Chocolate Hazelnut Torte by Fred
Toast a cup of skinless hazelnuts in a 400F oven for 5 minutes. They go from toasted to burnt very quickly, so watch it, and the skins are a pain to get off, so spring for the extra $$ to get them pre-de-skinned. Then zap them in a food processor until they're in tiny bits, mostly almost powder.
Melt 9 ounces by weight of Valrhona dark chocolate, like Equitoriale. Don't let even a single drop of water get in there or you're fucked. Seriously. I don't have a double boiler so I set a pyrex bowl over about two inches of simmering, not boiling water in a big pot, and put a metal hook over the edge to create a little space for steam to get out.
Beat 3/4 cup sugar and a stick of room-temperature sweet butter until it starts to get fluffy, then throw in 2 or 3 egg yolks and beat those in too. When it's all nice fluffyish, pour in the melted chocolate, and when that's all worked in throw in the hazelnut powder.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites (you really kind of need 3, so I guess in the last step use all 3 yolks so don't waste any) until they're very fluffy (stiff peaks) but not all 'dried out' -- you can kind of tell when that's starting to happen.
Fold in the whipped whites into the chocolate in 3 additions. The idea is to deflate the whties as little as possible while still incorporating them, so instead of mashing them against the side of the bowl, scoop up the chocolate from the bottom and gently push down the whites.
At this point you can add 1/4 flour if you want, or not. It doesn't make a huge difference. You get a texture that's more like a brownie if you leave it out, more like a cake if you add it.
Bake it at 350 or 375 for 30-40 minutes. The old toothpick test works fine.
If you want to make it pretty, you can do a chocolate glaze, which is just chocolate with a few spoonfuls of honey & butter melted in. I always do it by taste though if you want exact measurements I ahve them at home.
This is just off the top of my head so I'll post corrections later, after I check against my files. |
