sachertorte
I made sachertorte for Christmas Eve dinner. I was really happy with it. Other than the last bite or so near the edge, it was very moist. I think I'll try lowering the unusually high oven temp to a more conventional 350F next time and seeing if that doesn't make it more uniformly moist. I seldom remember to photograph my cakes whole, but here's a slice from the leftovers.
Torte
Rick Rogers, via epicurious
Serves 12 to 16.
128 g / 4.5 oz high-quality bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
128 g / 9 tablespoons (1 stick plus 1 tablespoon) unsalted butter, at cool room temperature
115 g / 1 cup confectioners' sugar, aka powdered sugar, aka icing sugar
6 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
100 g / 0.5 cup granulated sugar
125 g / 1 cup all-purpose flour (spoon gently into cup and level top)
Apricot glaze, chocolate glaze and whipped cream to follow.
1. Centre the rack in the oven and preheat to 400F (or 350F; see remarks above photo.) Lightly coat a 9" spring form pan with cooking oil and line the bottom with parchement, oiling that as well. (This cake is baked in one layer and split because the centre domes a lot; use a pan at least 3 inches deep, even if it isn't a springform.)
2. In a heat safe bowl over, not touching, barely simmering water, heat chocolate and stir until smoothly melted. Alternatively heat in short bursts in the microwave until about half melted and stir to fully melt. Remove from heat and set aside to cool, stirring periodically.
3. Using a stand mixer fitted with a paddle blade, beat butter on medium high until smooth, about 1 minute. Add powdered sugar, and mix in at the lowest speed until moistened, and then raise the speed back to medium high and beat until light, about 2 minutes. Beat in egg yolks one at a time, scraping the bowl well after each addition. Beat in melted chocolate and vanilla. Don't worry if there are a few small bits of chocolate that don't blend in, so long as the mixture is mostly smooth. Assuming you used a standmixer with the deep bowl, transfer the contents to a large shallower bowl and set aside.
4. Using a very clean bowl and either a hand held electric mixer, or the stand mixer fitted with the whisk (my handheld is weak-ass, so I recommend the latter) beat the egg whites and granulated sugar until soft shiny peaks are achieved. Using a rubber spatula, transfer about one quarter of the beaten whites into the chocolate mixture and stir in to lighten it. Add the remaining whites and gently fold in with the spatula until only a few visible wisps of whites remain. Sift half of the flour over the chocolate mixture and fold in. Repeat with the remaining flour.
5. Gently scrape into prepared pan. Carefully smooth and level the top using a small offset spatula, pushing the batter all the way to the edge. Bake until it tests done, ie, until a tooth pick inserted in the centre comes out clean, or the cake springs back when lightly pressed in the centre, about 45 minutes (to be seen how much longer this takes if you lower the oven temp.) Cake will dome in the centre. Run a knife or metal spatula around the edge to loosen and allow to cool 10 minutes in the pan, on a rack, before unclasping the sides and removing the bottom and parchement paper. Cool completely on a rack.
6. When the cake is fully cooled, level the top and split into 2 equal layers using a long serrated knife. Save the scraps and prepare the apricot glaze.
Apricot Glaze
If you know where to buy apricot preserves which are apparently different from apricot jam, follow the instructions on epicurious but if all you can get is apricot jam, here's what I did:
~1 cup apricot jam
a slosh or 2 of orange juice or apricot juice, or any orange coloured fruit juice, or golden rum.
1b. Spoon about 1 cup of apricot jam into a microwaveable bowl and microwave for a minute or two, stiring halfway through until uniformly hot and boiling around the edges. Or stir in a sauce pan over medium heat until barely boiling. Press through a mesh sieve to strain out solids. Use hot.
2b. Place the bottom cake layer on a wire rack over a baking sheet or tray. Spoon a generous portion of hot apricot glaze over the cake layer and spread to the edges with a small metal offset spatula. Top with second cake layer. If there are any divots from large bubbles or whatever in the top, crumble some some cake scraps and make a paste by mixing in a dribble of juice and use it to fill the divots, smoothing with a spatula. Spoon more glaze over top of cake and spread to the edges.
