Burnt Miso Chestnut Cake
Our friend Kate Ray shares this chestnut-spelt coffee cake recipe. We encourage you to sign up for her substack for many more amazing recipes — most are vegan and many focus on Hudson Valley and Northeast regional ingredients.
Kate Says:
Chestnut flour is amazing and wonderfully opinionated. It has a surprisingly strong earthy/umami flavor that I’m finding works well in savory or sweet-savory applications like this miso cake. The cake itself is based on Christina Tosi’s iconic recipe but made vegan (I also tried using chestnut flour in the original recipe, using a 2:1 cake flour to chestnut flour ratio). It’s sweeter than many of my usual bakes to balance the intense savoriness. In the words of Emily, my favorite taster, “Chestnut cake is hitting ALL the spots rn…It’s so sticky and umami I loveeeeee.”
Ingredients
Makes a 9” cake, about 10 rich slices (see Note)
135 grams shiro miso
200 grams soy milk
2.5 teaspoons lemon juice
5 teaspoons aquafaba
65 grams ground flaxseed
130 grams avocado oil (or other neutral oil)
150 grams brown sugar
250 grams white sugar
75 grams coarse chestnut flour
150 grams cake flour
2.5 teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon sea salt
Demerara sugar for sprinkling
Note:
This recipe makes one cake but it’s a pretty dense, rich cake. I cut it up into 10 slices that I sold at the farmers’ market last week. If you don’t have quite as many eaters, you can try halving the recipe and baking it in two mini loaf pans or one 12-cup cupcake tin. Bake for 50 minutes if using the mini-loaf pan — I haven’t tested as cupcakes, but I’d estimate about 35-40 minutes? Either way, make sure the top is well browned. Don’t worry too much about overbaking, as the crumb is quite rich and moist.
Method
Burn miso: Preheat oven to 365°F convection (or 385° without convection). Spread out miso on a Silpat-lined sheet tray into a layer about ¼-inch thick. Bake for 8-10 minutes until the edges are burnt. Remove and cool.
Turn oven down to 350° (no convection). Prepare a 9-inch cake pan by greasing with cooking spray and lining with a circle of parchment paper.
Make soy “buttermilk”: Mix together the soy milk with the lemon juice and let thicken.
In a blender, add the miso, soy buttermilk, aquafaba, ground flaxseed, and avocado oil. Blend until very smooth. Pour into a large bowl and mix in brown sugar and white sugar.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the cake flour, chestnut flour, baking powder, and salt.
Mix the dry ingredients into the wet until just combined.
Pour batter into prepared cake pan and smooth the top with an offset spatula. Sprinkle with Demerara sugar.
Bake for 60-65 minutes. The top should be dark brown and the center should spring back slightly to the touch.
Let cool and then run a butter knife or mini offset spatula around the edge to loosen the cake. Remove it by inverting onto a plate.
Store at room temperature loosely wrapped in plastic (or with a bowl over it) for up to 3 days or in the fridge for up to a week. This cake is best the day after baking.