TWD: Chocolate Amaretti Torte

For this week's "Tuesdays with Dorie," Holly of Phe/MOM/enon chose the Chocolate Amaretti Torte. Great choice, Holly!


This recipe calls for Amaretti, which are Italian macaroon cookies made with almonds, egg whites, and sugar. (My husband keeps confusing them with Amaretto, the Italian almond liqueur. No, sweetie, not quite the same thing.) I'm sure I could have found them somewhere in Madison, but in the interest of using up extra egg whites, I made my own instead. Of course, that raises the question of how many to use. Many thanks to Amanda, who had already contacted Dorie Greenspan with the same question, and to Marthe who posted the answer on the "P&Q" (Problems and Questions). (You need 2.75 ounces, which turned out to be exactly 8 of my cookies.)

I used whole blanched almonds and a mixture of 77% Chocolove and 54% Callebaut chocolates for the cake, adding a pinch of salt. It was a little hard to be sure when the cake was done -- the knife kept coming out "goopy" rather than the "streaky" that Dorie says it should be. After several rounds of "just one more minute," I took it out, because with chocolate cakes it's always better to err on the side of underbaked. It turned out just right! Look at the lovely moist crumb in the picture above!

For the ganache glaze, I used a 3.5 ounce bar of Valrhona Noir Amer (71%) eked out with some more Callebaut 54%. It took two "pourings" to cover the cake. I scraped up the drippings from the first pour and put them through a small coarse sieve to remove any crumbs. Doesn't the surface look lovely and mirror-like? (There were a few small bubbles, but I popped them with the tip of a toothpick while the glaze was still runny.)


The bottom line? It was delicious!