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Recipe · Indirect · Medium

Tarta de Santiago on the kamado, deeply almond and flourless

Ground almond, egg, sugar and the Cross of Saint James in icing sugar. Flourless, coeliac-friendly. Indirect at 175°C in a dutch oven: dense, moist crumb, never dry.

Tarta de Santiago de almendra espolvoreada con azúcar glas
Prep
20 min
Cook
35 min
Servings
8 servings
Temperature
175 °C

Ingredients

  • finely ground almond (Marcona or Valencia-region if you can find it)250 g
  • white sugar200 g
  • large eggs (at room temperature, they whip up more)3 ud
  • lemon (the zest; keep the juice for something else)1 ud
  • ground cinnamon1 cdita
  • orange-blossom honey (optional, rounds it out without masking the almond)1 cda
  • fine salt1 pizca
  • soft butter to grease the dutch oven1 cda
  • icing sugar for the Cross of Saint James (to finish)2 cda

Method

  1. 01

    Set the deflector and stabilise 175°C

    Light the kamado, set the deflector (plate-setter) and stabilise the chamber at 175°C indirect. It takes 20-25 minutes. Do not load the cake until the thermometer holds steady for 10 minutes: a flourless cake needs an already-stable oven, because it deflates if it loses heat midway through.

  2. 02

    Grease the pot and zest the lemon

    Grease the enamelled cast-iron pot well with soft butter, base and walls, so the cake turns out clean. Zest the lemon, avoiding the white pith, which is bitter. If you are using a card stencil for the cross, cut it out now while the kamado stabilises.

  3. 03

    Whip the eggs with the sugar

    Whip the eggs with the sugar, salt and honey (if using) at high speed for 4-5 minutes, until pale and almost tripled in volume. This foam is the cake's only structure: the more air you whip in now, the lighter it bakes. It is ready when, lifting the whisk, the batter falls in a ribbon and holds its mark for a moment.

  4. 04

    Fold in the almond carefully

    Add the ground almond, lemon zest and cinnamon. Fold it in with a spatula in gentle bottom-to-top strokes, never beating, until no dry lumps remain. Air is the boss here: stir hard and you knock the foam down and the cake bakes dense. A correct batter is thick but airy, not runny.

  5. 05

    Pour and bake 30-35 min without lifting the lid

    Pour the batter into the greased pot and level it. Set it uncovered on the grate over the deflector and close the kamado. Bake 30-35 minutes at 175°C without lifting the lid. It is ready when the top is golden, the centre springs back to the touch and a skewer comes out clean or barely moist, never with raw batter.

  6. 06

    Cool and turn out

    Pull the pot with gloves and let the cake settle inside for 15 minutes: still hot it is fragile and breaks when moved. Run a knife round the edge, set a plate on top and flip; then turn it back onto a rack so the good face is up. Let it cool completely before the cross: icing sugar melts on a warm cake.

  7. 07

    Mark the Cross of Saint James

    With the cake cold, centre the Cross of Saint James stencil on the surface. Dust icing sugar through a fine sieve in an even, generous layer, without piling it in one spot. Lift the stencil straight up, without dragging, and the cross stays crisp and white against the golden almond. Serve at room temperature.

About this recipe

A Tarta de Santiago on a wood —or charcoal— fire is one of the easiest desserts to nail on a kamado because it has no flour and no leavening, just ground almond, egg and sugar, which makes it naturally coeliac-friendly. It bakes at 175°C indirect with the deflector in, in an enamelled cast-iron dutch oven that spreads the heat evenly and keeps the edges from drying out while the centre sets. The result is a dense, moist, deeply almond crumb; you turn it out, mark the Cross of Saint James in icing sugar, and there it is: the classic Galician dessert, cooked over kamado fire.

Flourless: why it works and why it sets differently

A traditional Tarta de Santiago is not a flour sponge with almond added: the dry part is 100% almond, bound only by egg. The batter does not rise from leavening or gluten but from the air you whip into the eggs and sugar until pale and almost tripled in volume. That foam is the cake's only structure, so you treat it with care: the almond is folded in, never beaten, so as not to knock the air out. With no gluten, it cannot toughen from kneading or turn rubbery; the real risk is over-baking, because almond releases its oil and, overcooked, turns dry and sandy instead of moist. That is exactly why the kamado's temperature control matters so much.

The kamado as an oven: a pinned 175°C and the deflector

A flourless cake forgives temperature swings poorly. Stabilised at 175°C with the deflector, the kamado behaves like a gentle convection oven and does not lurch like a domestic one every time the element fires. The enamelled cast-iron pot adds thermal inertia: it shields the cake's edges from radiant heat and bakes them at the same pace as the centre, which is exactly what a Tarta de Santiago needs to come out even. The golden rule of kamado baking: do not lift the lid to peek. Every opening drops the chamber from 175°C to 140°C and adds ten minutes, and a dessert with no flour structure deflates if it loses heat halfway through.

