Recipes

I’ll be posting recipes that didn’t make it into the book, not because they weren’t good but due to the fact that I already had something similar in there.  One of my favorites is a real memory maker, it is Sacher Tort.  I understand that my Grandmother Beckes used to make this with orange marmalade that she “put up” herself.  She was of German-Hungarian descent and this cake hails from Germany.

SACHER TORT

Ingredients:

For the cake:

6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, cut into small pieces
3 ounces butter
4 egg yolks
1 ounce sugar, plus 3 ounces
5 egg whites
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup flour, sifted

For The Marmalade Filling:

1 1/2 cups orange marmalade
1 tablespoon orange liquor (my addition!)

For the Glaze:

6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, cut into small pieces
1 ounce butter
2 ounces heavy cream

INSTRUCTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Butter and flour a 9 by 2-inch cake pan. (Use the wrapper from the butter you are using in the recipe to butter the pan!)

Mix the chocolate and butter in a glass bowl set over barely simmering water.   Set aside to cool. Using the whisk attachment of a stand mixer, whisk the egg yolks with 1 ounce sugar until light and fluffy. Pour in the chocolate mixture and blend until well incorporated.

Beat the egg whites and salt in a different bowl until they form soft peaks. Add the remaining 3 ounces of sugar, pouring it in slowly. Beat until stiff peaks form. Carefully fold in the flour and then fold in 1/2 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture.  Don’t over mix!  Fold in the remaining egg whites, gently until they are completely incorporated.  Again, please don’t over mix.  Pour into prepared cake pan.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes.  Test the cake with a wood skewer.  When it is done, the skewer will come out clean.  Set on a rack to cool.

For the filling, thin the marmalade with the liquor.  If it is not spreadable at this stage, a little hot water can be added, a few drops at a time, until it is.

Now this is where my Grandmother’s recipe differs from most I’ve seen.  She sliced the cake into 2 layers and spread half of the filling on the bottom layer and half on what is to be the top of the tort.  She then made the chocolate glaze by combining the chocolate and butter, melting it over a double boiler.  She placed the cream in a little pot and brought it just to a boil.  She added this to the melted chocolate and took it off the fire.   She would then put the cake in the “icebox” and wait for a while, until the glaze was spreadable.  She would then take the cooled cake from the “icebox” spread it with the glaze around the sides but not on top and put it back in the “icebox” until after dinner was over.