Raspberry-chocolate-almond torte
(Photo-shy) friends
came over this weekend, so of course I wanted to feed them
something special. However, I realized the night before that
our bountiful
berries had
just passed their peak and we only had about a quart on the
bushes. How do you make a quart of raspberries feed five
people? Stretch it with chocolate, of course.
Torte
ingredients:
- 0.5 cups of almonds
- 2 ounces of dark chocolate
- 2 tablespoons of butter
- 2 eggs
- 0.5 cups of sugar
- 0.75 cups of flour
- 1 teaspoon of baking powder
- 0.5 teaspoons of salt
- 0.5 cups of raspberries
Topping
ingredients:
- 0.25 cups of heavy cream
- 6 ounces of dark chocolate
- 3.5 cups of raspberries
Preheat the oven to
350 degrees Fahrenheit and butter a 9-by-13-inch cake pan.
Toast the almonds
until they're lightly brown, then grind them for about 5 minutes
in a food processor until the nuts start to release their
oils. Meanwhile, melt the chocolate and butter in the
microwave.
At the same time,
beat the two eggs until they're fluffy. Add the sugar to the
eggs and continue beating. Then mix in the almond paste,
butter-and-chocolate mixture, flour, baking powder, and
salt. Once the batter is thoroughly mixed, lightly fold in
the raspberries, trying not to break them apart.
Pour the batter into
the pan, spread to cover the whole bottom, then bake until a knife
comes out clean. (This won't take long since the batter is
such a thin layer. I didn't time it though; sorry.
Maybe 10 minutes?)
While the cake is baking, heat the cream in a
saucepan over medium-high heat until it just boils. Remove
from the heat, stir in the chocolate, and continue stirring until
the chocolate melts and mixes with the cream.
Once the cake is
done, spread the chocolate-and-cream mixture over top, then
sprinkle on fresh raspberries generously. (We had a couple
of blackberries and included them, and I'll be blueberries would
be equally delicious.) Cool for a few hours to set the
chocolate.
Serves about 10 and
combines the taste of fresh and cooked raspberries with rich
chocolate and nutty almonds, with none of the flavors overwhelming
the others. Definitely a favorite for fresh-fruit and
dark-chocolate lovers like me!
(Based loosely on this
recipe.)
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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Hi Anna,
Sounds delicious.
John