Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Chocolate Amaretti Torte



Holly of Phe/MOM/enon selected this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe: 15 Minute Amaretti Torte. For the complete recipe, visit Holly’s blog. This is really a quick recipe, and if you are organized you can get the torte in the oven in about 15 minutes. I was a bit…scattered…in my prep and it still took less than 30 minutes for it to come together. Bake for a short while and then top with a really easy chocolate ganache. Super simple!

I think the most challenging part of this recipe was finding the amaretti to use in the cake batter. I looked a couple of grocery stores and in the end I bought them at Starbucks. I knew that Starbucks carried then at Christmas, and luckily they seem to stock them all year. They were a bit expensive, and I bought two packages because I wasn’t sure how many I would need. The recipe gave quantities for large or mini amaretti, but I wasn’t sure if the ones I had were as big as the ones Dorie had used. I ended up using one package and threw another two amaretti in for good measure. I think I could have substituted biscotti, since you just grind up the cookies with almonds, but I wanted to see what the original tasted like.

This was the easiest ganache that I have made and it remained soft even after it set. I don’t like it when the glaze hardens. All you had to do was boil a little cream, pour it over chopped chocolate, let sit for a couple of minutes and then stir. It came together beautifully. I think this is the recipe I will come back to when I need a quick chocolate ganache to top a cake.

The cake is quite small, and quite thin, but it is very rich and just melts in your mouth. I took it to Easter dinner, so it travels well, too. It is deceptively simple, but a little cake is all you need. The cake is basically the texture of softened butter. The ground almonds and the amaretti lend a wonderful flavor, which is perfectly balanced by the dark chocolate of the cake and the ganache. I can’t believe that such a simple and easy to put together cake tastes so impressive! Thanks Holly for picking such a wonderful recipe.

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 276

10 comments:

Teanna DiMicco said...

This cake is totally the texture of softened butter! What a great way to describe it! Your cake looks gorgeous!

chocolatechic said...

Looks just so good.

I need a piece.

Kara said...

I felt the same way about this cake. So easy to make, so good, so rich.

Flourchild said...

Im glad you liked it. It looks great!

Peggy said...

wasn't this really good? We loved it. Yours looks amazing.

Megan said...

Mine definitely wasn't the consistency of softened butter, so perhaps that's why we didn't like it!

Unknown said...

Your torte is so pretty! Glad you liked it. It was a bit too rich for me.

Unknown said...

What a great Easter gift! Well done. I had to travel with mine too. It was like 80F outside and my a/c was out, or so I thought. That baby held up in the heat for over 30 minutes. I thought it was going to melt. It was still slightly cool, from the cling wrap or cake texture, I don't know. It turns out, my a/c DID work. I did not press in the s/c button!

Leslie said...

I'm glad this one was a success! Thanks for commenting on the glaze; I also don't like it when the ganache hardens and I end up with crumbled chocolate when I slice into it!

TeaLady said...

That looks so fudgy and moist. Perfect.