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:
So you had a canyon and I had some mayor cracks... Hmmmm... At least the torte tasted good!
Chocolate bialy? If only there was such a thing, but I get the image. The important thing is that it tasted good. Well done!
Sorry for your mishaps, but wow it really looks great! Looks like it was done on purpose :)
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.
At least it still tasted good, canyons and all!
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.
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!
Oh no - the dreaded canyon!! But at least it tasted good. That's the important part!
ugh, I despise my mini prep as well. It never works right. Glad your cake tasted good even with the canyon! :)
Mine broke when I flipped it, but I smothered it with the glaze. Sorry about the canyon.
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!
Hot chocolate,,,sounds great.
Too funny! It looks delicious! I'll have to try that hot chocolate :)
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!
I loved the title of this torte, and mine had canyons too. But I liked the taste. Yours looks good too!
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 :)
sorry about the canyon but good thing it still tasted great :)
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