Tuesday 12 January 2016

Sachertorte

I had a lot of chocolate and cream in the house, so decided to give this flourless (and sort-of fatless) cake a go. It's a very different technique to anything I've made before, splitting the egg whites and yolks, then re-combining them. There is a lot of chocolate in this recipe! I used 70% dark chocolate, so there is a real hit of bitterness coming through!

The point where you combine the egg yolk mixture and the chocolate was probably the trickiest point...the resultant mixture was very stiff, and combining in the egg whites without losing too much air was a challenge...I ended up adding small amounts of egg white to slacken off the mixture, and only when it was loose enough folding in the rest. It's also a recipe where you have a lot on the go at once...I had the egg whites in the stand mixer, chocolate on the bain-marie, and I was whizzing the egg yolks and sugar with a hand mixer.

Sachertorte Recipe

  • Pre-heat oven to 170'C
  • Grease a 23cm cake tin, and layer the bottom with baking parchment

Torte Ingredients

  • 6 Eggs (5 separated into whites and yolks)
  • 265g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
  • 215g caster sugar
  • 150g ground almond

1) Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks (I used a stand mixer)

2) Put the egg yolks, the whole egg, and the sugar in a bowl, and whisk until light and slightly stiff (when you bring the whisk out it should leave a trail of mixture)

3) Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a bain-marie (I use a colander in a large saucepan)

4) Allow the chocolate to cool slightly, and then mix it, and the ground almond, into the egg yolk mixture.

5) You'll probably find that the egg yolk mixture is now very stiff. Using a metal spoon, mix in about 1 tablespoon of the egg whites to slacken it. You may need to add more, until the egg yolk mixture become more workable.

6) Fold in the rest of the egg white mixture, trying to keep as much air as possible the mix.

7) Once everything is combined, pour into the prepared cake tin, and gently level by tipping the tin around.

8) Bake for ~30 minutes, until the sides are just starting to pull away from the tin.

9) Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack (bottom up), covered in a tea towel, and allow to cool completely.

Icing Ingredients

  • ~3 tablespoons of apricot jam (forced through a sieve)
  • 150g chocolate, broken into pieces
  • 150g double cream

1) Gently heat the jam, and then glaze the entire cake. This helps the icing stick to the cake

2) Put the chocolate and cream in a heatproof bowl, and melt over a bain-marie. Stir occassionally until it's glossy and smooth

3) Allow it to cool a bit, and then pour it onto the cake.

4) Using a pallette knife, evenly coat the cake, including the sides. I moved the icing out in a circular motion until it naturally went down the sides, and then smoothed it out.

5) allow to cool completely, and for the icing to set.