting recipe book is the almond cake or Santiago or Compostelana cake .

Galicia is the epicentre of almond desserts, although we are not in the land of almond trees. There are references to desserts with this fruit since the Middle Ages. In ancient times, almonds were a luxury reserved for a few, but those who could afford them made desserts with them.

Its main ingredients are almonds, sugar and eggs , all in equal parts. It is not a cheap or light cake, but if you like almonds, this is definitely your cake, frankly delicious. I have only tried this dessert in a few Galician restaurants, and all of them were top-notch.

You can find the Santiago cake “coulant” at Casa Marcelo or at Bar Pampín , both in Santiago de Compostela, also at Restaurante Lúa in Madrid (one of my favorite desserts on their menu) and in my city, Ourense, it is typical at the Antiga Leitería , where it triumphs over the rest of the desserts.

Today I bring you a coulant , in a different way and in individual portions. But with the same intense almond flavour and the qualities of the cake in a large size. When we talk about “coulant” we refer to a style of cake with a consistent structure on the outside and a creamier one on the inside. I also recommend that you try the chocolate coulant (the most classic), the white chocolate coulant or the Xixona nougat coulant . It is a dessert that does not leave anyone indifferent, you will see how successful you will be at home.

Preparing the creamy base for the Santiago cake coulant

1. We begin by transferring the ground almonds to an oven-safe dish. We bake them for 10 minutes at 120º C, stirring halfway through. We remove them from the oven and let them cool. Another option is to toast them in a frying pan, over a low heat, but here you have to be careful not to over-toast them.
2. In a large bowl, beat the eggs. Add the sugar little by little and continue beating. Now continue with the half lemon, which we wash and then grate over the cream. Make sure it doesn’t have any white part. Mix lightly.
3. Now add the ground almonds, in several batches, and continue mixing. Finally, add the flour, which you incorporate into the rest of the mixture using circular movements.
4. To give it the smooth and homogeneous texture we want, we will blend our cream with the blender. We will spread the moulds with a little butter, to make it easier to unmold the “coulant”. We will pour the mixture into the moulds and put them in the freezer for at least 3 hours.

Baking and final presentation of the Galician coulant

1. Preheat the oven for 10 minutes at 250º C. Place the molds in the oven and bake for another 10 minutes at the same temperature.
2. Remove from the oven and place the moulds in the fridge. The contrast between heat and cold will cause the dough to separate from the mould and make it easy to remove our “coulant”.
3. Finally, place the cross of Santiago in the centre of each coulant and sprinkle with icing sugar. Remove the paper and serve on the table. It should arrive at a certain temperature, so that the inside of the coulant is more or less liquid.

Here is the step by step recipe with entire photos. Don’t miss any details and you will get some delicious Santiago cake coulants.

Tips for a delicious Santiago cake coulant

• It is an easy dessert, but it has its technique, so you have to try it before making it. In case you don’t get it right the first time, I would say that it has its tricks, so its difficulty is medium-high. Making it won’t take you more than 30 minutes, although the base cream of the coulant has to rest for at least 3 hours. If you like Santiago cake, I’m sure you’ll like this format.
• We have already said many times that each oven is a world of its own, so I hope you know yours well, because for this “coulant” to turn out well, we must not exceed the time and temperature. In principle, 10 minutes should be enough, but if your oven is very slow, give it 9 or 8 minutes of baking time.
• I used natural, unroasted ground almonds to achieve a fine texture in the final dough. Another option is to buy whole, already roasted almonds (without skin), and you just have to grind them well with a food processor or blender. Then you can add them to the initial process, saving the time of roasting in the oven.
• If you want to give the dough a “sparkling” touch, you can add half a shot of your favourite liqueur. In my case, I have sometimes used a little coffee liqueur when making Santiago cake and it really works out well. But I leave that up to you.
• For the final decoration, we will use a cross of Santiago (symbol of the Apostle Santiago) made of paper or cardboard, and you can download the model here below.

Santiago Cake Coulant Recipe