3b. At this point, I stirred in a slosh of juice to thin the jam further and used a brush to apply it to the sides, but you could continue with the jam as is and a spatula if that works for you. Make sure the entire cake is coated in glaze. Allow to fully cool to set.
Chocolate Glaze
Again, you could use the chocolate glaze recipe provided, but I used one I'm familiar with, scaled down from the ganache frosting in David Lebovitz's Devil's Food cake. It pours nicely when just made, and is good for spreading as frosting at 1 hour.
189 g / 6.7 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/3 cup water (you could use cream, but you don't need to)
113 g / 0.5 cup (1 stick) softened unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
0c. If you are very neat, and careful, wipe excess apricot glaze from the bottom of the wire rack and place over a clean baking sheet or tray. This step is only necessary if you want to make sure that chocolate drips don't mix with the apricot drips, so you can scrape them up and save for another use. You can add the solids strained out of the jam back to the leftover glaze if you'll just use it for jam.
1c. Place chocolate and water in a heat safe bowl and melt over, not touching, gently simmering water, whisking until fully melted. Remove from heat and add butter, and whisk until melted and smooth.
2c. Do not cool; pour about 3/4 of the chocolate glaze on top of the cake and gently push over the edges to leave a coating without disturbing the apricot glaze.
3c. If the chocolate glaze is not quite runny enough to smoothly run over and fully cover the sides, use the remaining chocolate glaze to cover the sides.
4c. Allow to set briefly before garnishing. I arranged sliced almonds in a ring around the edge or the top. My mommy was all, "It's so pretty! Like a petal wreath!" I bet it would look even prettier if lightly toasted (10 to 15 minutes in a 350F oven, stir at intervals.) Allow to fully set before transferring to a serving platter. To do this, I take my big icing spatula and run it underneath and lift using that at a bench scraper.
Serve with lightly sweetened whipped cream. Add about 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar and 1/2 a teaspoon of vanilla extract to 1 cup of heavy cream and whip until it forms firm peaks.
Torte
Rick Rogers, via epicurious
Serves 12 to 16.
128 g / 4.5 oz high-quality bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
128 g / 9 tablespoons (1 stick plus 1 tablespoon) unsalted butter, at cool room temperature
115 g / 1 cup confectioners' sugar, aka powdered sugar, aka icing sugar
6 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
100 g / 0.5 cup granulated sugar
125 g / 1 cup all-purpose flour (spoon gently into cup and level top)
Apricot glaze, chocolate glaze and whipped cream to follow.
1. Centre the rack in the oven and preheat to 400F (or 350F; see remarks above photo.) Lightly coat a 9" spring form pan with cooking oil and line the bottom with parchement, oiling that as well. (This cake is baked in one layer and split because the centre domes a lot; use a pan at least 3 inches deep, even if it isn't a springform.)
2. In a heat safe bowl over, not touching, barely simmering water, heat chocolate and stir until smoothly melted. Alternatively heat in short bursts in the microwave until about half melted and stir to fully melt. Remove from heat and set aside to cool, stirring periodically.
3. Using a stand mixer fitted with a paddle blade, beat butter on medium high until smooth, about 1 minute. Add powdered sugar, and mix in at the lowest speed until moistened, and then raise the speed back to medium high and beat until light, about 2 minutes. Beat in egg yolks one at a time, scraping the bowl well after each addition. Beat in melted chocolate and vanilla. Don't worry if there are a few small bits of chocolate that don't blend in, so long as the mixture is mostly smooth. Assuming you used a standmixer with the deep bowl, transfer the contents to a large shallower bowl and set aside.