A Costa Blanca accent and the Cross of Saint James

The classic Galician recipe calls for lemon zest and a pinch of cinnamon, and there I leave it: they are the soul of the dessert and I do not touch them. What I do, living in Torrevieja, is reach for Marcona almonds or ones from the Valencia region, which lend a more buttery sweetness. A spoonful of orange-blossom honey in the batter rounds it out without masking the almond. The Cross of Saint James goes on at the end, with the cake cold: a card or paper stencil on the surface and a generous veil of icing sugar through a sieve. Lift the stencil straight up, carefully, and the cross stays crisp and white against the golden almond. It is the dessert I bring out when I want to close a meal with something honest, unpretentious and loved by everyone.

In 30 seconds

Deflector in, kamado a stable 175°C indirect oven. Whip 3 eggs with 200 g sugar until pale (the foam is the entire structure). Fold in 250 g ground almond, lemon zest and a pinch of cinnamon. Pour into a greased dutch oven and bake 30-35 min without lifting the lid until a skewer comes out clean and the centre springs back. Cool, turn out, mark the Cross of Saint James with a stencil and icing sugar. Flourless, coeliac-friendly, serves 8.

Editor's tips

  • An independent chamber probe at grate height is more reliable than the dome gauge, which reads the air under the lid, not next to the pot. A flourless cake punishes drift: tune the vents to that real number and hold it pinned at 175°C.
  • Smoke has no place here. A Tarta de Santiago is almond, egg and sugar: the kamado's clean charcoal already lends a faint toasted backdrop. Do not add wood chunks; a delicate dessert with smoke tastes of barbecue, not almond.
  • No cross stencil? Print or draw the Cross of Saint James (the lily-hilted sword) on card and cut it out with a craft knife. Baking paper works too. Reuse it: lifted carefully, it lasts several cakes.

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FAQ

  • Why is Tarta de Santiago flourless and coeliac-friendly?

    Because the traditional Galician recipe never had flour: the dry part is 100% ground almond, bound only with egg and sugar. It is not a modern gluten-free adaptation, it is the historical formula, predating cheap, abundant wheat flour. With no wheat, barley, rye or oats anywhere in it, it is naturally coeliac-friendly as long as the ground almond is not cross-contaminated with traces (check the labelling if you buy loose). The almond provides all the structure along with the air whipped into the eggs, so you miss nothing: the crumb comes out dense and moist, not like a sponge but like what it is, an almond cake.

  • Which almond to use: finely ground or coarse, for the best texture?

    For an even, moist crumb, use finely ground almond, the kind sold as blanched almond flour. It is the classic base and binds best with the whipped egg. That said, I like to swap 15-20% for coarse or roughly chopped almond: it adds a rustic edge, a bit of bite that reminds you this is real almond and not an industrial powder. What I would avoid is using only very coarse almond, because it is too heavy, knocks the egg foam down and the cake bakes low and compact. If you grind it at home, pulse in short bursts so you do not release the oil and end up with a paste: you want fine sand, not almond butter.

  • How do you make the Cross of Saint James stencil with icing sugar?

    The Cross of Saint James is a sword with a lily-flowered hilt, not a plain cross. Draw or print it to the size of your cake and cut it from thin card or baking paper with a craft knife, leaving the sword silhouette as the gap that will keep the golden area exposed. With the cake fully cold, centre the stencil on the surface without pressing, dust icing sugar through a fine sieve in a generous, even layer covering everything, and lift the stencil straight up in one clean move, without dragging sideways. The sugar that lands outside the sword leaves a white background and the sword stays golden. If the cake is still warm the sugar dampens and melts, so be patient: cool first, decorate after.

  • Are the lemon zest and cinnamon really traditional?

    Yes, they are the soul of an authentic Tarta de Santiago and appear in the recipes certified under the Galician Protected Geographical Indication. Lemon zest brings freshness and cuts the rich sweetness of the almond, keeping the cake from cloying; cinnamon adds warmth and depth, that aromatic backbone you recognise at first bite. The amounts are deliberately restrained: the zest of one lemon and half to one teaspoon of cinnamon for this batter, just enough to register without masking the almond, which is the real star. Too much cinnamon and it veers toward sweet bread; too little lemon and it falls flat. Some versions add a splash of aguardiente or anise, but lemon and cinnamon are non-negotiable.

  • How do you know when it is set inside without drying it out?

    The window for a Tarta de Santiago is narrow because almond goes from moist to dry very fast. From minute 28, watch three signs without opening wide or poking around: the top should be evenly golden and lightly cracked in the centre; pressed gently with a finger, the centre should spring back and not sink; and a skewer in the middle should come out clean or with a few moist crumbs clinging, never with liquid or raw batter. Those moist crumbs are a good sign: it means you are pulling it right on time, not overdone. If you wait for the skewer to come out bone dry, you have already gone too far and the almond will have released its oil and turn sandy. Remember that residual heat keeps setting the centre for a couple of minutes after you pull it, so it is better to fall a touch short than long.

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