… and stop calling each other names. Please.
Here’s a recipe for an easy torte that’ll give you about 20 servings.
The base consists of three different layers:
1) Dough #1
150 gr of flour
100 gr of ground hazelnuts
vanilla sugar
1/4 tsp of baking powder
1 pinch of salt
100 gr of sugar
100 gr of soft butter or margarine
1 egg
blanched, sliced almonds to taste
Stirring constantly, roast the hazelnuts in a pan at low heat until you can smell the hazelnut flavour. Remove from heat instantly.
Mix sugars, the egg, butter or margarine and the salt in a bowl. Mix flour and baking powder, sift onto the mass and knead in. Then add the ground hazelnuts. (If the dough’s sticky, you can add a little more flour or hazelnuts or put in the fridge to chill as you would with dough for cut cookies.)
Line a baking tray (approx. 30 by 45 centimetres) with kitchen foil. Grease the foil lightly and, if desired, sprinkle sliced almonds onto the tray. Roll out the dough on the baking tray, pierce the dough throughout with a fork, then bake at medium temperature (175 degrees Centigrade) for about ten to twelve minutes. Remove the baking tray from the oven and spread
2) 3 generous tbsp of a jam you like onto the base (I used blackcherry on the cake pictured above).
3) For the third layer (a very light sponge), you’ll need:
4 eggs
4 tbsps of hot water
130 gr of sugar
vanilla sugar
1 pinch of salt
100 gr of flour
100 gr of (potato) starch
2 tsps of baking powder
Whisk eggs with hot water in a tall bowl until foamy (the colour will get lighter from a yolky to a creamy yellow), slowly pour in sugars and salt (keep whisking) and whisk for another two minutes. Mix flour with starch and baking powder, sift onto the egg mass and whisk in slowly but briefly. (The dough should bubble slightly.)
Pour the sponge dough onto the jam layer, even the dough out, and return the tray to the oven for about twenty minutes. The sponge is done when the surface is not moist anymore, and you can press down on it slightly with a flat hand and the dough rises back into shape. (Be careful though, the dough is hot….) Be careful not to bake the base for too long as it quickly gets too dry.
Remove the base from the oven and set onto a rack to cool. (Cover with cling film after cooling if you want to proceed on the following day.)
Now for the toppings, I chose to make a straciatella mousse out of 600 grammes of whipping cream, vanilla sugar, stabilizer, tiny chunks or dark chocolate and a bit of plain yoghurt. Choose the flavour of the mousse to suit your fancy. I spread that mousse onto the base.
As for the fruit tropping, you can use fresh, canned, and / or frozen fruit (whatever you enjoy and is seasonal / available). Since I made the above cake during the winter, I mixed fresh fruit with canned and frozen ones (thawed and strained, of course). You’ll need 2 to 2.5 kilos of prepared fruit for a torte that size.
My choice of light-coloured fruit:
approximately 7 kiwis, peeled, cut into halves and sliced
1 mango, diced
mandarin orange filets (about two cups full)
For the dark coloured fruit:
sour cherries
a frozen mix of:
raspberries
blackberries
blueberries
black currant
red currant
(If you use berry fruit, it’s important that you add a little sweetener / sugar after thawing and straining. The freezing process makes berries turn sour, but a little sweetener / sugar will bring back the enjoyable berry flavour.)
Spread the prepared fruit on top of the mousse. Top with glaze, blanched & sliced almonds to taste.
Chill until serving.
Variations of this cake I’ve done so far included a version with strawberry jam, vanilla mousse, fresh strawberries and chopped pistachios on top:
That’s sweet. I am proud of him too, I just wish he’d call my parents more often. (If you are reading this David, call mom and dad). Keep posting the recipes! All yummy food is Jewlicious!
It’s amazing how different baking is in North America. No scales, no blechs, no topfen! 🙂 I’ll give this a try and let you know how it goes. I love checking up on David by reading Jewlicious and finding this kind of stuff! Makes my sisterly attention worthwhile.
He’s quite proud of you BTW. 😉
I love checking out the baking aisles at supermarkets abroad. 🙂
Oh, the glaze…. Here’s the source for glaze as well as the stabilizer (they’re staples in the baking aisle here). The stabilizer’s also good for whipped cream in general; be careful to watch the cream though when whipping as it turns stiff much more quickly.
A couple more questions…How did you make the glaze? and What do you mean by “stabilizer”? I’d love to try this recipe!
Vicki, I haven’t yet “cooked” with strawberries that were still frozen, but when a couple of years ago my freezer chest broke down, and I had lots of cherries, strawberries and red currant in there, I turned all of them into jam and “Rote Grütze” (a chunky fruit sauce popular in northern Germany and Scandinavia; goes well with waffles, vanilla ice cream, rice pudding etc.). That worked pretty well.
Tiff, thank you! Yeah, I used a Blech, a deep one (about 2″ deep) for baking, and a backing frame to “secure” the topings. I could have done without the frame, but it’s much easier to spread the fruit evenly with one. If you don’t have a deep Blech, a regular one (e.g. a cookie sheet or jelly roll one) and a baking frame or a makeshift frame out of multilayer-tinfoil will do.
Is this made on a blech? Beautiful cake Froylein!
Yummy! Just wondering, do you ever cook with frozen berries and if that’s turned out well for you?