Here’s my version of chocolate hazelnut torte, and I would show you a picture if only my blog and camera were playing nicely together today. If you loved fingerpainting as a kid, this is for you.
9″ springform pan (thank you Don and Cliff!), the bottom covered with parchment paper and then the bottom buttered or with a no-stick baking spray on it. Oven at 325.
Ingredients:
10 oz really good bittersweet chocolate. This is 22 squares from a Trader Joe’s Pound Plus bar.
6 eggs, separated
1/2 lb toasted hazelnuts*
1/4 lb toasted hazelnuts*
1/2 c sugar
2 tbl sugar
1 c powdered sugar (Whole Foods carries one without cornstarch for the corn-allergic)
1/4 c. cocoa; I use Bergenfield’s Colonial Rosewood by mail from New Jersey
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 c butter or coconut oil.**
2 tsp bourbon vanilla
In Cuisinart, pulse 1/2 lb toasted hazelnuts. Once it’s at the nut meal stage, add cocoa and salt to fine sand but not nut butter. Set mixture aside.
Hazelnut paste: in the now-empty Cuisinart, pulse 1/4 lb toasted hazelnuts till fine; add egg yolks and confectioner’s sugar and whirr a bit more. Do NOT add the yolks before the hazelnuts are ground alone–it is very hard on the motor and you might be buying a new machine, but after they’re ground, it’s a lot easier and a lot shorter, you’re just mixing.
Melt the chocolate: in my 1300 watt microwave, I do full power for 30 seconds, stir, 20 seconds, stir, then 10-second increments, carefully. Chocolate burns very easily so it’s better to let it melt as you stir then to try to get it to melt more first. Set aside.
Beat egg whites, gradually adding in 2 tbl sugar; set aside.
Beat butter, 1 c sugar, and vanilla till light and fluffy. Add in the hazelnut paste (it will be sticky), then the melted chocolate. Add in the first hazelnut mixture. Then, and this is the fingerpaint-fun part, mix those beaten egg whites into that heavy mixture, and really, the only way to do that after the first bit of trying with the wooden spoon that feels like someone tried to Jimmy Hoffa it with a cement block hidden in there is to just go squish it through your fingers as gently as you can till it’s as mixed as much as seems reasonable.
In my dark nonstick pans, it’s 325 for 45-50 minutes. Let cool, refrigerate overnight before cutting into it. Original recipe I worked from said bake 50-55 min but I found that too much in my pans.
If you want a sweeter cake, the original recipe had 1/4 c more sugar than I use.
I actually prefer this without ganache: it stands on its own, but if you want that extra, go to the glaze recipe here.
*To toast hazelnuts, bake at 350 for 14-15 min. Rub the skins off as much as you can after baking: they give a bitterness, but they also help keep the nuts from going rancid before you buy them.
**Note that coconut oil gives a good texture to the finished cake, but if you use hazelnut oil it will be all in crumbles. If you use coconut oil, you will taste it, and whether that’s good or bad is up to you.
(Updated 10/26/13: a little less sugar, a little less fat. Was 1 c and 3/4 c, respectively.)