Glazed Hazelnut Torte

I have started to work my way through Classic German Baking. It is a well-written book and the recipes are uniformly tempting. Given that I still have some hazelnuts from my Seattle trip, I decided to give this cake a try.

I toasted, then ground the hazelnuts. I was a bit short so I added a few almonds.

Seven room-temperature eggs, separated.

I creamed together the butter and egg yolks.

I then folded in the hazelnuts + flour. The amount of flour is small compared to the nuts.

This is an old fashioned cake that gets its body from egg whites. I whipped the whites into firm peaks.

I then folded them into the remainder of the batter, striking a balance between mixing and inflation.

Into the springform pan for a 45 minute bake.

Once the cake was cool, I split it open and filled it with preserves. I used strawberries rather than raspberries since I am still working off a huge surplus of strawberry preserves from last summer’s canning extravaganza.

I then reassembled the cake and coated it with a glaze made of powdered sugar and lemon juice.

Cakes with large amounts of nut flour are best left for at least a day before eating. Waiting was hard but worth the self-restraint. The crumb of the cake, consisting as it does mostly of nuts, has a very different taste and texture that I greatly enjoyed. The book repeatedly reminds us that German sweets are not so sweet by American standards. I agree and I prefer the more moderated sweetness. This cake in particular demonstrates a wonderful balance between sweet and tart.

Comments

Eating Around Georgia Tech: Ecco

Our Texas Instruments colleague Cathy Wicks was gracious enough to host several of us at Ecco tonight. This is one of those restaurants that has been on my list for a long time. Even though it is within easy walking distance of Georgia Tech, I hadn't made it there until tonight. The menu is a combination of Italian, Spanish, and French that make use of some local Georgia ingredients. The combination of those three countries is sometimes a little forced, although the georgia ingredients (fruit, cheese) were all great and perfectly appropriate. We started out with a meat and cheese board. This actually reverses the French tradition, where cheese usually follows the main course. Everything was excellent. The Georgia cheese was a big hit, as was the French cow/goat cheese. I thought the sauscisson was very subtle and very good. The waitress said that the roast pork pasta was their signature dish, so I had to try it. It had traditional broad pasta (fresh, of course) ...

DCA: Cava Mezze Grill

Cava is a DC area chain with light Mediterranean food. Saibal encouraged me to try lunch at their airport location and I was very happy with the experience. I ordered falafel on SuperSalad with assorted other toppings. The falafel was tasty. The SuperSalad was light, flavorful, and very easy to eat. Overall, a healthy and enjoyable lunch, something you can't always say about airport eating.

Pressure Cooker Candied Ginger

I made candied ginger a few years ago. It's not something I would do every day but I had a lot of fun doing it. I recently acquired a pressure cooker and it inspired an interesting idea to me: why not make candied ginger in the pressure cooker? It should be very soft and flavorful. Here is the result. I peeled two large ginger roots, cut them into small cubes, and put them in the pressure cooker with heavily sugared water. The traditional method first boils the ginger in plain water to soften it and then again in sugar water to candy it. The resulting candy was very tender but still with the characteristic ginger texture. It was also sweet without being overpowering. The traditional method leaves a lot of sugar crystallized around the ginger. The pressure cooker gives a much more subtle result. The ginger stays moist even after it cools but you can dry it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. That inspired me to dip it in chocolate. While I was in the b...

Atlanta etc.: Marilyn Wolf's Food Blog and Restaurant Blog

Search This Blog