4. Using a very clean bowl and either a hand held electric mixer, or the stand mixer fitted with the whisk (my handheld is weak-ass, so I recommend the latter) beat the egg whites and granulated sugar until soft shiny peaks are achieved. Using a rubber spatula, transfer about one quarter of the beaten whites into the chocolate mixture and stir in to lighten it. Add the remaining whites and gently fold in with the spatula until only a few visible wisps of whites remain. Sift half of the flour over the chocolate mixture and fold in. Repeat with the remaining flour.
5. Gently scrape into prepared pan. Carefully smooth and level the top using a small offset spatula, pushing the batter all the way to the edge. Bake until it tests done, ie, until a tooth pick inserted in the centre comes out clean, or the cake springs back when lightly pressed in the centre, about 45 minutes (to be seen how much longer this takes if you lower the oven temp.) Cake will dome in the centre. Run a knife or metal spatula around the edge to loosen and allow to cool 10 minutes in the pan, on a rack, before unclasping the sides and removing the bottom and parchement paper. Cool completely on a rack.
6. When the cake is fully cooled, level the top and split into 2 equal layers using a long serrated knife. Save the scraps and prepare the apricot glaze.
Apricot Glaze
If you know where to buy apricot preserves which are apparently different from apricot jam, follow the instructions on epicurious but if all you can get is apricot jam, here's what I did:
~1 cup apricot jam
a slosh or 2 of orange juice or apricot juice, or any orange coloured fruit juice, or golden rum.
1b. Spoon about 1 cup of apricot jam into a microwaveable bowl and microwave for a minute or two, stiring halfway through until uniformly hot and boiling around the edges. Or stir in a sauce pan over medium heat until barely boiling. Press through a mesh sieve to strain out solids. Use hot.
2b. Place the bottom cake layer on a wire rack over a baking sheet or tray. Spoon a generous portion of hot apricot glaze over the cake layer and spread to the edges with a small metal offset spatula. Top with second cake layer. If there are any divots from large bubbles or whatever in the top, crumble some some cake scraps and make a paste by mixing in a dribble of juice and use it to fill the divots, smoothing with a spatula. Spoon more glaze over top of cake and spread to the edges.
3b. At this point, I stirred in a slosh of juice to thin the jam further and used a brush to apply it to the sides, but you could continue with the jam as is and a spatula if that works for you. Make sure the entire cake is coated in glaze. Allow to fully cool to set.
Chocolate Glaze
Again, you could use the chocolate glaze recipe provided, but I used one I'm familiar with, scaled down from the ganache frosting in David Lebovitz's Devil's Food cake. It pours nicely when just made, and is good for spreading as frosting at 1 hour.
189 g / 6.7 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/3 cup water (you could use cream, but you don't need to)
113 g / 0.5 cup (1 stick) softened unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
0c. If you are very neat, and careful, wipe excess apricot glaze from the bottom of the wire rack and place over a clean baking sheet or tray. This step is only necessary if you want to make sure that chocolate drips don't mix with the apricot drips, so you can scrape them up and save for another use. You can add the solids strained out of the jam back to the leftover glaze if you'll just use it for jam.
1c. Place chocolate and water in a heat safe bowl and melt over, not touching, gently simmering water, whisking until fully melted. Remove from heat and add butter, and whisk until melted and smooth.
2c. Do not cool; pour about 3/4 of the chocolate glaze on top of the cake and gently push over the edges to leave a coating without disturbing the apricot glaze.
3c. If the chocolate glaze is not quite runny enough to smoothly run over and fully cover the sides, use the remaining chocolate glaze to cover the sides.
4c. Allow to set briefly before garnishing. I arranged sliced almonds in a ring around the edge or the top. My mommy was all, "It's so pretty! Like a petal wreath!" I bet it would look even prettier if lightly toasted (10 to 15 minutes in a 350F oven, stir at intervals.) Allow to fully set before transferring to a serving platter. To do this, I take my big icing spatula and run it underneath and lift using that at a bench scraper.
Serve with lightly sweetened whipped cream. Add about 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar and 1/2 a teaspoon of vanilla extract to 1 cup of heavy cream and whip until it forms firm peaks.