Castella (Japanese Biscuit)

Castella is a well-known Japanese biscuit. As a rule, it is cooked in rectangular forms, and then cut into portions, but I cooked a sponge cake in a round shape. Unlike the classic castellum biscuit, it turns out to be fine-pored, more elastic, and moist. The castella can be served in slices or cut into cakes to make a cake.

Ingredients

• Eggs (category C0) – 4 pcs.
• Sugar – 100 g
• Flour – 100 g
• Honey – 35 g
• Milk – 35 ml
• Vanilla sugar – 1 teaspoon

Directions

1. Prepare your ingredients.
   If you use candied honey, it should be preheated slightly in the microwave to a liquid state.
   Line the bottom and sides of a mold with a diameter of 20 cm (or a square mold with a side of 12 cm) with baking paper.
   Turn on the oven to preheat to 160-170 ° C.
2. Combine honey with milk, stir.
3. Divide the eggs carefully into whites and yolks. It is important that not a single gram of yolk gets into the proteins.
   Set the yolks aside for now.
   Pour the egg whites into a deep, dry container for beating.
4. At the minimum speed of the mixer, beat the egg whites until fluffy.
5. Further, without stopping whisking, add vanilla sugar in small portions first, and then regular sugar.
6. After all the sugar has been added, continue beating the egg whites until a thick, thick, shiny mass is achieved – until peaks are stable.
   I advise you to beat the egg whites at a medium mixer speed, so they will beat for a longer time, and the mass will be very stable.
7. Using a hand whisk, whisk the egg whites one at a time into the sugar-beaten egg whites.
8. If the whites are whipped correctly, then even after mixing the yolks, the mass remains thick and stable.

   

9. In 2-3 doses, add sifted flour into the dough. Mix the dough thoroughly until smooth.
10. Add a couple of tablespoons of dough to the previously prepared mixture of honey and milk and mix, so it will be easier to mix the liquid into the total mass of the dough.
11. Add the mixture to a bowl and stir the dough with a spatula until smooth.
12. Pour the finished dough into a mold. Knock the mold against the table surface – large air bubbles will rise up.
13. Bake the Japanese biscuit in a preheated oven at 160-170 ° C for about 45 minutes (the time will depend on the dia of the shape and height of the biscuit itself, as well as on the characteristics of the oven). Be sure to check the readiness of the castella with a wooden skewer (if you pierce the biscuit in the center with it, then it should come out clean and dry, without traces of sticky dough).
    Remove the finished biscuit from the oven. Leave the castella in the mold for 5 minutes, then release it from the mold and let it cool completely on a wire rack.

    

14. Delicate and airy Japanese sponge cake is ready.

Enjoy your meal!