Walnut coffee chiffon

Adapted from Kat Kwa because I'm using 6 instead of 5 eggs. She also used coffee essence and evaporated milk which I don't have on hand but I wanted to bake chiffon to use up my cake flour.

Ingredients

100g walnuts, toasted and chopped

3 tsp instant coffee

4 tbsp hot tbsp water

100 ml milk

7 eggs, separated

160g sugar

100g corn oil

170g cake flour

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp lemon juice

Method

1. Toast the walnuts at 180 deg C for 5 mins. Set aside to cool and then chop.

2. Separate the eggs and set aside.

3. Mix the instant coffee. Add the milk and stir. Let it cool.

4. Separate the eggs and set aside.

5. Add ⅓ of the sugar to the yolks. Lightly whisk.

6. Add oil to the yolk mixture and lightly whisk till pale.

7. Add coffee mixture. Mix well. 

8. Sift in the flour and blend well with whisk to remove lumps.

9. Beat egg whites until opaque. Add lemon juice. 

10. Add sugar in three batches and continue to beat until stiff peaks.

11. Add one third of the meringue to the yolk mixture and blend.

12. Return the mixture to the meringue and gently fold in with a whisk until no more white streaks. Once mostly folded, use spatula to gently fold in ensuring no more streaks.

13. Add 40g of chopped walnuts and fold in.

14. Pour mixture into the tin. Use a spatula to push the batter away from the centre funnel to the rim. Tap the tin on the counter to dispel big air bubbles. Use a skewer to trace around to remove smaller bubbles.

14. Sprinkle the remaining chopped walnuts on the top.

15. Bake at 160 to 165 deg C for 70 to 75 minutes. (160 for 70 mins sld work) 

16. Once removed from the oven, turn upside down to let the chiffon 'hang' until totally cooled.

17. Unmold the cake but cutting it out. Serve the cake upside down.

Recipe feedback

- Despite my agar-ation of ingredients through comparing ingredients and baking times with previous chiffon recipes, I deviated quite far from Kat Kwa's original recipe but still did very well.

- Baking at the lower temp for longer worked. It was JUST cooked so still very moist and the sides were not charred.

- As expected, coffee taste was not strong and could hardly taste it. Looks like coffee essence is a must.

- It was just sweet enough so cannot reduce the sugar.

- Roasting the walnuts beforehand made a difference to the taste. The baking temp for the chiffon cannot be 170 deg C which is the temp I usually use for chiffons because the walnuts which have already been roasted once would just burn and turn bitter.