Tuesday, April 14, 2009

TWD: 15 Minute Chocolate Amaretti Torte

This was not one of my more successful baking endeavors. Well, I take that back a little. In the end, the torte was delicious. It was really, really, ugly, though. And slightly underbaked. And the glaze never set. And.... you get the picture.
First off, I was so excited that this was a "good for Passover" recipe. Strictly speaking, it's not K for P, but it fits into my Passover parameters. The cake has amaretti cookies as one of the ingredients. I found mine at Cost Plus. Straight up, I liked these cookies. They had a nice almond flavor. The other bonus to this was right in the title. It takes little or no time to put the cake together and in to the oven.
I took a cue from some of the other bakers and went the mini route. Cutting the recipe in half was easy. Dorie's recipe calls for a food processor. Mine has a 13 cup bowl. It's great for a lot of things. Half of this recipe was not one of them. Instead I used the hated mini prep for the amaretti and almond grinding. The rest I mixed with my equally hated hand mixer. It did come together easily. I used Baker's Joy (best thing for baking ever) to prep my pans. I used three 3" pans, and half a recipe fit just fine. Because my tortes were so small, I was a little overly cautious about baking time. I could really smell the tortes with about six minutes left on the timer. That tends to make me nervous. And when I looked at them, they looked dry on top, just as Dorie suggested they might. I cooled them on the counter.
And this is what the torte looked like.
I don't think I can adequately describe the canyon in the middle of the torte. I tried to photograph it, but it didn't really come across.
After it cooled, I flipped it out of the pan only to find a similar canyon on the other side. It's hard to describe. A weird hourglass lying on its side? A chocolate torte bow tie? A chocolate torte bialy? Again, the photo doesn't do it justice.
Anyway, on to the glaze. Just a bit of helpful advice here -- when a recipe calls for heavy cream, don't try to substitute skim milk. I thought you should know that. See, when you use skim milk, your glaze never quite solidifies. (On a side note, when you use this recipe and substitute skim milk, you get an amazing hot chocolate.)

Here it is "glazed". I think the canyon is coming through a bit more.
And one last shot, a little closer up.
Even with the underbaking, thin glaze, and canyons, this was a delicious cake. The almond flavor came through just enough to compliment the chocolate. The glaze tasted rich and chocolately. I skipped the almond whipped cream. I certainly wasn't going to try to substitute skim milk there. I would absolutely try this cake again. Next time, maybe I'll get it right.
Thanks to the fabulous Holly of Phe/MOM/enon for choosing this recipe. Go to her blog if you want to see what this is supposed to look like.

17 comments:

Marthe said...

So you had a canyon and I had some mayor cracks... Hmmmm... At least the torte tasted good!

Hindy said...

Chocolate bialy? If only there was such a thing, but I get the image. The important thing is that it tasted good. Well done!

Amanda said...

Sorry for your mishaps, but wow it really looks great! Looks like it was done on purpose :)

Jessica said...

It really does look like you made the glaze thin on purpose. The cake in the glaze has sort of a floating island look to it. I can only imagine how great the "hot chocolate/glaze" tasted with the cake.

Cristine said...

At least it still tasted good, canyons and all!

Megan said...

I had to break out my mini processor as well - and the hand mixer too!

At least your cake was well received at your house - it ended up the in trash here.

Kayte said...

LOL...you are such a riot...actually everything looks quite good, and I think you may have invented a new recipe! Minis would be something I should try...eventually these boys are going to leave home and then what will I do with all these desserts??? Yours looks great!

Peggy said...

Oh no - the dreaded canyon!! But at least it tasted good. That's the important part!

Welcome to our crazy blessed life said...

ugh, I despise my mini prep as well. It never works right. Glad your cake tasted good even with the canyon! :)

Flourchild said...

Mine broke when I flipped it, but I smothered it with the glaze. Sorry about the canyon.

Cathy said...

Chocolate torte bowties - I think you might be on to something there! So glad that you loved this even if it didn't come together exactly as you planned. I think it looks great!

chocolatechic said...

Hot chocolate,,,sounds great.

Joy said...

Too funny! It looks delicious! I'll have to try that hot chocolate :)

Unknown said...

So funny. I tried to sub skim milk for whole milk in a chocolate sauce recipe recently and learned the same lesson. Your torte looks great and I'm glad you liked it!

Shari said...

I loved the title of this torte, and mine had canyons too. But I liked the taste. Yours looks good too!

Cakelaw said...

I love it!!! There used to be an ad in Australia for Picnic chcocolate bars with the catch-phrasde "Deliciously ugly" - and I adore Picnic bars. I think the proof of the pudding is in the eating :)

Jaime said...

sorry about the canyon but good thing it still tasted great :)