Chocolate Hazelnut Torte

Delight your mom on Mother’s Day with this delicious chocolate hazelnut torte.  Make an extra torte to have on hand for dessert at your Memorial Day barbecue.  This torte freezes beautifully for up to two months—just defrost several hours or the night before serving. Serve the torte with just a sprinkling of confectioner’s sugar or for a more elaborate and colorful presentation finish it with a rich and lustrous chocolate glaze and serve with raspberry sauce.

List of ingredients

• 6 ounces semisweet chocolate, cut into pieces
• 6 ounces butter or margarine. cut into pieces
• 1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
• 3 tablespoons Frangelico or amaretto liqueur
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs, separated
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup ground hazelnuts
• 1/4 cup flour
• pinch salt

Glaze

• 6 ounces, semisweet chocolate, cut into pieces
• 4 ounces margarine
• 1 tablespoon honey
• ½ teaspoon ground espresso powder

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 375. Line bottom of 8×3-inch springform pan with parchment or wax paper.
• Combine chocolate and butter in a double boiler and stir occasionally over low heat until melted and smooth.
• Stir in espresso powder, frangelico and vanilla extract and set aside.
• In a bowl, whisk egg yolks with 1/2 cup sugar until pale and thick. Stir in the warm chocolate mixture, hazelnuts and flour. Set aside.
• Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt at medium speed until soft peaks form. Gradually sprinkle in remaining 1/4 cup sugar, beating at high speed until stiff but not dry. Fold about 1/4 of the egg whites completely into the chocolate batter to lighten it. Quickly fold in the remaining egg whites. Turn mixture into prepared pan and smooth top.
• Bake for 40-45 minutes until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake shows moist crumbs.
• Cool torte completely in pan on cooling rack. It will rise and then fall in the center leaving a higher rim of cake around the sides and possibly some cracking.
• Level and unmold and flip the torte onto an 8-inch corrugated cake circle (to facilitate glazing). You should have the flat bottom of torte on top for glazing. Alternately you can place it on a cake plate if you’re not going to glaze it. Just sprinkle with some confectioner’s sugar. If desired, serve with raspberry sauce. Makes about 8 servings.

To glaze torte:

Melt chocolate, butter and honey in top of double boiler.
Use a metal icing spatula to spread about 1/4 of the glaze in a thin layer all over the torte. This is a “crumb coat” to secure the loose crumbs and to provide a smooth base for the final glaze.

Refrigerate for 10 minutes—no more.

Rewarm the remaining glaze to 90-92 degrees.

Center the torte on a platter or turntable. Pour all of the glaze in the top center of the torte. With just 2 or 3 strokes of the icing spatula, spread the glaze all over the top of the torte so that it runs down over all of the sides. Turn the platter or turntable as you spread the glaze. Do not respread or resmooth once the glaze starts to set or the finished torte will show spatula marks and dull streaks.
The glaze will set in 10 to 20 minutes.

Raspberry Sauce:

• 2–10-ounce packages frozen raspberries, thawed
• 2 to 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 to 2 tablespoons Chambord, Framboise, or Kirsch
• 1 to 2 tablespoons of the liquid reserved from the thawed raspberries—if necessary

Drain raspberries, reserving liquid. Puree drained raspberries in blender or food processor. Strain puree through fine mesh sieve. Discard seeds. Stir in sugar, liqueur and 1 to 2 tablespoons of reserved thawing liquid (as needed to thin sauce to desired consistency). Chill until needed.

Notes: You can make this chocolate hazelnut torte in advance. It keeps at room temperature for 2 days, in the refrigerator for a week, and it freezes for up to two months. Glaze the torte on the day you’re planning to serve it, making sure it has come to room temperature before glazing.

Recipe by Judy Elbaum @baba_judy