When I feel hungry during tea time, I make my French traditional dense pound cake, quatre-quart, with a snap.

It’s a simple buttery French pound cake which needs equal amounds of four ingredients: butter, flour, sugar, and eggs. No wonder it is literally 4 fourths! A quatre-quart doesn’t have special flavor but it is eaten often by French especially in the region of Brittany. I added almonds to give more texture. If you want fruity twist, add in 40 g of raisins at the stage when you add almonds. I love to serve slices of quatre-quarts with strawberry jam. Enjoy!

French Almond Pound Cake – Quatre-quarts Recipe

For 6 persons
difficulty : very easy
Preparation time: 10 minutes
cooking: 45 minutes

Ingredients

• 160 g unsalted butter, softened (1.4 stick butter; 7/10 cup; 5.65oz)
• 160 g all-purpose flour (1 1/4 cup; 5.65oz)
• 160 g caster sugar (7/10 cup; 5.65oz)
• 3 eggs + 2 egg yolks
• Pinch salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 50 g almonds (1/3 cup) (optional)**

* Get out of refrigerator 30 min before using

Method

Preparation Preheat the over at 190 degrees C. (th.6) and butter and flour the pan.

Prepare the cake batter

In a mixing bowl, whisk in flour and baking powder; set aside.

In a medium bowl, mix butter and sugar with a spatula for one minute. Add in eggs, egg yolks, and a pinch of salt. And whisk until well blended. This process is called emulsion. Fold in the flour mixture. Finally stir in almond slices.

Bake Pour into a pound cake pan. Bake for 45 minutes, or until golden brown and an insulted wooden stick comes out clean. Out of oven, let it cool in the pan.

Serve Dust with confectioners’ sugar and serve with fruit jam, optional.

Tips

Make sure your oven is well preheated.

Use fleur de sel if you have.

Use gousse de vanille or pure vanilla extract.

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