Jijona nougat easy cake. Christmas dessert

Nougat is the Christmas sweet par excellence in Spain, it is also so rich that it serves as a base for many confectionery preparations such as creams ,  custard , mousses, cakes , puddings, puddings, ice creams … Today we are going to take advantage of it to make  a nougat cake , that if we want can be served accompanied by a chocolate cream, soft pastry cream, custard or simply with icing sugar on top. It is ideal for having breakfast with the family, taking advantage of the fact that with the Christmas holidays we are all together, well soaked in a glass of milk or hot chocolate, as is done with the  Roscón de Reyes .

Every year a few bars of soft nougat, the so-called Jijona or Xixona , accumulate in the pantry of many homes , which we do not consume due to excess or reluctance at Christmas parties. With this recipe we will recycle and take advantage of this Christmas sweet, you will see that it is so good that to prepare it you will buy that nougat that drops almost half the price in January for the supermarket stocks. I always get a few bars to eat throughout the year, you know that at home we prepare a lot of nougat ice cream  when the heat comes, we are passionate about it. I hope you like it, you will tell me your results.

Preparation of the nougat cake

To make it easier for you to prepare this cake, and it turns out perfect, we must have all the ingredients at room temperature and prepared. The butter has to be  “to the point of ointment” , soft but not liquid. If we have everything at hand we will not forget anything and thus the end result will be delicious.

1. We separate the egg yolks on one side and the whites on the other. With the help of the eggshell, we pass the yolk from one half to the other over the bowl, where only the whites will remain.
2. This is an important step in this recipe, mounting the whites until stiff . For the final result to be the best possible, we are going to put the bowl with the whites for about 10 minutes in the refrigerator, this trick will make them easier to assemble later. It is recommended to do it with a “rod” utensil for the mixer or another specialized device such as a kitchen robot. If we do not have it, we must do it manually, and for this we must beat the rods with enveloping, fast and continuous movements, making them catch “air”.
3. To assemble the whites, we are adding the sugar little by little, at the same time that we continue beating, until we get a meringue with a spongy texture, trying not to “lower” the mixture. We reserve in the fridge.
4. In a large bowl beat the butter and sugar until we have a fluffy and soft dough. Once this consistency is obtained, add the egg yolks, a pinch of salt, the cream of milk or liquid cream and the teaspoon of liquid vanilla. We beat everything until everything is well integrated, the final mixture has to be smooth and creamy.
5. We add to the previous mixture the chemical yeast with the previously sifted flour. We put the Jijona / Xixona nougat broken into pieces. Beat with the mixer until there are no lumps and when we have it well mixed add the whites. We remove all the cream very gently so as not to lower the mounted whites since they will be the ones that give the sponge cake its fluffiness.
6. We are going to use a special mold for biscuits in folds , they have very beautiful shapes and even a simple sponge cake looks like a masterpiece of pastry. In addition, its color and material reflect heat throughout the surface, guaranteeing a uniform gold tone. We spread the mold with butter.
7. We pour the previous mixture in the chosen mold just before putting it in the oven.
8. We preheat the oven to 200º C, 10 minutes before putting the cake. We put it in the oven at 180º C for 40 minutes until the surface is well browned, the last 10 minutes we cover it with a piece of aluminum foil so that it does not burn us. Puncture with a fork from time to time to see if the cake is done, the fork should always come out clean. Baking is perhaps the most important thing in a cake, each oven is a world, especially now that most have millions of different functions that we use little or do not know what they are for. In my mother’s house we have the simplest, warm up and down of all life. Once you have a good control of your home oven, surely there is no recipe that will resist you.
9. Carefully remove from the mold and let it cool down. We decorate with icing sugar, with chopped almonds, with chocolate shavings … and we can only cut a good piece to take with our favorite hot drink.

I hope you like it and cheer up with this sponge cake so easy, that it turns out delicious.