Sand cake: recipe, ingredients

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Most of the cakes, despite the fact that the number of their recipes in the thousands, are monotonous. These are biscuits smeared with cream. You can fantasize as much as you like with cakes, adding cocoa, nuts, dried fruits, meringues to the dough, experimenting with the layer to infinity - the essence of this does not change. And when you go to visit, you know: there is a biscuit with some kind of cream waiting for you. And we invite you to make something very special - shortbread cake!

Think this dough is only good for cookies? You are mistaken: the cream, having entered into a combination with shortcrust pastry, does not turn it into a semi-liquid mess, as it may seem to an inexperienced culinary specialist. On the contrary, it easily soaks the cakes, which makes them melt in your mouth.

There are plenty of recipes for shortbread cakes too. And you, after reading our small selection, will be able to choose the right one for yourself. Shortbread dough, unlike yeast muffin, is easy to prepare, and it is not so capricious,like a biscuit. But before preparing masterpieces, let's get acquainted with the basics.

Basic recipe

If you've ever made shortbread, you can skip this paragraph - you already know everything. Well, if you are a novice cook, let's get acquainted with the basic principle of making shortcrust pastry.

For a cake, it is kneaded in the same way as for cookies:

• In advance, put 130 g of butter (in a wrapper) in the freezer.
• Sift 450 grams of wheat flour into a bowl with wide edges.
• Pour also a bag of baking powder and 90 g of sugar. The cake will be more fragrant if the last ingredient is not beetroot, but cane. But white sugar will work too.
• Stir dry ingredients.
• Take the frozen butter and quickly rub it into a bowl.
• Until it softens, knead the mass between the palms. We will have a bowl of crumbs.
• Now beat 150 milliliters of milk with egg yolk.
• Fill with this mass of crumbs. And, if there is a mixer with a paddle attachment, we use it, no - we knead the dough with our hands.

Next steps

When the bun stops sticking to your hands, wrap it in cling film and send it to the refrigerator for half an hour. Baking sand cakes does not require special skills or dexterity from the chef. You just need to make a "French shirt" in a round shape.

What is this? Lubricate the sides of the form with very cold margarine,sprinkle with flour. Turn upside down to shake out excess powder. We put a round piece of parchment on the bottom, which we remember a little, and then we straighten it so that the paper is as if corrugated. And here you are - the "French shirt" is ready.

According to the basic shortbread cake recipe, we simply divide the dough into three parts, roll each of them into a circle according to the diameter of the mold and stack it. We tamp with the phalanges of the fingers. Lubricate with milk and sprinkle with a little sugar. This will give the cakes a crispy texture. Bake at 190 degrees until cooked (about a quarter of an hour). When the cakes have cooled (first in the form, and then on the wire rack), smear them with cream.

Cake Layer Ideas

Shortcake dough doesn't absorb ingredients as easily as biscuit dough. Therefore, if we smear the cakes with butter cream, then they will remain “themselves”, that is, they will not be saturated. For such products, a more humid environment is needed, but also in moderation.

What types of creams are suitable for shortbread cake? It is custard, based on condensed milk, jams, mousse, whipped cream, fruits, protein, curd. Very suitable for decoration is soft Mascarpone cheese with powdered sugar. Below we will look at how these creams are made. But you understood the principle itself: a layer that is not very hard and not too liquid will make the cakes a real cake. And in order for the dough to be moderately soaked, the culinary masterpiece must stand in the refrigerator for at least a couple of hours.

