Recipe: winter cake from hazelnut dough with plum filling

Christmas and Advent are also the time for sweet treats. Björn Juhnke is the owner of HACO in Hamburg and a well-known professional chef. We have looked over his shoulder at the creation of his "Wintercake" and wrote the recipe for you. We wish you a lot of fun while baking and snacking.

Plum filling - this is how it is done:

1. In a saucepan bring to a boil 500 ml of water with 1 kg of plums, then simmer gently until the plums are soft and the water has almost boiled away.
2.  Add the juice of half a lemon, a pinch of ground cardamom, the pulp of half a vanilla bean, 100 g of sugar and 1 small pinch of cinnamon.
3. In a blender or food processor puree everything finely (be careful! The mixture is very hot and you can easily burn yourself with it; if necessary, halve the mixture and puree less).
4. Then pour everything into a container and cover with foil. Press the foil well onto the puree to avoid skin formation.
5. Allow to cool well.

Tip: The plum puree can be prepared the day before.

Hazelnut dough - this is how it is made:

1. Beat 220 g butter (room temperature), 300 g sugar and the vanilla pulp of half a shote in a food processor until fluffy.
2.  Add 2 eggs a little at a time.
3. In a small bowl mix 500 g flour, 1 tablespoon hazelnut paste, a pinch of ground cardamom and a tablespoon of baking powder.
4. Now add alternately 120 ml of milk and the just created flour mix to the butter-sugar mixture until a smooth dough is obtained.
5. Chill the dough and in the meantime preheat the oven to 180 degrees (convection oven).
6. Divide the dough into 5 or 6 equal parts and roll out the parts one by one on baking paper or a baking mat until about 5 mm thin.
7. Bake in the oven for about 8 minutes (the dough should brown slightly).
8. Repeat everything 5 to 6 times.
9. Let the pastry sheets cool down.

Caramelized hazelnuts - this is how it is done:

1. With toothpicks, carefully poke the hazelnuts (without skin, blanched) so that they hold (careful nuts break easily).
2. Make a caramel out of 300 g sugar.
3. Dip the hazelnuts carefully into the caramel and pull them out again, a thread should form and run from the nut.

4. Stick the toothpick upside down into the styrofoam to cool down. It is best to build a kind of bridge, e.g. with two cups or pots and place the styrofoam over it (be careful! Caramel is hot).

Finish the cake

1. Coat the pastry sheets alternately with the plum puree and place them on top of each other. Make sure that the plum puree is not spread too thickly.
2. Finish with the last pastry sheet (use a kitchen palette to help).
3. Press everything down lightly and make sure that the cake sits together nicely.
4. Use a knife (preferably serrated) to straighten the edges and then portion.
5. Sprinkle each piece with a little sugar and lightly caramelize (like a crème brûlée).
6. Then decorate with the caramelized nut.

Tip: The recipe makes enough winter cake for the whole Christmas season or even to make enough small cakes to surprise colleagues in the office, for example.