Friday, November 23, 2007

Mocha Walnut Torte

mocha pecan torte

This really is the festive season! Thanksgiving is just over in the US (but I'm having our annual dinner on Sunday, as usual), and christmas is around the corner. And I'm actually having a mini-christmas dinner today - a full month in advance! Why on earth..? Well, I happened to end up with a christmas ham. And some meatballs. And I decided that oh, why not. Let's eat some christmas food. So we will, tonight.

Anyway. It's also the season of many birthdays. Two important ones are coming up - my mom will be 70 on Christmas Eve (and she's got a Nintendo Wii on the top of her wishlist!) and my husband will have his birthday on Dec. 22. And my friend Tesse just celebrated her 30:th birthday, which brings me to the point: I made the cakes.

I'd had this recipe bookmarked for two years. Yes, I'm very patient. It was finally time to bake. The recipe is originally from Alice Medrich, but I've made some changes. First and foremost - no pecans. Pecans are ridiculously expensive, and I needed a LOT of nuts since I was making three cakes. So, I substituted walnuts, and that worked wonders. And the glaze - oh, the glaze! I made twice the recipe that I linked to and that made enough for the three cakes, so I've scaled it down for you. This is what you need for ONE cake. One delicious cake! Serve it with some whipped cream - it will go perfectly with the strong, dark flavors.

This is also an entry for Waiter, there's something in my topless tart!

Mocha Walnut Torte

180 g dark chocolate
160 g unsalted butter
4 eggs, separated into whites and yolks
170 g sugar, divided
250 ml (1 cup) ground walnuts
2 tbsp flour
1/8 tsp cream of tartar

For the glaze
200 g milk chocolate
120 ml heavy cream (35-40% fat)
1 tbsp instant coffee powder
1 tbsp (just barely) white syrup (corn syrup, in the original recipe)
30 g white chocolate, for marbling

Start with the cake. Melt butter and dark chocolate, in a waterbath or just in the microwave. Beat the egg yolks with half of the sugar, until pale and fluffy. Add ground walnuts and flour and mix well. Add the chocolate and butter, and mix some more.

Beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar until foamy. Gradually add the rest of the sugar, and beat until you have a stiff, glossy meringue. Add a few spoonfuls of this to the cake batter, and mix well to lighten the batter. Then fold in the rest of the meringue, gently but carefully.

Pour into a buttered pan (preferrably a springform so you can remove the sides) and bake at 175°C for 35-40 minutes. Test it with a toothpick - it should be moist, but not sticky.

Let the cake cool, then remove it from the pan, wash the pan, and place the cake back, but upside down. Let it cool completely before glazing. (You can prepare until this stage - the day before is fine.)

Plan on glazing the cake a couple of hours before you want to serve it, to give the glaze time to set. You can't place it in the fridge after glazing, or the glaze will become dull.

Mix the cream, syrup and coffee powder in a small saucepan and heat until the coffee has dissolved. Chop the milk chocolate, and add it to the hot cream. Stir until smooth, then pour over the cake. (It really helps to have the cake in the pan for this, or the glaze will slide right off. It sets after a while.)

Melt the white chocolate, and pipe it artfully onto the cake. Or do what I did - make circles, then use a toothpick to draw lines from the middle out towards the edges.

Recipe in Swedish:
Mockavalnötstårta

15 comments:

Jelly said...

Anne, that's gorgeous!

Jessica said...

Hittade du tillräckligt stora/små nummerformar?
Jag har. Ska svara på mejl alldeles snart...

Anne said...

Jelly, thank you :)

Jessika - Nä, det har jag inte fixat än. Bad Lena leta åt mig i USA, men nähädå. Fast Ebay har. Måste sätta fart...

Jessica said...

Hur stora behöver du?
Jag har skaffat sifferformar?
I metall och i plast. De i plast är större än de i metall... Om du inte *vill ha* egna så kan du ju låna 7 & 0:an

Jessica said...

minus frågetecknet på skaffat sifferformar.

Anonymous said...

Delicious!!

Katie said...

That looks absolutely stunning.

Anonymous said...

Hej. Du kanske redan vet om det, men annars vill jag tipsa om att flera mataffärer i Stockholm har Kraft macaroni & cheese. Till exempel mataffären i Globen city eller Vi-butiken intill DN-skrapan.

Viktoria said...

Grattis, Lisa har tipsat om dej i Sydsvenskan idag!

Anne said...

Maria - tack! Ja, jag vet - har sett på min lokala butik också. Men det smärtar att det är så HIMLA dyrt, när det kostar typ 5:- i USA... Nåja, jag har lite lådor i "nödskafferiet". :)

Viktoria - ah, kul! Inte Lisa tror jag, journalisten ringde mig för ett tag sen och frågade lite av varje :) Tack för att du sa till, Sydsvenskan läser jag onekligen *inte* regelbundet.. :)

Johanna said...

Tack för besöket! Kusmiteét gjorde mig besviken, det gör dock aldrig din blogg. Saliven droppar ju som på en bulldog för vart inlägg!det senaste lät...ah, så fantastiskt!

Jessica said...

Siffrorna?

Xtian said...

Looks astonishing! We were impressed by you already, but now...wow!

/FastFoodLovers

Jeanne said...

Wow - gorgeous! And the flavours sound so good together too... Have you already submitted something for this month's WTSIM? (Please forgive my ignorance if you have - I am still ploughing through all the entry e-mails and my memory is live a sieve at the moment...) If not, this wouldbe ideal... ;-) And even if you have, lots of people have sent second entries!

Anne said...

Jeanne, I didn't think it would qualify! :) But certainly you're the judge of that. *smiling*