King shortcake with custard

We have already mastered the basic recipe. Now we begin to complicate our task:

• From 400 grams of flour, four yolks (we will put the proteins in the refrigerator until the time is up), 150 g of sugar, a bag of cookie powder and 220 g of butter, knead the dough.
• Let's form four koloboks. Wrap each in cling film and put in the fridge.
• Let's take care of the cream. In 400 milliliters of cold milk, add 35 g of corn starch, 150 g of sugar and four egg yolks.
• Stir and put on a small fire. Stir continuously until the mass becomes the consistency of jelly.
• Remove from the stove and add 200 g of butter cut into pieces.
• Stir. Cover with cling film so that it touches the cream. Put away in the cold.
• Beat four egg whites to stiff peaks with 150g sugar.
• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
• Roll out one bun. Put in a mold, grease with whipped protein, sprinkle with crushed nuts.
• Bake for a quarter of an hour.
• Do the same with all shortbread cake layers with custard.
• When they cool down, brush them over. Decorate the top and sides of the product with the rest of the cream. Sprinkle with nut crumbs. The cake must be made on the eve of the celebration. It should soak overnight in the refrigerator.

Bunch of Grapes

Contrary to the name, this shortbread cake is prepared not with berries, but with condensed milk cream:

1. Make the dough according to the recipe above. Leave a small amount for decoration.
2. Bake four cakes So that they do not harden too much, wrap them in cling film.

Cooking condensed milk cream won't take long:

1. Let's whip a pack of butter with a bag of vanillin.
2. Add a jar of condensed milk (not boiled). Whisk until fluffy.
3. If desired, you can diversify the cream with instant coffee or cocoa powder.

Smear the cakes. From the remaining dough we make balls - future grapes - and two leaves. With a knife we draw on the last veins. Bake these blanks on parchment for 15 minutes.

We heat chocolate in a water bath - black and white. Grease the top of the cake with cream. Dip half of the balls in dark chocolate, and the rest in white. We lay them in the form of a bunch of grapes. Leaves are placed next to it. With chocolate we draw stems and "antennae" of grapes.

Crostata (basic recipe)

Preparing shortbread cakes does not always require baking cakes and then smearing them with cream. Crostats are very popular in the Mediterranean countries. These are such dough baskets filled with all sorts of things - fruits, berries, curd mass, etc.

The dough for them is made according to the basic recipe. The only caveat is adding a tablespoon of grated lemon zest and a small pinch of s alt to it. But the cookie powder can not be poured.

After the dough has stood for half an hour in the refrigerator, put it in a basket shape, make a few punctures and pour dry beans in a dense heavy layer. We bake a basket190 degrees a quarter of an hour. Picking up the beans.

This is the basic recipe for all crostats. Now let's see how to fill the basket.

Crostat "Della nonna"

We invite you to make cream according to the Italian recipe. The shortbread cake is called "Grandmother's Crostat":

• Pour half a liter of milk into a saucepan, throw the zest from one lemon into it, put it on fire.
• While it boils, grind four egg yolks white with 130 grams of sugar.
• Add 40 g of cornstarch. Stir.
• Get the zest out of the saucepan.
• Pour a small amount of hot milk into the yolk mass. Stir gently.
• After that, pour the egg mass into the milk. We return the saucepan to the fire. Cook until thick.
• Cover the cream with clingfilm so that a crust does not form during cooling.
• When it cools down completely, you can add nuts, candied fruits, dried fruits. We put the cream in a basket. From the scraps of dough we form ribbons with which we decorate the surface cross-by-cross. Bake the crostada in the oven at 180 °C.

Shortcake with nuts

And in the end, we suggest you make Snickers. Crispy nuts are in perfect harmony with tender meringue.

1. According to a slightly modified basic recipe (instead of milk, pour in sour cream), knead shortbread dough for the cake.
2. Roll out into a layer, transfer to a baking sheet.
3. Let's prepare the meringue. Let's beat three proteins. Without turning off the mixer, add 200 grams of powdered sugar. Proteins should be whipped tosolid, non-falling peaks.
4. This mass will thickly smear a layer of dough.
5. Bake for 10 minutes at 170°C, and then for about half an hour at 110°C.
6. Make cream on condensed milk, as indicated above. Add roasted peanuts or hazelnuts to it.
7. The large cake is divided into three parts. We smear them with cream and sprinkle with nuts.